Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10 - Timor-Leste Ministry of ...

Table 15.2.1 Control over women’s cash earnings and relative magnitude of women’s earnings: Women
Percent distribution of currently married women age 15-49 who received cash earnings for employment in the 12 months preceding
the survey by person who decides how wife’s cash earnings are used and by whether she earned more or less than her husband,
according to background characteristics, Timor-Leste 2009-10
Person who decides how
wife’s cash earnings are
Wife’s cash earnings compared with
used:
husband's cash earnings:
Wife
Husband/
and
About partner Don’t
Number
Background
Mainly husband Mainly
the has no know/
of
characteristic
Age
wife jointly husband Total More Less same earnings Missing Total women
20-24 24.8 62.7 12.5 100.0 41.6 28.1 15.5 10.1 4.7 100.0 62
25-29 40.5 55.0 4.4 100.0 26.7 36.5 21.0 14.5 1.3 100.0 125
30-34 33.3 62.0 4.7 100.0 24.6 34.4 31.7 8.7 0.6 100.0 135
35-39 38.9 56.6 4.4 100.0 18.9 41.2 26.2 12.9 0.8 100.0 147
40-44 35.7 58.2 6.1 100.0 22.4 35.1 33.7 8.8 0.0 100.0 115
45-49
Number of living
children
39.2 56.3 4.5 100.0 33.2 26.5 27.4 7.6 5.2 100.0 83
0 35.8 58.1 6.1 100.0 26.4 34.5 24.4 13.0 1.8 100.0 55
1-2 33.3 58.6 8.0 100.0 32.7 29.5 23.3 12.1 2.4 100.0 186
3-4 42.8 54.4 2.9 100.0 24.0 38.7 28.4 8.2 0.7 100.0 232
5+
Residence
31.8 62.1 6.0 100.0 21.8 36.2 28.1 12.0 1.9 100.0 199
Urban 41.6 54.3 4.1 100.0 26.8 37.7 26.9 7.7 0.9 100.0 344
Rural
Education
30.9 62.2 6.9 100.0 25.0 32.3 26.2 14.1 2.3 100.0 328
No education 41.8 44.7 13.5 100.0 18.1 27.6 34.5 15.5 4.3 100.0 92
Primary 36.7 58.8 4.4 100.0 28.9 40.3 20.6 8.0 2.3 100.0 83
Secondary 36.2 59.5 4.3 100.0 26.7 37.2 25.2 9.6 1.3 100.0 376
More than secondary
Wealth quintile
32.5 63.7 3.8 100.0 27.4 30.6 28.9 13.1 0.0 100.0 121
Lowest (40.4) (56.3) (3.4) 100.0 (11.2) (29.1) (34.8) (18.7) 6.2 100.0 47
Second (37.5) (52.5) (10.0) 100.0 (33.8) (34.3) (15.0) (11.9) 5.0 100.0 52
Middle 31.3 60.3 8.5 100.0 25.1 40.0 18.1 14.5 2.3 100.0 66
Fourth 26.5 65.7 7.7 100.0 25.9 36.1 19.8 17.1 1.0 100.0 117
Highest 39.5 56.5 4.0 100.0 26.8 34.7 30.6 7.2 0.7 100.0 391
Total 36.4 58.2 5.5 100.0 25.9 35.1 26.6 10.8 1.6 100.0 672
Note: Figures in parentheses are based on 25-49 unweighted cases. Total includes 5 women age 15-19 not shown separately.
Younger Timorese women are less likely to be involved in how their cash earnings are spent,
and this may be attributed to their young age at marriage (20-24). It is also interesting to note that
older women (age 45-49) are more likely to decide how their cash earnings are spent relative to
younger women, although women in the age group 25-29 seem to be more empowered perhaps due to
the fact that they are more highly educated and employed in the lucrative sales and services sector
(see Chapter 3). Women with five or more children are less likely to decide on their own how their
earnings will be used than women with three to four children and those with no children. On the other
hand, 62 percent of currently married women with five or more children make joint decisions with
their husbands.
Urban women are much more independent in making decisions than rural women (42 percent
and 31 percent, respectively). Alternatively, rural women are more likely than urban women to report
that they make this decision jointly with their husband (62 percent versus 54 percent).
However, as education increases, women are less likely to make sole decisions and more
likely to make joint decisions about how their cash earnings are spent. This finding reaffirms that
education by itself does not guarantee empowerment for women who live in a patriarchal society
(Acharya, 2010). It will be interesting to see if this pattern surfaces in the discussion of the
relationship between education and domestic violence in the next chapter.
Women’s Empowerment and Demographic and Health Outcomes | 205