IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v140y2018i2d10.1007_s11205-017-1811-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Refining the Conceptualization and Measurement of Women’s Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Data from the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre Pratley

    (The George Washington University)

  • John Floyd Sandberg

    (The George Washington University)

Abstract

The measurement of women’s empowerment has long eluded academics and practitioners alike. A key challenge relates to the way researchers construct measures of empowerment, pairing indicators together in either composite indices, or multiple dimensions. This study tests three commonly found measurement models of women’s empowerment using data from the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. Model fit statistics indicate that a seven factor first order Functional Scales of Empowerment model best fits the data. Implications following from this study’s findings include that simplification into composite indices, a commonly used method to aggregate indicators of empowerment may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the effect of empowerment on development and health outcomes and hamper comparative research. The results from this study contribute to the highly important and often ignored discussion regarding measurement of women’s empowerment.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Pratley & John Floyd Sandberg, 2018. "Refining the Conceptualization and Measurement of Women’s Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Data from the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 777-793, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:140:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1811-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1811-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-017-1811-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-017-1811-1?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. Upadhyay, Ushma D. & Hindin, Michelle J., 2005. "Do higher status and more autonomous women have longer birth intervals?: Results from Cebu, Philippines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(11), pages 2641-2655, June.
    2. Sharon Ghuman, 2003. "Women’s autonomy and child survival: A comparison of muslims and non-muslims in four Asian countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(3), pages 419-436, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Sabina Alkire, 2008. "Concepts and Measures of Agency," OPHI Working Papers 9, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    5. Shireen J. Jejeebhoy & Zeba A. Sathar, 2001. "Women's Autonomy in India and Pakistan: The Influence of Religion and Region," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 687-712, December.
    6. Jeni Klugman & Lucia Hanmer & Sarah Twigg & Tazeen Hasan & Jennifer McCleary-Sills & Julieth Santamaria, 2014. "Voice and Agency : Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 19036.
    7. 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.
    8. Ruger, Jennifer Prah, 2009. "Health and Social Justice," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199559978.
    9. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Report 2011 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2011 : Conflits, sécurité et développement - Abrégé]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4389.
    10. Ramzi Mabsout, 2011. "Capability and Health Functioning in Ethiopian Households," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 101(3), pages 359-389, May.
    11. Shroff, Monal R. & Griffiths, Paula L. & Suchindran, Chirayath & Nagalla, Balakrishna & Vazir, Shahnaz & Bentley, Margaret E., 2011. "Does maternal autonomy influence feeding practices and infant growth in rural India?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 447-455, August.
    12. Jacques Charmes & Saskia Wieringa, 2003. "Measuring Women's Empowerment: An assessment of the Gender-related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 419-435.
    13. Ruger, J.P., 2010. "Health capability: Conceptualization and operationalization," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(1), pages 41-49.
    14. Lépine, Aurélia & Strobl, Eric, 2013. "The Effect of Women’s Bargaining Power on Child Nutrition in Rural Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 17-30.
    15. Oriana Bandiera & Niklas Buehren & Robin Burgess & Markus Goldstein & Selim Gulesci & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman, 2013. "Empowering Adolescent Girls in Uganda," World Bank Publications - Reports 25458, The World Bank Group.
    16. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Report 2012 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2012]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4391.
    17. Michael Koenig & Saifuddin Ahmed & Mian Hossain & A. Mozumder, 2003. "Women’s status and domestic violence in rural Bangladesh: Individual- and community-level effects," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(2), pages 269-288, May.
    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. 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.
    2. Robin A. Richardson, 2018. "Measuring Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Review of Current Practices and Recommendations for Researchers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 539-557, June.
    3. 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.
    4. O'Hara, Corey & Clement, Floriane, 2018. "Power as agency: A critical reflection on the measurement of women’s empowerment in the development sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 111-123.
    5. Soumya Gupta & Prabhu L. Pingali & Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2017. "Women’s empowerment in Indian agriculture: does market orientation of farming systems matter?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1447-1463, December.
    6. World Bank Group, 2018. "AFCW3 Economic Update, Fall 2018," World Bank Publications - Reports 30868, The World Bank Group.
    7. Atamanov, Aziz, 2015. "Heterogeneous impact of traveling to Western countries on gender norms in Middle East and North Africa countries," MPRA Paper 68122, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Kumar, Neha & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2015. "Policy Reform toward Gender Equality in Ethiopia: Little by Little the Egg Begins to Walk," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 406-423.
    9. Kassie, M., 2018. "The nutrition impacts of women’s empowerment in Kenyan agriculture: Application of the multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276003, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Chakravarty, Shubha & Lundberg, Mattias & Nikolov, Plamen & Zenker, Juliane, 2019. "Vocational training programs and youth labor market outcomes: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 71-110.
    11. Alan Brauw, 2015. "Gender, control, and crop choice in northern Mozambique," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 435-448, May.
    12. Miedema, Stephanie Spaid & Haardörfer, Regine & Girard, Amy Webb & Yount, Kathryn M., 2018. "Women’s empowerment in East Africa: Development of a cross-country comparable measure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 453-464.
    13. Momoe Makino, 2019. "Dowry in the absence of the legal protection of women’s inheritance rights," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 287-321, March.
    14. Mara José Montenegro Guerra & Sandeep Mohapatra & Brent Swallow, 2019. "What influence do empowered women have? Land and the reality of women’s relative power in Peru," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1225-1255, December.
    15. Akter, Sonia & Rutsaert, Pieter & Luis, Joyce & Htwe, Nyo Me & San, Su Su & Raharjo, Budi & Pustika, Arlyna, 2017. "Women’s empowerment and gender equity in agriculture: A different perspective from Southeast Asia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 270-279.
    16. Raj, Anita & Dey, Arnab & Rao, Namratha & Yore, Jennifer & McDougal, Lotus & Bhan, Nandita & Silverman, Jay G. & Hay, Katherine & Thomas, Edwin E. & Fotso, Jean Christophe & Lundgren, Rebecka, 2024. "The EMERGE framework to measure empowerment for health and development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 351(S1).
    17. Helen M. Haugh & Alka Talwar, 2016. "Linking Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change: The Mediating Role of Empowerment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 643-658, February.
    18. Felix Meier Zu Selhausen & Jacob Weisdorf, 2016. "A colonial legacy of African gender inequality? Evidence from Christian Kampala, 1895–2011," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(1), pages 229-257, February.
    19. Stephanie Barrientos & Adwoa Owusuaa Bobie, 2016. "Promoting Gender equality in the cocoa-chocolate value chain: opportunities and challenges in Ghana," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 062016, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    20. Kilic, Talip & Palacios-López, Amparo & Goldstein, Markus, 2015. "Caught in a Productivity Trap: A Distributional Perspective on Gender Differences in Malawian Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 416-463.

    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:spr:soinre:v:140:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1811-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.