IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v34y2022i2p322-333.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring women's empowerment in developing countries: A systematic review

Author

Listed:
  • Shamsun Nahar
  • Cecilia W. Mengo

Abstract

Measurement of women's empowerment has grown over the last few decades, but major challenges still exist for measuring progress in dimensions based on different situational and cultural contexts. This study used a systematic review method to identify quantitative literature related to measures of women's empowerment in developing countries. Features of 17 studies were summarized and compared applying bivariate and text analysis. The most applied dimensions of women's empowerment were household decision making, financial and economic decision making, freedom of movement, self‐esteem, and sexual and reproductive decision making. The results of the study contribute to expanding indicators of women's empowerment in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Shamsun Nahar & Cecilia W. Mengo, 2022. "Measuring women's empowerment in developing countries: A systematic review," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 322-333, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:34:y:2022:i:2:p:322-333
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.3594
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3594
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.3594?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Belayet Hossain & Ahmed A. Hoque, 2015. "Women empowerment and antenatal care utilization in Bangladesh," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 49(2), pages 109-124, April-Jun.
    2. Prof. Debnarayan Sarker, 2011. "Women’s Empowerment through Self-help Groups and its Impact on Health Issues: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Global Analysis, Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis, vol. 2(1), pages 49-82, January.
    3. Ly Phan, 2016. "Measuring Women’s Empowerment at Household Level Using DHS Data of Four Southeast Asian Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 359-378, March.
    4. Hanny Cueva Beteta, 2006. "What is missing in measures of Women's Empowerment?," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 221-241.
    5. Heise, Lori L. & Raikes, Alanagh & Watts, Charlotte H. & Zwi, Anthony B., 1994. "Violence against women: A neglected public health issue in less developed countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1165-1179, November.
    6. Allendorf, Keera, 2007. "Do Women's Land Rights Promote Empowerment and Child Health in Nepal?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1975-1988, November.
    7. Godfred Boateng & Vincent Kuuire & Mengieng Ung & Jonathan Amoyaw & Frederick Armah & Isaac Luginaah, 2014. "Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Millennium Development Goal 3: A Case Study of Married Women in Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 137-158, January.
    8. Kabeer, Naila, 2001. "Conflicts Over Credit: Re-Evaluating the Empowerment Potential of Loans to Women in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 63-84, January.
    9. 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.
    10. Schuler, Sidney Ruth & Hashemi, Syed Mesbahuddin & Riley, Ann P., 1997. "The influence of women's changing roles and status in Bangladesh's fertility transition: Evidence from a study of credit programs and contraceptive use," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 563-575, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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).

    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. Touseef Ahmed Khan & Fahem Ahmed Khan & Qristin Violinda & Ilyas Aasir & Sun Jian, 2020. "Microfinance Facility for Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, February.
    2. B, Ranjula & Wallentin, Fan Yang, 2008. "Economic or Non-Economic Factors – What Empowers Women?," Working Paper Series 2008:11, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    3. Musonera, Abdou & Heshmati, Almas, 2016. "Measuring Women's Empowerment in Rwanda," IZA Discussion Papers 10131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    7. Tunvir Ahamed Shohel & Sara Niner & Samanthi J. Gunawardana, 2023. "‘Even Though I Get a Loan, My Husband Controls It’: Rhetoric Versus Reality of Empowering Bangladeshi Women Through Microfinance Programs," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(4), pages 794-819, August.
    8. Supriya Garikipati, 2012. "Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Through the Lens of Time-Use Data from Rural India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(3), pages 719-750, May.
    9. Weber, Olaf & Ahmad, Adnan, 2014. "Empowerment Through Microfinance: The Relation Between Loan Cycle and Level of Empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 75-87.
    10. Ambler, Kate & Doss, Cheryl & Kieran, Caitlin & Passarelli, Simone, 2022. "Spousal concordance in joint and separate households: Survey evidence from Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    11. Ragui Assaad & Hanan Nazier & Rasha Ramadan, 2015. "Empowerment is a Community Affair: Community Level Determinants of Married Women's Empowerment in Egypt," Working Papers 959, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2015.
    12. Kausar Yasmeen & Mohd Zaini Abd Karim, 2014. "Impact of Interaction Term between Education and Loan Size on Women’s Decision Making," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, Macrothink Institute, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, vol. 1(1), pages 123-141, June.
    13. Hiller, Victor & Touré, Nouhoum, 2021. "Endogenous gender power: The two facets of empowerment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    14. Duvendack, Maren & Palmer-Jones, Richard, 2011. "The microfinance of reproduction and the reproduction of microfinance: understanding the connections between microfinance, empowerment, contraception and fertility in Bangladesh in the 1990s," MPRA Paper 32384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Greta Falavigna & Elena Ragazzi & Lisa Sella, 2014. "Gender inequalities and labour integration. An integrated approach to vocational training in Piedmont," CERIS Working Paper 201407, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    16. Ly Phan, 2016. "Measuring Women’s Empowerment at Household Level Using DHS Data of Four Southeast Asian Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 359-378, March.
    17. Chaudhuri, Sanjukta, 2013. "A Life Course Model of Human Rights Realization, Female Empowerment, and Gender Inequality in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 55-70.
    18. Lu Gram & Joanna Morrison & Jolene Skordis-Worrall, 2019. "Organising Concepts of ‘Women’s Empowerment’ for Measurement: A Typology," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1349-1376, June.
    19. Shahriar, Abu Zafar M. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2019. "Violence against women and new venture initiation with microcredit: Self-efficacy, fear of failure, and disaster experiences," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(6).
    20. Cristina Elisa Orso & Enrico Fabrizi, 2013. "Microcredit and women's empowerment in Bangladesh: a structural equation model for categorical observed variables," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali dises1396, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:jintdv:v:34:y:2022:i:2:p:322-333. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    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.