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Changing intrahousehold decision making to empower women in their households: a mixed methods analysis of a field experiment in rural south-west Tanzania

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  • Lecoutere, Els
  • Chu, Lan

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of an intervention that challenges gender relations by introducing a more participatory way of intrahousehold decision making on women’s empowerment in monogamous agricultural households in Tanzania. Participatory intrahousehold decision making is introduced through (i) awareness raising couple seminars in which couples go through a self-assessment and group discussion about their intrahousehold division of roles and resources; and through (ii) a subsequent intensive coaching package of activities in which couples are coached by gender officers on how to implement participatory decision making in their household.The study adopts a mixed methods approach, which consists of (i) a quantitative impact assessment of the introduction of participatory intrahousehold decision making on different domains of women’s empowerment, through respectively the couple seminars and randomly encouraged intensive coaching, and (ii) a qualitative component to understand how the changes caused by the interventions fit into women’s own valued aspects and processes of empowerment, by which the study embraces the inherently subjective dimensions of empowerment.The study shows that awareness-raising couple seminars catalysed women’s access to livestock, but not their access to personal income while this is highly valued by women for independently taking minor expenditure decisions for their household’s wellbeing. In line with women’s priorities, intensive coaching in participatory intrahousehold decision making increased women’s control over and accuracy of information about household income earned with coffee. Both couple seminars and intensive coaching increased women’s involvement in strategic farm decisions, which fits women’s wish for effective decision-making power in this domain. Couple seminars contributed to a fairer division of productive and reproductive labour among spouses, which is advantageous to women, even if this was not a key priority from women’s perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Lecoutere, Els & Chu, Lan, 2021. "Changing intrahousehold decision making to empower women in their households: a mixed methods analysis of a field experiment in rural south-west Tanzania," IOB Discussion Papers 2021.06, Universiteit Antwerpen, Institute of Development Policy (IOB).
    • Handle: RePEc:iob:dpaper:202106
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    Tanzania; intra-household decision making; women empowerment;
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