Exploring Women's Agency and Empowerment in Developing Countries
Where do we stand
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12547232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lucia Hanmer (World Bank Group, corresponding author), Jeni Klugman (0000-0001-8020-1491, Harvard University) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 237-263 |
| Publication date | 2015-10-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1354-5701 • E-ISSN: 1466-4372 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13545701.2015.1091087 |
| OpenAlex | W1870533521 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 120 |
| References cited | 24 |
While central notions around agency are well established in academic literature, progress on the empirical front has faced major challenges around developing tractable measures and data availability. This has limited our understanding about patterns of agency and empowerment of women across countries. Measuring key dimensions of women's agency and empowerment is complex, but feasible and important. This paper systematically explores what can be learned from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for fifty-eight countries, representing almost 80 percent of the female population of developing countries. It is the first such empirical investigation. The findings quantify some important correlations. Completing secondary education and beyond has consistently large positive associations, underlining the importance of going beyond primary schooling. There appear to be positive links with poverty reduction and economic growth, but clearly this alone is not enough. Context specificity and multidimensionality mean that the interpretation of results is not always straightforward
Agency (philosophy · Capability approach · Context (archaeology · Demographic economics · Developing country · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Empirical research · Empowerment · Geography · Political science · Population · Poverty · Social science · Sociology · Women's empowerment · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
Attitudes and Norms About Intimate Partner Violence
Measuring changes in women's empowerment and its relationship to intimate partner violence
Women's resilience in the rough
Marriage, Menarche, and Agency
Gender (In)Equality in the Voluntary Carbon Market
Household Debt and Social Reproduction in Everyday Life
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities
Reflexivity and women’s agency
Motherhood, Entrepreneurship, and Credit Terms
Effect of the contextual (community) level social trust on women’s empowerment
Women’s agency and social structure
Prospects and challenges in the empowerment of Nat tribal women in India
Role of Education in Empowering Women
Working Women’s Decision-Making Power at Home
The Role of Women Empowerment Towards Household Poverty Reduction
The Gender System and Class Mobility
Exploring women’s agency through adult education program in Ethiopia
Parent Enablers of Education Support for Young People with Hearing Impairment in Pakistan
A case study of the experiences of women leaders in senior leadership positions in the education district offices
Motivations and Barriers to Female Entrepreneurship
‘Just out of reach’
Education as a Road to Women’s Empowerment? The Case of Malawi
Developing an Instrument to Measure Autonomy
The social, cultural, economic and political strategies extending women’s territory by encroaching on patriarchal embeddedness in tourism in Nepal
Supporting women's empowerment by changing intra‐household decision‐making
Does more schooling imply improved learning? Evidence from the Kanyashree Prakalpa in India
Inequality Regimes, Patriarchal Connectivity, and the Elusive Right to Own Land for Women in Pakistan
Measuring adolescent girls' agency
Exploring the link between household structure and women’s household decision-making autonomy in Mauritania
Association between women’s empowerment and diarrhoea in children under five years
Association of spousal violence and women’s empowerment status among the rural women of sub-Saharan Africa
Inequality of opportunities among women and men in Russia
The Transformation of Polygyny in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Confronting the Wall of Patriarchy
Empowered by Absence
A Gendered Analysis of the Income Generating Activities under the Green Morocco Plan
Child Marriage
Understanding Agency Within Context
Gender Gaps in Financial Literacy
My Choice
Voice and Agency
Joint Forces
Gender Equality, Economic Growth, and Women’s Agency
The Intersections of Women’s Economic and Reproductive Empowerment
Unlanded Class
Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture in the Semi-Arid
Measuring Women’s Agency
Domestic Burdens Amid Covid-19 and Women’s Mental Health in Middle-Income Africa
Gender-Based Violence, Subjective Quality of Life, and Mental Health Outcomes Among Palestinian Women
Empowering the unseen
And roses too
Women's Health and Empowerment for Sustainable Development
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
Social Capital and Women’s Empowerment
Why do aspirations matter for empowerment
Only women can whisper to gods
If my wife earns more than me, she will force me to do what she wants”
Context and measurement
Taking power
Women’s Political Empowerment
Power as agency
Women’s involvement in intra-household decision-making and infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia
Social networks, empowerment, and wellbeing among Syrian refugee and Jordanian women
Women’s empowerment in East Africa
Intersectionality matters
More assets, more decision-making power? Mediation model in a cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of the graduation program on women's empowerment in Burkina Faso
The effect of armed conflict on intimate partner violence
Gender and capacity building
Grappling with the challenges of measuring women's economic empowerment in intrahousehold settings
Measuring women’s decisionmaking
Financial Inclusion and Women’s Personal Autonomy in India
Multidimensional Poverty and Disempowerment Among Women
Local and non-local women entrepreneurship in rural Türkiye
The challenges for effective recognition by the state for victims of sexual and gender-based violence
Women's empowerment and child nutrition
Education and fertility in Egypt
Measuring community norms around women's empowerment in the West Bank
Women's dietary diversity in rural Bangladesh
Water Insecurity is Associated with Intimate Partner Violence Among Women Living with HIV in Western Kenya
Determinants of women’s agency in accessing and utilising reproductive healthcare services; a systematic review
Transgressive women don’t deserve protection
Towards an integrated theoretical framework for understanding water insecurity and gender-based violence in Low-and middle-income countries (LMICs)
Effects of multisectoral interventions on girls’ empowerment
Women's empowerment over recreation and travel expenditures in Pakistan
The effect of education on determinants of climate change risks
Expressing agency in antagonistic policy environments
Volunteer programs, empowerment, and life satisfaction in Jordan
Mapping the perceived impacts of a social innovation program on women’s agency and life satisfaction
Gendered energy relations at the crossroads of Asia
Social practices, gender, and materiality
Women’s empowerment in the global South
Antecedents of economic empowerment
The quiet encroachment of women’s agency through travel
Awareness and gaps in household property ownership by gender in Manyara region
Women’s Agency and HIV/Aids Knowledge Deprivation
Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso
Making the ‘empowered woman’
Desperate, deceived and disappointed
Investigating the impacts of rainfall, armed conflict, and Covid-19 shocks on women’s household decision-making among partnered women in Burkina Faso
Differences in Decision-Making Capacity Among Mexican Women of Different Ages
The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data
How does economic empowerment affect women's risk of intimate partner violence in low and middle income countries? A systematic review of published evidence
A National Study of the Prevalence and Correlates of Domestic Violence Among Women in India
Intimate Partner Violence
Women's autonomy in household decision-making
Do Traditional Institutions Constrain Female Entrepreneurship? A Field Experiment on Business Training in India
The Global Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women
Intimate partner violence
Well-Being, Agency and Freedom
The Clash of Violent Conflict, Good Jobs, and Gender Norms in Four Economies
Who Pays for the Kids
Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement
Measuring Women's Autonomy in Chad Using the Relative Autonomy Index
Lasting Welfare Effects of Widowhood in Mali
Conflicts Over Credit
The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Do Women’s Land Rights Promote Empowerment and Child Health in Nepal
Widowhood and poverty in rural India
Women’s Agency and the Quality of Family Relationships in India
Who Pays for the Kids? Gender and the Structures of Constraint
Crying Out for Change
Agency and Empowerment
Resources, Agency, Achievements
| Unique citing works | 120 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 10,91 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 116 |