scholarly journals Determinants of Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan: Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys, 2012–13 and 2017–18

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safdar Abbas ◽  
Noman Isaac ◽  
Munir Zia ◽  
Rubeena Zakar ◽  
Florian Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Health Surveys ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Multivariable Regression Analysis ◽  
Multivariable Regression

Abstract Background: Women’s empowerment has always remained a contested issue in the complex socio-demographic and cultural milieu of Pakistani society. Women are ranked lower than men on all vital human development indicators. Therefore, studying various determinants of women’s empowerment is urgently needed in the Pakistani context.Methods: The present study empirically operationalized the concept of women’s empowerment and investigated its determinants through representative secondary data taken from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys, 2012–13 and 2017–18. The study used simple binary logistic and multivariable regression analysis. Results: The results of the binary logistic regression highlighted that almost all of the selected demographic, economic, social, and access to information variables were significantly associated with women’s empowerment (p<0.05) in both PDHS datasets. In the multivariable regression analysis, the adjusted odds ratios highlighted that reproductive-age women in higher age groups, having children, with a higher level of education and wealth index, involved in skilled work, who were the head of household, and had access to information were reported to be more empowered. Conclusions: Women’s empowerment is determined by a number of social, economic, demographic, and other factors. The study proposes some evidence-based policy options to improve the status of women in Pakistan.

scholarly journals Determinants of women’s empowerment in Pakistan: evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys, 2012–13 and 2017–18

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Safdar Abbas ◽  
Noman Isaac ◽  
Munir Zia ◽  
Rubeena Zakar ◽  
Florian Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Health Surveys ◽  
Household Head ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Multivariable Regression Analysis ◽  
Multivariable Regression

Abstract Background Women’s empowerment has always remained a contested issue in the complex socio-demographic and cultural milieu of Pakistani society. Women are ranked lower than men on all vital human development indicators. Therefore, studying various determinants of women’s empowerment is urgently needed in the Pakistani context. Methods The study empirically operationalized the concept of women’s empowerment and investigated its determinants through representative secondary data taken from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys among women at reproductive age (15–49 years) in 2012–13 (n = 13,558) and 2017–18 (n = 15,068). The study used simple binary logistic and multivariable regression analyses. Results The results of the binary logistic regression highlighted that almost all of the selected demographic, economic, social, and access to information variables were significantly associated with women’s empowerment (p < 0.05) in both PDHS datasets. In the multivariable regression analysis, the adjusted odds ratios highlighted that reproductive-age women in higher age groups having children, with a higher level of education and wealth index, involved in skilled work, who were the head of household, and had access to information were reported to be more empowered. Results of the multivariable regression analysis conducted separately for two empowerment indicators (decision-making and ownership) corroborated the findings of the one indicator of women empowerment, except where ownership did not appear to be significantly associated with number of children and sex of household head in both data sets (2012–13 and 2017–18). Conclusions A number of social, economic, demographic, familial, and information-exposure factors determine women’s empowerment. The study proposes some evidence-based policy options to improve the status of women in Pakistan.

scholarly journals Women’s Empowerment as It Relates to Attitudes Towards and Practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting of Daughters: An Ecological Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys From 12 African Countries

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina V. N. Coll ◽  
Thiago M. Santos ◽  
Andrea Wendt ◽  
Franciele Hellwig ◽  
Fernanda Ewerling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Female Genital Mutilation ◽  
Health Surveys ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Double Stratification ◽  
Genital Mutilation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Female Genital

Background: Women’s empowerment may play a role in shaping attitudes towards female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) practices. We aimed to investigate how empowerment may affect women’s intention to perpetuate FGM/C and the practice of FGM/C on their daughters in African countries.Materials and methods: We used data from Demographic and Health Surveys carried out from 2010 to 2018. The countries included in our study were Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d´Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo. This study included 77,191 women aged 15–49 years with at least one daughter between zero and 14 years of age. The proportion of women who reported having at least one daughter who had undergone FGM/C as well as the mother’s opinion towards FGM/C continuation were stratified by empowerment levels in three different domains (decision-making, attitude to violence, and social independence) for each country. We also performed double stratification to investigate how the interaction between both indicators would affect daughter’s FGM/C.Results: The prevalence of women who had at least one daughter who had undergone FGM/C was consistently higher among low empowered women. Tanzania, Benin, and Togo were exceptions for which no differences in having at least one daughter subjected to FGM/C was found for any of the three domains of women’s empowerment. In most countries, the double stratification pointed to a lower proportion of daughters’ FGM/C among women who reported being opposed to the continuation of FGM/C and had a high empowerment level while a higher proportion was observed among women who reported being in favor of the continuation of FGM/C and had a low empowerment level. This pattern was particularly evident for the social independence domain of empowerment. In a few countries, however, a higher empowerment level coupled to a favorable opinion towards FGM/C was related to a higher proportion of daughters’ FGM/C.Conclusion: Women’s empowerment and opinion towards FGM/C seems to be important factors related to the practice of FGM/C in daughters. Strategies to improve women’s empowerment combined with shifts in the wider norms that support FGM/C may be important for achieving significant reductions in the practice.

scholarly journals Patterns and Predictors of Insufficient Antenatal Care Utilization in Nigeria over a Decade: A Pooled Data Analysis Using Demographic and Health Surveys

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (21) ◽  
pp. 8261
Author(s):  
Ziad El-Khatib ◽  
Emmanuel Kolawole Odusina ◽  
Bishwajit Ghose ◽  
Sanni Yaya
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Antenatal Care ◽  
Service Utilization ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Health Surveys ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Care Utilization ◽  
Multivariable Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Pooled Data

This study investigated the patterns of antenatal care (ANC) utilization and insufficient use of ANC as well as its association with some proximate socio-demographic factors. This was a cross-sectional study using pooled data Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys from years 2008, 2013 and 2018. Participants were 52,654 women of reproductive age who reported at least one birth in the five years preceding the surveys. The outcome variables were late attendance, first contact after first trimester and less than four antenatal visits using multivariable logistic regression analysis. The overall prevalence of late timing was 74.8% and that of insufficient ANC visits was 46.7%. In the multivariable regression analysis; type of residency, geo-political region, educational level, household size, use of contraceptives, distance to health service, exposure to the media and total number of children were found to be significantly associated with both late and insufficient ANC attendance. About half of the pregnant women failed to meet the recommendation of four ANC visits. Investing on programs to improve women’s socio-economic status, addressing the inequities between urban and rural areas of Nigeria in regard to service utilization, and controlling higher fertility rates may facilitate the promotion of ANC service utilization in Nigeria.

scholarly journals Development of a women’s empowerment index for Tanzania from the demographic and health surveys of 2004–05, 2010, and 2015–16

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Evarist Mganga ◽  
Jenny Renju ◽  
Jim Todd ◽  
Michael Johnson Mahande ◽  
Seema Vyas
Keyword(s):  
Health Surveys ◽  
Mean Squared Error ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Domain Model ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Internal Reliability ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Background Women’s empowerment is a multidimensional construct which varies by context. These variations make it challenging to have a concrete definition that can be measured quantitatively. Having a standard composite measure of empowerment at the individual and country level would help to assess how countries are progressing in efforts to achieve gender equality (SDG 5), enable standardization across and within settings and guide the formulation of policies and interventions. The aim of this study was to develop a women’s empowerment index for Tanzania and to assess its evolution across three demographic and health surveys from 2004 to 2016. Results Women’s empowerment in Tanzania was categorized into six distinct domains namely; attitudes towards violence, decision making, social independence, age at critical life events, access to healthcare, and property ownership. The internal reliability of this six-domain model was shown to be acceptable by a Cronbach’s α value of 0.658. The fit statistics of the root mean squared error of approximation (0.05), the comparative fit index (0.93), and the standardized root mean squared residual (0.04) indicated good internal validity. The structure of women’s empowerment was observed to have remained relatively constant across three Tanzanian demographic and health surveys. Conclusions The use of factor analysis in this research has shown that women’s empowerment in Tanzania is a six-domain construct that has remained relatively constant over the past ten years. This could be a stepping stone to reducing ambiguity in conceptualizing and operationalizing empowerment and expanding its applications in empirical research to study different women related outcomes in Tanzania.

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