IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v164y2023ics0305750x23000013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales: Development and validation of measures of women’s empowerment in urban sanitation for low- and middle-income countries

Author

Listed:
  • Sinharoy, Sheela S.
  • McManus, Shauna
  • Conrad, Amelia
  • Patrick, Madeleine
  • Caruso, Bethany A.

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to ensure access to water and sanitation for all, and target 6.2 emphasizes “paying special attention to the needs of women and girls”. Research documenting how water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions impact women’s and girls’ lives is growing. However, no rigorously validated survey instruments exist for measuring empowerment within the WASH sector. The objective of our study was to develop and validate survey instruments to measure sub-domains of women’s empowerment in relation to sanitation in urban areas of low- and middle-income countries. We followed a multi-phased, theory-informed approach that included factor analysis and item response theory methods, as well as reliability and validity testing, to analyze cross-sectional data collected from women in two cities: Tiruchirappalli, India (N = 996) and Kampala, Uganda (N = 1,024). Through rigorous evaluation of conceptually grounded question (item) sets, we identify a set of valid, comprehensive scales. The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) scales represent 16 sub-domains of sanitation-related empowerment, each of which can be used alone or in combination with others, as needed. The ARISE scales are the only set of psychometrically validated metrics for the measurement of women’s empowerment in WASH. In addition to the scales, we provide six indices to assess women’s direct experiences with sub-domains of sanitation-related empowerment, as well as validated item sets related to menstruation, which are available as optional add-on measures for those who menstruate. The ARISE scales and associated survey modules respond to an established need for an increased focus on empowerment in WASH. We provide researchers and implementers with tools to measure sub-constructs of empowerment in a valid and reliable way, to generate data for better targeting, design, implementation, and evaluation of strategies to improve women’s empowerment in the context of urban sanitation at the program and policy level.

Suggested Citation

  • Sinharoy, Sheela S. & McManus, Shauna & Conrad, Amelia & Patrick, Madeleine & Caruso, Bethany A., 2023. "The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales: Development and validation of measures of women’s empowerment in urban sanitation for low- and mi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:164:y:2023:i:c:s0305750x23000013
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106183
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X23000013
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106183?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yount, Kathryn M. & Cheong, Yuk Fai & Maxwell, Lauren & Heckert, Jessica & Martinez, Elena M. & Seymour, Gregory, 2019. "Measurement properties of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Dickin, Sarah & Bisung, Elijah & Nansi, Juste & Charles, Katrina, 2021. "Empowerment in water, sanitation and hygiene index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Narayanan, Sudha & Lentz, Erin & Fontana, Marzia & De, Anuradha & Kulkarni, Bharati, 2019. "Developing the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index in Two States of India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Deepa Narayan, 2005. "Measuring Empowerment : Cross Disciplinary Perspectives," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7441.
    5. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    6. Sonalde Desai & Feinian Chen & Shilpa Reddy & Amy McLaughlin, 2022. "Measuring Women's Empowerment in the Global South," NCAER Working Papers 134, National Council of Applied Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    2. Korzenevica, Marina & Fallon Grasham, Catherine & Johnson, Zoé & Gebreegzabher, Amleset & Mebrahtu, Samrawit & Zerihun, Zenawi & Ferdous Hoque, Sonia & Charles, Katrina Jane, 2022. "Negotiating spaces of marginality and independence: On women entrepreneurs within Ethiopian urbanization and water precarity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Sharmistha Self & Richard Grabowski, 2013. "Female Autonomy In Rural North India: Impact Of Economic, Social, And Political Factors," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 59-82, March.
    4. Pratley, Pierre, 2016. "Associations between quantitative measures of women's empowerment and access to care and health status for mothers and their children: A systematic review of evidence from the developing world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 119-131.
    5. Saha, Shree & Narayanan, Sudha, 2022. "A simplified measure of nutritional empowerment: Using machine learning to abbreviate the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    6. Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Malapit, Hazel, 2022. "Women’s empowerment and gender equality in South Asian agriculture: Measuring progress using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) in Bangladesh and India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    7. Claudio Araujo & Catherine Araujo-Bonjean & Victor Beguerie, 2018. "Community mills and women's empowerment in Burkina Faso," CERDI Working papers halshs-01958755, HAL.
    8. Narayanan, Sudha & Lentz, Erin & Fontana, Marzia & De, Anuradha & Kulkarni, Bharati, 2019. "Developing the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index in Two States of India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Joanna Springer & Annah Latané & Alice Brower & Sarah Frazer, 2022. "Exploring women's bargaining power in Haitian agricultural households," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(7), pages 1362-1380, October.
    10. Bocci, Corinne & Mishra, Khushbu, 2021. "Forest power: The impact of community forest management on female empowerment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    11. Gibson, Christopher & Woolcock, Michael, 2005. "Empowerment and local level conflict mediation in Indonesia : a comparative analysis of concepts, measures, and project efficacy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3713, The World Bank.
    12. Mahmud, Simeen & Shah, Nirali M. & Becker, Stan, 2012. "Measurement of Women’s Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 610-619.
    13. Malapit, Hazel & Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Seymour, Greg & Martinez, Elena M. & Heckert, Jessica & Rubin, Deborah & Vaz, Ana & Yount, Kathryn M., 2019. "Development of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-692.
    14. Afreen Huq & Annie Delaney & Ben Debney, 2022. "Challenging the entrepreneurial discourse around women home-based workers’ empowerment," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 308-328, June.
    15. Chesney McOmber & Katharine McNamara & Therese d’Auria Ryley & Sarah L. McKune, 2021. "Investigating the Conceptual Plurality of Empowerment through Community Concept Drawing: Case Studies from Senegal, Kenya, and Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Adnan M. S. Fakir & Naveen Abedin, 2021. "Empowered by Absence: Does Male Out-migration Empower Female Household Heads Left Behind?," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 503-527, June.
    17. Elise Klein, 2014. "PsychologicaL Agency: Evidence from the Urban Fringe of Bamako," OPHI Working Papers 69, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    18. Krumbiegel, Katharina & Maertens, Miet & Wollni, Meike, 2017. "Modern agri-food systems, horticultural employment and women's empowerment," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 257241, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    19. Elizabeth Bryan & Elisabeth Garner, 2022. "Understanding the pathways to women’s empowerment in Northern Ghana and the relationship with small-scale irrigation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 905-920, September.
    20. Trommlerová, Sofia Karina & Klasen, Stephan & Leßmann, Ortrud, 2015. "Determinants of Empowerment in a Capability-Based Poverty Approach: Evidence from The Gambia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-15.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:164:y:2023:i:c:s0305750x23000013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.