An Analysis of Married Women’s Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa
Date
2015-02-23
Authors
BATANA, Yélé Maweki
ALI, Pitaloumani GNAKOU
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research consortium
Abstract
Promoting women’s empowerment is good for economic development. The
third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is indeed about promoting gender
equality and women’s empowerment. This empowerment is not only an important
dimension of well-being, but it is also a means to achieving other development goals.
Most research has explored this issue from a conceptual point of view. The aim of
this study was to analyse married women’s empowerment in some Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA) countries. It used an approach based on the structural equation model with latent
variables, a model that has been developed in psychometric literature. This approach
enabled the study, within the same model, to measure the socio-demographic and
cultural determinants of empowerment, as well as the effects of it on other dimensions
of well-being in four SSA countries (Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, and Nigeria).
Data for this study were obtained from demographic and health surveys (DHSs). The
findings highlighted the significant impact of the level of wealth, household size, level
of education, and fertility rate on women’s empowerment. Further, the distributive
analysis used in the study revealed the existence of significant differences between
countries.