Demographic

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND DEMOGRAPHIC16AND HEALTH OUTCOMESRachel MasukuIn addition to information on women’s education, employment status, and control of earnings, the2006-07 SDHS also obtained information on other measures of women’s status and empowerment. Inparticular, questions were asked about women’s participation in specific household decisions, their degreeof acceptance of wife beating, and their opinions about when a wife should be able to refuse sex with herhusband. The data provide insight into women’s control over their lives and environment as well as theirattitudes toward traditional gender roles. These are important aspects of women’s empowerment andhelpful in understanding demographics and health behaviour.The above questions are used to define three indicators of women’s empowerment: women’sparticipation in decisionmaking, women’s degree of acceptance of wife beating, and women’s degree ofacceptance of a wife’s right to refuse sex with her husband. The first measure requires little explanation,since the ability to make decisions about one’s own life is of obvious importance to practicalempowerment. The other two measures derive from the notion that gender equity is essential toempowerment. Responses indicating a view that the beating of wives by husbands is justified reflect asanction of women’s lower status, both absolutely and relative to men. Although such attitudes do notnecessarily signify approval of men beating their wives, they do signify women’s acceptance of normsthat give men the right to discipline women with force. Similarly, beliefs about whether and when awoman can refuse sex with her husband reflect issues of gender equity regarding sexual rights and bodilyintegrity. Besides providing an important measure of empowerment, the information about women’sattitudes toward sexual rights will be useful for improving and monitoring reproductive health programmesthat depend on women’s willingness and ability to control their own sexual lives.Employed women who earn cash for their work were asked who the main decisionmaker is withregard to the use of their earnings. This information indicates women’s control over their own earnings. Inaddition, they were asked who the main decisionmaker is regarding the use of their husband’s earnings.This information not only allows an evaluation of the relative importance of women’s earnings inthe household economy, but has implications for the empowerment of women. It is expected thatemployment and earnings are more likely to empower women if women perceive their earnings to beimportant for meeting the needs of their households.16.1 EMPLOYMENT AND FORM OF EARNINGSRespondents were asked a number of questions to elicit their employment status at the time of thesurvey and the continuity of their employment in the 12 months prior to the survey. The measurement ofwomen’s employment is difficult because some of the activities that women do, especially work onfamily farms, family businesses, or in the informal sector, are often not perceived by women themselvesas employment and hence are not reported as such. To avoid underestimating women’s employment, inthe 2006-07 SDHS women were asked several questions to ascertain their employment status. Firstwomen were asked, “Aside from your own housework, are you currently working?” Women whoanswered “no” to this question were then asked, “As you know, some women take up jobs for which theyare paid in cash or kind. Others sell things, have a small business, or work on the family farm or in thefamily business. Are your currently doing any of these things or any other work?” Women who answeredWomen’s Empowerment and Demographic and Health Outcomes | 243