empowerment? opinion: where is the standardized measure of ... · empowerment is a challenge to...
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Global Views (/global-views) | #GlobalDevWomen (/news/search?query%5B%5D=%23GlobalDevWomen)
Opinion: Where is the standardized measure of women’sempowerment?By Amber Peterman (/news/authors/1381030), Greg Seymour (/news/authors/1426335) // 09 November 2018
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Photo by: © IFPRI / Shafiqul Alam Kiron
Measurements of empowerment — particularly women’s empowerment — are having a moment in the spotlight. Following the release of The AbdulLatif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (https://www.devex.com/organizations/the-abdul-latif-jameel-poverty-action-lab-j-pal-54590)’s “Practical Guide toMeasuring Women’s and Girl’s Empowerment in Impact Evaluations (https://www.povertyactionlab.org/practical-guide-measuring-women-and-girls-empowerment-impact-evaluations),” even National Public Radio (https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/07/27/633049827/how-do-you-measure-women-s-empowerment?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180729) is discussing the limitations andchallenges inherent in capturing this slippery, complex concept.
Why does this issue seem to resonate so much with the development community? If we believe “what gets measured, gets done” and that empoweringmarginalized populations is intrinsically and instrumentally important — then it is imperative that we get measures right. This means unpacking thecomplexities in a way they can be used even by those who do not consider themselves gender experts.
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Empowerment is a challenge to measure, in part because of the seemingly infinite metrics used. Conceptually, most researchers and implementersagree that ultimately what we want to measure is something close to the concept of agency, defined by economist Amartya Sen in “Development asFreedom” as “people’s ability to use those capabilities and opportunities to expand the choices they have and to control their own destiny.”
However, measuring the expansion of agency, autonomy or power over, to and with, is not easy. Most research defaults to measuring either the enablingconditions — for example, access to information or resources — or the end result — for instance, social, or economic well-being outcomes. The field ofeconomics has primarily focused on standardized intra-household decision-making indicators(https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/DHSQMP/DHS5_Module_Womens_Status_Sept05.pdf) to measure bargaining power — a proxy for agencywithin the household that the J-PAL (https://www.devex.com/organizations/the-abdul-latif-jameel-poverty-action-lab-j-pal-54590) guide suggests isnot cut out for the job.
The critiques of decision-making indicators are not new. And there are many (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-017-1622-4). Forexample, we might worry they are not specific enough (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1728-4465.2013.00360.x) in the face ofcultural differences, do not reveal true preferences of the individual when couples disagree (http://www.ifpri.org/publication/he-says-she-says-exploring-patterns-spousal-agreement-bangladesh), or are prone to social desirability bias(http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/129331). It is also unclear how we should construct indicators: are women — or men —more or less “empowered” if they make decisions alone? Or is joint decision-making preferred as a signal of a more equitable, inclusive, andcommunicative relationship?
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In a new paper (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18302195#b0140), we explore several measurement concepts aroundstandard decision-making indicators using case studies from two distinct locales: Bangladesh and Ghana. In particular, we utilize a measure of relativeautonomy (http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399820.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195399820-e-6) — a constructionused primarily in psychology that measures the extent to which actions are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated — to calibrate decision-making. Weare interested in knowing whether men and women who report sole decision-making in a particular domain, experience stronger or weaker feelings ofautonomous motivation, compared to those who report joint decision-making.
Our results in a nutshell? It depends on who you are asking, which decision is being made, and if couples agree on how decisions are made.
Here are a few takeaways:
1. Context matters
Stating the obvious, our results differ by country context. Whereas men and women in Bangladesh appeared to clearly differentiate between sole andjoint decision-making — this was less so the case in Ghana. This pattern may be due to a number of factors, such as social norms around productiveactivities, social interactions, and family responsibilities.
Ultimately, differences in what particular activities and attributes are associated with autonomy and empowerment are likely to vary by context,including the geographic region, culture, urban or rural context, or the particular population being surveyed. Thus a clear implication is a need forinvestment into tailoring indicators to the survey setting — rather than assuming that domains important in one context are generalizable to another.There are a number of ways to achieve this, including formative research and working with local teams to define survey questions, among others.
2. Deciding on what?
The relationship between sole and joint decision-making and autonomous motivation depends on the type of decision being made. Productive decisions— such as crop choice, livestock rearing — are viewed differently than personal decisions — such as expression of religion and the use of familyplanning.
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In Bangladesh, women relatedjoint decision-making inproductive domains withincreased autonomy — more sothan for sole decision-making —but on personal decisions, theylinked joint decision-making toreduced autonomy. An obviouslesson for program evaluation isthe necessity of askingquestions specific to the
domains a program is expected to change — and not simply on those domains that are typically thought to be under the control of men or women in aparticular setting — such as food purchases and children’s health.
Further, using an aggregate indicator or index of decision-making can obscure important domain-specific differences. The J-PAL guide also has usefultips on tailoring questions to ask about specific instances in which a decision could be made — instead of relying on general questions which are open tointerpretation by respondents.
3. Who is deciding, and who is being asked?
Results differed between men and women in each setting. In particular, men tended to associate sole decision-making more consistently with autonomyas compared to women. However, more interesting are men’s and women’s viewpoints on the decision-making process.
When we compare responses across domains, Ghanaian couples agree 67–82 percent of the time, whereas Bangladeshi couples agree 6–64 percent ofthe time. When couples disagreed, it tended to be the case that women reported decisions as being made jointly — while men reported making the samedecision solely by themselves.
Particularly striking are decisions on the expression of religion and determination of daily tasks in Bangladesh, where more than 90 percent of couplesgave conflicting responses for decision-making. One takeaway is that it is important not only to ask men and women separately about their ownperceived autonomy but also to compare their responses to uncover interesting patterns that might lead to different conclusions surrounding intra-household dynamics. Couples who disagreed in our sample tended to have larger divergence in how they viewed sole and joint decisions in relation toautonomy.
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This exploration does not tell us what indicators we should use in different contexts but rather suggests that we should be mindful of differences inindividuals’ interpretation and motivation of decision-making. It is common in economics to treat sole and joint decision-making as equivalent — or toanalyze only one.
A clear implication of our study is to reject this practice. It also suggests that innovative approaches, in particular, interdisciplinary explorations, canhelp us get closer to understanding what we are measuring and how to improve how we think about and implement standardized indicators. Our studyprovides one example of a survey-based approach for calibrating decision-making and autonomy — however, there are many other methods(http://a4nh.cgiar.org/2018/04/16/how-can-you-tell-if-your-survey-questions-work/) that can help researchers unpack these concepts, includingqualitative and formative research. While many measurement efforts to capture more “holistic” indicators and indices(http://a4nh.cgiar.org/2018/04/27/introducing-pro-weai-a-tool-for-measuring-womens-empowerment-in-agricultural-development-projects/) ofempowerment are underway, we can all do a little better in acknowledging the limitations in what standard decision-making is capturing.
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We still have a long way to go as a field in understanding how to best measure these concepts in ways that are specific and sensitive to developmentinterventions. Go forth and innovate!
Social/Inclusive Development (/news/search?filter%5Bnews_topics%5D%5B%5D=Social%2FInclusive+Development)
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About the authors
Amber Peterman (/news/authors/1381030) @a_peterman (https://twitter.com/a_peterman)
Amber Peterman is an associate research professor at the University of North Carolina and a social policy consultant at the UNICEF Office of Research — Innocenti, working with the transfer project on large-scale evaluations of government social protection programs. Her research focuses on issues related to gender and development, including women’s economic empowerment and gender-based violence. Amberholds in Ph.D. in public policy and previously worked as an assistant research professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the International Food Policy Research Institute in WashingtonD.C., Kampala, and Dakar.
Greg Seymour (/news/authors/1426335)Greg Seymour is an associate research fellow in the environment and production technology division at IFPRI, where he conducts research on issues related to gender, women’s empowerment, and agriculture.He was part of the original development team behind the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index and is involved in the ongoing refinement of the index. Greg holds a Ph.D. in economics from AmericanUniversity in Washington, D.C.
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Abigail Mackey • 9 days ago
Thank you for an insightful article on what I think is anincredibly important topic! I think first the developmentsector needs to take a look at what is truly our end goal andwhat we are capable of achieving. Empowerment itself is apersonal process that likely has no end or comprehensiveset of indicators. Being personal, it will likely substantiallydiffer not just regionally but also from person to person.Definitions of empowerment therefore would come from awoman herself rather than a broader institution or researchorganization. However, adjusting the question to how wecan more effectively capture gender equality is likely abetter suited approach for the sector (with many standardindicators available). Also, too often many developmentprojects attempt to claim or capture gender empowermentoutcomes over a short period of time while empowermentitself is an ongoing, evolving and long term process.△ ▽
Amber • 7 days ago> Abigail Mackey
Thanks for the thoughts Abigail! I agree there is along way to go before we have our act together onhow to measure these sorts of concepts acrossdifferent contexts. It is nice to see there is finallymomentum behind marginal improvements -- tocapture something more holistic. I also agree thatempowerment is ongoing and evolving, andoriginates from within. That is not to say
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