Measuring Multidimensional Women’s Empowerment With Data From Partnered Women Across 45 Low- And Middle-Income Countries

Micaela Salcedo (), Patricia Ruiz-Bravo (), Nicolas Barrantes () and Jhonatan Clausen ()
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Micaela Salcedo: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Patricia Ruiz-Bravo: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Nicolas Barrantes: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Jhonatan Clausen: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2025, vol. 176, issue 3, No 10, 1093-1119

Abstract: Abstract We introduce a novel, policy-relevant measure of multidimensional empowerment based on the Alkire-Foster method and using data from partnered women aged 15–49 in 45 low- and middle-income countries: the Multidimensional Women’s Empowerment Index (MWEI). Our measure identifies a woman as empowered if she achieves sufficiency in at least six of its eight indicators, corresponding to four basic life domains in which women can exercise power: health, material environment, social relationships, and physical integrity. We find that in only 21 countries of our sample, the percentage of multidimensionally empowered women exceeds 50%, with countries like Mali reaching just 7.5%. Urban regions show higher MWEI values than rural regions in 37 countries. Insufficiency in physical integrity contributes up to 39% to the lack of empowerment in Papua New Guinea but only 15% in Burkina Faso, illustrating how the composition of disempowerment significantly varies across countries.

Keywords: Women’s empowerment; Multidimensional measurement; Low- and middle-income countries; Sustainable development goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-024-03505-6

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