Discussing Women's Empowerment - Sida

KABEER • RESOURCES, AGENCY, ACHIEVEMENTS 47
The analysis contained three sets of variables. The first set, which captured
the degree of agency and choice permitted by local social practices,
related to a number of marriage-related behavioural variables: the likelihood
of ‘choice’, rather than ‘arrangement’ in women’s selection of their
marriage partners; the ability to leave unsatisfactory marriages and enter
new ones; to maintain contact with one’s natal family after marriage; willingness
to let children choose their own spouses. The second set, which related
to ‘women’s autonomy’, was made up of measures of individual
agency: their role in household decision-making and their freedom of movement
in the public domain. The third related to measures of reproductive
choice: family size preferences, son preference and use of contraception.
The first stage of the analysis, which explored the relationship between
‘social’ and ‘individual’ agency, found not unexpectedly that women who
exercised greater choice in marriage-related behaviour also enjoyed a
greater role in household decision-making and freedom of movement.
However, once context was controlled for through the introduction of a
village dummy, there was a marked reduction in the association between
individual aspects of behaviour and the indicators of women’s autonomy.
For instance, the strong association between women who had exercised
choice in relation to their marriage partner and mobility in the public domain
disappeared once context was factored in.
Context not only helped to explain variations in women’s autonomy
between the two villages, but also mediated the effects of women’s autonomy
on their apparent preferences. Explored in separate equations,
the village dummy and measure of women’s autonomy had the expected
effects. Women in the more restrictive tarai village expressed stronger son
preference, wanted larger numbers of childen, were less likely to use contraception
and also less likely to have educated children, particularly educated
daughters. The relationship between individual autonomy and reproductive
choice was also predictable: women with greater freedom of
movement were more likely to use contraception when they did not want
any more children. When the effects of both individual autonomy and village
setting were explored together, they remained significant but in a reduced
form. The authors concluded that, while individual agency did increase
women’s ability to implement reproductive choice, such agency itself
was largely shaped by social context rather by individual characteristics
of women.
In terms of our discussion of empowerment, the influence of social
context, ‘the structures of constraint’, on individual behaviour and capacity
for choice raises a number of important issues. It reminds us that
while individual women may play an important role in challenging these