Taking power: Women’s empowerment and household Well-being in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines women’s power relative to that of their husbands in 23 Sub-Saharan African countries to determine how it affects women’s health, reproductive outcomes, children’s health and children’s education. The analysis uses a novel measure of women’s empowerment that is closely linked to classical theories of power, built from spouses’ often-conflicting reports of intrahousehold decision-making. We find, as in previous literature, that well-being outcomes for women and children are often best in scenarios where the woman’s power is recognized by her husband. We also find that women taking power—assigning themselves more decision-making power than their husbands do to them—is better for her reproductive health and children’s health, but is worse for emotional violence, compared to being given power by their husbands. The results show the conceptual and analytical value of intrahousehold contention over decision-making and expand the breadth of evidence on the importance of women’s power for economic development.