Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches
BackgroundQuantifying women's empowerment has become the focus of attention of many international organizations and scholars. We aimed to describe quantitative indicators of women's empowerment that are based on individual-level data.MethodsIn this scoping review, we searched PubMed, Scopu...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Sociology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1231790/full |
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| author | Janaína Calu Costa Ghada E. Saad Franciele Hellwig Maria Fatima S. Maia Aluísio J. D. Barros |
| author_facet | Janaína Calu Costa Ghada E. Saad Franciele Hellwig Maria Fatima S. Maia Aluísio J. D. Barros |
| author_sort | Janaína Calu Costa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BackgroundQuantifying women's empowerment has become the focus of attention of many international organizations and scholars. We aimed to describe quantitative indicators of women's empowerment that are based on individual-level data.MethodsIn this scoping review, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Google, and Google Scholar for publications describing the operationalization of measures of women's empowerment.ResultsWe identified 36 studies published since 2004, half of them since 2019, and most from low- and middle-income countries. Twelve studies were based on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and used 56 different variables from the questionnaires (ranging from one to 25 per study) to measure the overall empowerment of women 15–49 years. One study focused on rural women, two included married and unmarried women, and one analyzed the couple's responses. Factor analysis and principal component analysis were the most common approaches used. Among the 24 studies based on other surveys, ten analyzed overall empowerment, while the others addressed sexual and reproductive health (4 studies), agriculture (3) and livestock (1), water and sanitation (2), nutrition (2), agency (1), and psychological empowerment (1). These measures were mainly based on data from single countries and factor analysis was the most frequently analytical method used. We observed a diversity of indicator definitions and domains and a lack of consensus in terms of what the proposed indicators measure.ConclusionThe proposed women's empowerment indicators represent an advance in the field of gender and development monitoring. However, the empowerment definitions used vary widely in concept and in the domains/dimensions considered, which, in turn influence or are influenced by the adopted methodologies. It remains a challenge to find a balance between the need for a measure suitable for comparisons across populations and over time and the incorporation of country-specific elements. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T00:44:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1b69469e297f4434aa8f8b9f643c2a11 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-7775 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T00:44:48Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Sociology |
| spelling | doaj.art-1b69469e297f4434aa8f8b9f643c2a112023-09-14T17:57:08ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Sociology2297-77752023-09-01810.3389/fsoc.2023.12317901231790Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approachesJanaína Calu Costa0Ghada E. Saad1Franciele Hellwig2Maria Fatima S. Maia3Aluísio J. D. Barros4International Center for Equity in Health, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, BrazilFaculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, LebanonInternational Center for Equity in Health, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, BrazilInternational Center for Equity in Health, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, BrazilInternational Center for Equity in Health, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, BrazilBackgroundQuantifying women's empowerment has become the focus of attention of many international organizations and scholars. We aimed to describe quantitative indicators of women's empowerment that are based on individual-level data.MethodsIn this scoping review, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Google, and Google Scholar for publications describing the operationalization of measures of women's empowerment.ResultsWe identified 36 studies published since 2004, half of them since 2019, and most from low- and middle-income countries. Twelve studies were based on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and used 56 different variables from the questionnaires (ranging from one to 25 per study) to measure the overall empowerment of women 15–49 years. One study focused on rural women, two included married and unmarried women, and one analyzed the couple's responses. Factor analysis and principal component analysis were the most common approaches used. Among the 24 studies based on other surveys, ten analyzed overall empowerment, while the others addressed sexual and reproductive health (4 studies), agriculture (3) and livestock (1), water and sanitation (2), nutrition (2), agency (1), and psychological empowerment (1). These measures were mainly based on data from single countries and factor analysis was the most frequently analytical method used. We observed a diversity of indicator definitions and domains and a lack of consensus in terms of what the proposed indicators measure.ConclusionThe proposed women's empowerment indicators represent an advance in the field of gender and development monitoring. However, the empowerment definitions used vary widely in concept and in the domains/dimensions considered, which, in turn influence or are influenced by the adopted methodologies. It remains a challenge to find a balance between the need for a measure suitable for comparisons across populations and over time and the incorporation of country-specific elements.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1231790/fullwomen's empowermentgender rolereviewmethodsmeasurement methodsgirls and women |
| spellingShingle | Janaína Calu Costa Ghada E. Saad Franciele Hellwig Maria Fatima S. Maia Aluísio J. D. Barros Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches Frontiers in Sociology women's empowerment gender role review methods measurement methods girls and women |
| title | Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches |
| title_full | Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches |
| title_fullStr | Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches |
| title_short | Measures of women's empowerment based on individual-level data: a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches |
| title_sort | measures of women s empowerment based on individual level data a literature review with a focus on the methodological approaches |
| topic | women's empowerment gender role review methods measurement methods girls and women |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1231790/full |
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