Empowering Women through BISP : The Effect of Women's Decision-Making Power on Reproductive Health Services Uptake in Pakistan
This note examines the influence of household decision making on women's uptake of reproductive health services, using data from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM). In households where women have greater decisio...
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| Format: | Policy Note |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/645611468098990648/Empowering-women-through-BISP-the-effect-of-womens-decision-making-power-on-reproductive-health-services-uptake-in-Pakistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27367 |
| Summary: | This note examines the influence of
household decision making on women's uptake of
reproductive health services, using data from the Pakistan
Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM). In
households where women have greater decision?making power,
the note finds a significant and positive association with
greater use of reproductive health services. In households
where the influential decision maker is a male, the opposite
effect prevails. These findings suggest that empowering
women and increasing their ability to make decisions may
increase their use of reproductive health services. The
findings also suggest that policies directed toward
improving women's use of maternity services must target
influential male household members, whose understanding of
the importance of maternity services is crucial to increase
the effectiveness of health interventions. Improving
financial and physical access to maternal health services is
also critical to increasing their use and achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to maternal
health. This paper contributes to the literature by applying
several constructed indices composed of eight women's
decision?making indicators to assess the relationship
between women's decision making and their reproductive
health services uptake. This paper also considers the
influence of male household members (household heads or
husbands) on decision making and women's uptake of
reproductive health services. |
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