IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i19p10011-d641407.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women’s Participation in Household Decision Making and Justification of Wife Beating: A Secondary Data Analysis from Pakistan’s Demographic and Health Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Zohra S. Lassi

    (Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia)

  • Anna Ali

    (Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia)

  • Salima Meherali

    (Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada)

Abstract

Introduction: Globally, women’s empowerment is one of the important factors impacting the development of the nation. However, several women in developing countries, including Pakistan, experience a high level of gender discrimination and inequity. In this study, data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) were used to measure empowerment and its predictors among women in Pakistan. Methods: Pakistan’s 2017–2018 DHS dataset was used to measure women’s empowerment using two indicators, i.e., participation in decision making and views on wife beating among 4216 married women. The determinants of empowerment, such as age, place of residence, regions, wealth index, education, partner’s education, partner’s occupation, number of children, consanguinity, the age difference between husband and wife, house and land ownership, and house inheritance, are reported as prevalence ratios (PRs) with a 95% confidence intervals (CI). Multivariate regression models were used to produce covariate-adjusted PRs and 95% CIs. Results: More than half of all women were empowered (52.5%). Upon multivariate analysis, we identified that women from the province of Punjab (adjusted PR (aPR), 1.44; 95% CI, 1.20–1.73), Sindh (aPR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.35–1.96), and KPK (aPR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.91–1.31) compared to those living in Baluchistan; from the richest quantile (aPR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.37–1.99), followed by the richer quantile (aPR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.28–1.84), the middle quantile (aPR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.28–1.81), and the poorer quantile (aPR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.04–1.47) compared to women who were from the poorest quantile; who were highly educated (aPR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.25–1.67), followed by those who had a secondary education (aPR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.16–1.50) and a primary education (aPR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.02–1.35) compared to women who were not educated; and had exposure to mass media (aPR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.06–1.36) compared to those who had no exposure were more empowered. Conclusion: To conclude, women’s empowerment in Pakistan is affected by various socioeconomic factors, as well as exposure to mass media. Targeted strategies are needed to improve access to education, employment, and poverty alleviation among women, particularly those living in rural areas. Various mass media advertisements should be practiced, targeting community norms and supporting women’s empowerment.

Suggested Citation

  • Zohra S. Lassi & Anna Ali & Salima Meherali, 2021. "Women’s Participation in Household Decision Making and Justification of Wife Beating: A Secondary Data Analysis from Pakistan’s Demographic and Health Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-11, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10011-:d:641407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10011/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10011/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rania Salem & Yuk Fai Cheong & Kathryn M. Yount, 2018. "Is Women’s Work a Pathway to their Agency in Rural Minya, Egypt?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 807-831, April.
    2. Ahmad Raza & Hasan Sohaib Murad, 2010. "Gender gap in Pakistan: a socio‐demographic analysis," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(7), pages 541-557, June.
    3. Kuhuk Bhushan & Prakarsh Singh, 2014. "The Effect of Media on Domestic Violence Norms: Evidence from India," Economics of Peace and Security Journal, EPS Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 58-63, April.
    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. Eunice Williams & Sabu S. Padmadas & Heini Vaisanen, 2022. "Women's economic empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from cross-national population data," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(15), pages 415-452.
    2. Carmen Friedrich & Henriette Engelhardt & Florian Schulz, 2021. "Women’s Agency in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia: The Role of Parenthood and Education," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1025-1059, October.
    3. Zehra Aftab, 2020. "Gender Socialisation among Pakistani Preadolescents and Adolescents," PIDE-Working Papers 2020:18, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    4. Shatanjaya Dasgupta, 2019. "Attitudes About Wife-Beating and Incidence of Domestic Violence in India: An Instrumental Variables Analysis," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 647-657, December.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10011-:d:641407. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.