Does Empowerment have a Cost? A Gender-based Socio-Economic Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the socio-economic implications of women’s empowerment, specifically women's access to opportunity, recognition of equal rights, voice in decision making and their social and economic autonomy. A structured questionnaire, using primary data, was used in the Faisalabad region of Pakistan to gather the information from 300 women. The survey focused on major components of empowerment of women such as land ownership, participation in the labour market, income generation, allocation of time and expenditure for personal needs, household chores and other activities. The second stage involved a logit regression analysis with the factors associated with women empowerment derived from an endogenous switching regression model and differences in the empowerment status estimated. The results showed that there was a positive association between land ownership and women's empowerment and a negative association between the proportion of women's time dedicated to personal activities and women's empowerment. It was noted that working women spent more on their children and families than their spouses, especially for education, while the latter were relatively less inclined to spend more on education. Similar results were found for expenditure on food and entertainment. The other significant factors associated with women's empowerment were education, land ownership, income and marital status. The findings indicate that supportive measures for formal credit institutions and employment related innovative programmes could boost women's economic opportunities, alleviate poverty and improve welfare in the household.