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

Table 15.8 Indicators of women’s empowerment
Percentage of women age 15-49 who participate in all decisionmaking, percentage who disagree with all reasons
for justifying wife beating, and percentage who agree with all reasons for refusing sexual intercourse with husband,
by value on each of the indicators of women's empowerment, Timor-Leste 2009-10
Currently married
women
Percentage
who disagree
Percentage
who agree with
Percentage
with all the all the reasons for
who participate
reasons refusing sexual
in all decision-
justifying intercourse with
Empowerment indicator
making wife beating husband
1
Number of
Number of
Number of decisions in which
women participate
women
women
1
0 na 95 18.3 65.0 95
1-2 na 765 8.2 53.6 765
3-4
Number of reasons for which wife
beating is justified
na 7,047 11.6 57.8 7,047
2
0 76.6 895 na 39.4 1,815
1-2 70.2 1,867 na 41.1 2,984
3-4 74.0 3,414 na 47.8 5,552
5
Number of reasons given for
refusing to have sexual intercourse
with husband
76.5 1,730 na 73.5 2,785
3
0 72.2 876 30.6 na 2,566
1-2 74.9 2,484 8.0 na 3,930
3 73.7 4,546 10.8 na 6,640
na = Not applicable
1 Restricted to currently married women. See Table 15.5.1 for the list of decisions.
2 See Table 15.6.1 for the list of reasons
3 See Table 15.7.1 for the list of reasons
Table 15.8 shows these three indicators of women’s empowerment and how they relate to
each other. It shows the percentage of married women age 15-49 who participate in all
decisionmaking, the percentage of women who disagree with all the specified reasons for justifying
wife beating, and the percentage of women who agree with all the specified reasons for a wife
refusing to have sexual intercourse with her husband, by the value on each of the indicators. In
general, the expectation is that women who participate in making household decisions are more likely
to have gender-egalitarian beliefs.
The findings on women’s empowerment indicate that among women who participate in all the
decisions, 58 percent justified their right to refuse sexual intercourse with their husband for all
reasons, compared with women who participated in 1-2 decisions (54 percent) and in no decisions
(65 percent). Similarly, women who participated in all decisions are more likely to disagree with all
the reasons for justifying wife beating (12 percent) than women who participate in fewer decisions
(8 percent). However, it is also important to point out that women who participate in no decisions are
most likely to disagree with all the reasons for justifying wife beating (18 percent). This anomalous
pattern is difficult to explain. Similarly, women who do not support wife beating for any reason at all
are most likely to participate in all the decisionmaking in the household (77 percent), but this
percentage is similar to women who justify all five reasons for wife beating. The direction of the
relationship between participation in decisionmaking and reasons to justify wife beating is not clear.
Similarly, there is no strong relationship between participation decisionmaking and the number of
reasons for refusing sexual intercourse with a husband. This may be attributed to the fact that
Timorese women in general exhibit a culture of tolerance and acceptance of male domination, since
the majority of women mentioned that it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife for at least one
reason (86 percent as seen in Table 15.6.1).
It is also noteworthy to point out that women who disagree with all the reasons justifying wife
beating are also most likely to not accept any reason for a woman to refuse sexual intercourse with her
husband (31 percent), and this percentage decreases to 8 percent for women who accept at least one to
two reasons and 11 percent for women who accept all three reasons.
Women’s Empowerment and Demographic and Health Outcomes | 221