Gender Inequality and Women's Empowerment - UNFPA Ethiopia

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In-depth Analysis of the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2005
The second component is the access and control profile. It indicates the gender based access to resources,
control over the use of resources and the benefits of the use of resources. Access simply refers to the use of
resources. But, this has nothing to do with control over it as, for instance, women in most developing countries
have access to resources but do not have power to make ultimate decisions about their use. The third component
includes influencing factors which enable the assessment of factors that determine different opportunities
and constraints for men and women, and shape gender relations. They include general economic conditions,
institutional structures, demographic and socio-cultural factors, community norms, legal parameters, education
and training and political events (Almaz, 1991; March et al., 1999).
(b) Women’s Empowerment Framework: This framework, which is also called the Longwe Framework, was
developed by Sara Hlupekile Longwe of Zambia. It emphasizes the assessment of women’s empowerment
and equality with men regarding equal participation in the development process to achieve control over the
factors of production on an equal basis.
In Longwe’s Framework, five different levels of equality, which are the basis of gender equality analysis on the
one hand and determinants of the level of women’s empowerment on the other, are identified (March et al.,
1999; Women’s Information Centre, 2005). These five levels of equality, in their hierarchical order, are welfare,
access, concientisation, participation and control. Welfare shows women’s access to material resources relative
to men such as food supply, income, medical care, etc. Access denotes women’s access to factors of production
on an equal basis with men such as equal access to land, labour, credit, training, marketing facilities, public
services and benefits, etc. Conscientisation indicates conscious understanding of the difference between sex
and gender, and an awareness that gender roles are cultural and can be changed. It also involves a belief that
the sexual division of labour should be fair and agreeable to both sexes and does not involve the domination
of one sex and subordination of the other. Longwe defines participation as women’s equal participation in
the decision making process, policy making, planning, and implementation. Finally, control refers to women’s
control over the decision making process through concientisation and mobilization, to achieve equality of
control over the factors of production and the distribution of benefits.
None of the frameworks is perfect to be always used for gender analysis. For instance, the Harvard Analytical
Framework is too generic and does not tackle gender issues within the target population. It also aims at welfare
aspects of development and leaves out the strategic needs of men and women (Women’s Information Centre,
2005). Similarly, the limitations of the Longwe Framework are that it misses the macro environment which has an
impact on gender relations, and the five levels of empowerment misleads people into thinking that empowerment
is a linear process which moves people from the lowest to the highest level (Women’s Information Centre, 2005).