Taking Power : Women's Empowerment and Household Well-Being in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper examines women's power relative to that of their husbands in 23 Sub-Saharan African countries to determine how it affects women's health, reproductive outcomes, children's health, and children's education. The analysi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/447551570021002935/Taking-Power-Womens-Empowerment-and-Household-Well-Being-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32494 |
| Summary: | This paper examines women's power
relative to that of their husbands in 23 Sub-Saharan African
countries to determine how it affects women's health,
reproductive outcomes, children's health, and
children's education. The analysis uses a novel measure
of women's empowerment that is closely linked to
classical theories of power, built from spouses'
often-conflicting reports of intrahousehold decision making.
It finds that women's power substantially matters for
health and various family and reproductive outcomes. Women
taking power is also better for children's outcomes, in
particular for girls' health, but it is worse for
emotional violence. The results show the conceptual and
analytical value of intrahousehold contention over decision
making and expand the breadth of evidence on the importance
of women's power for economic development. |
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