EMPOWERMENT INDEX AND FACTORS INFLUENCING RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Transcription

1 CHAPTER VI EMPOWERMENT INDEX AND FACTORS INFLUENCING RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT Contents 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Empowerment Index: Theoritical and Empirical Bases 6.3 Empowerment Measures 6.4 Major Factors Determining Rural Women Empowerment 6.5 Summary End Notes References Index

2 250 EMPOWERMENT INDEX AND FACTORS INFLUENCING RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT 6.1 Introduction This chapter presents the empowerment index 1 measured using various indices considered as suitable for the study. It is calculated in order to prove statistically what the reseacher has discussed in the fifth chapter regarding various impacts of the micro finance programmes of GOs and NGOs on different facets of empowerment. It is done in a way to prove whether GOs or NGOs are performing better in this regard. The factors determining rural women empowerment have been identified using Regression Analysis. 6.2 Empowerment Index: Theoretical and Empirical Bases Although the notion of women empowerment has long been legitimized by international development agencies, what actually comprises empowerment, and how it is measured, are debated in the development literature. The frequently used Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) is a composite measure of gender inequality in three key areas: political participation and decisionmaking, economic participation and decision-making, and power over economic resources (HDR: 2007). It is taken as an aggregate index for a population and does not measure empowerment on an

3 251 individual basis. GEM has two dimensions: economic participation and decision-making and political participation and decisionmaking. However, for the purposes of this study, this concept of GEM is limited. Amin Becker and Bayes (1998) divided the concept of women s empowerment into three components each measured separately: inter-spouse consulation index, which seeks to represent the extent to which husbands consult their wives in household affairs; individual autonomy index, which represents women s selfreported autonomy of physical movement outside the house and in matters of spending money; and the authority index, which reports on actual decision-making power. Various efforts have been made in the past few years to develop comprehensive frameworks delineating the various dimensions along which women can be empowered (Malhotra, Schuler and Boender, 2002). Drawing from these authors and Amin Becker and Bayes (1998), Femida Handy and Meenaz Kassam (2004) have constructed four separate components of empowerment of rural women: personal autonomy index, family decision-making index, economic domestic consultation index, and political autonomy index.

4 Empowerment Measures Based on the above and the analysis of the data collected, the present study has identified four indices to measure empowerment. They are personal development index, domestic consultation index, mobility index, and political/social involvement index. These indices have been chosen as the respondents are in the initial stages of empowerment. The parameters for the indices are given in Table 6.1. Table 6.1. Empowerment Measures Personal Development Index Totally Improved To a Limited Extent Not at all Role in the Family Status in the Society Lifestyle Communication Skills Negotiation and Resolution of Conflicts Relationships Domestic Consultation Index Wife Alone Joint Decision Husband Alone Children s Education Family Planning Medical Treatment Spending Respondent s Income Purchasing Household Articles and Food Mobility Index Goes Alone Alone with Permission With Husband/Parents Visiting Parental/relatives Home Ladies Events Beauty Parlour Entertainment Programmes Religious Places Political/Social Involvement Index Yes No Membership in Organisations Leadership Positions in Organisations

5 253 Table 6.2 gives the Empowerment indices for the beneficiaries of Governmental, Non governmental, and both Governmental and Non governmental organizations. Table 6.2. Empowerment Indices for GOs, NGOs and both GOs and NGOs Category of organisation Personal development index Domestic consultation index Mobility index Political/ social involvement index GOs Mean N Std. Deviation NGOs Mean N Std. Deviation Both GOs and NGOs Mean N Std. Deviation Total Mean N Std. Deviation F Sig The mean value of personal development index for NGOs is higher (0.865) than GOs (0.738), and for both GOs and NGOs (0.798). Statistically there is significant difference in this index among the different organizations. Likewise, the mean value of domestic consultation index for NGOs is 0.574, for both GOs and NGOs, it is 0.476, and GOs, it is Here too, there is significant difference in this index among the different organizations. But as

6 254 far as mobility index and political/social involvement index are concerned, statistically there is no significant difference in the mean values among the organizations. The mean values of personality development index and domestic consultation index are high as compared to mobility and political and social involvement indices. This indicates that through the women development programmes of GOs and NGOs, the respondents have been able to develop their personality traits and have improved their roles in their homes; their opinions are taken into consideration by their families, especially their husbands. This shows a positive move towards rural empowerment 2. It is seen that beneficiaries of NGOs are ahead in both personality development index and domestic consultation index. Mobility index has improved slightly, and not significantly 3. As far as political and social involvement indices are concerned, there is no significant impact on the selected beneficiaries 4.

7 255 Fig Empowerment measures The empowerment index is the weighted average of all the four indices. It has been calculated based on the values of the different variables given in Table 6.1. Differences in the mean values of the

8 256 Index for the organizations have been statistically examined using one way ANOVA test 5.(Table 6.6). Table 6.3 One way ANOVA Category of organization Mean N Std. Deviation F Sig. GOs NGOs Both GOs and NGOs Fig.6.2. Mean values The null hypothesis under one way analysis of variance is that there are no differences in the mean values among the different organizations. If the null hypothesis is not true, there is difference between each type of organization. Analysis of

9 257 variance test results shows that there are differences in the mean values of Empowerment Index (p=<.05) across the organizations. It is seen that NGOs are ahead in the mean value, followed by both GOs and NGOs (Fig.6.2). As differences exist among the means, Post hoc range tests and pairwise multiple comparisons can determine which all means differ. Table 6.4 Post hoc tests for homogeneous subsets Category of Organization N Subset for alpha = GOs Both GOs and NGOs NGOs Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed. Post hoc range tests identify homogeneous subsets of means that are not different from each other. Pairwise multiple comparisons test the difference between each pair of means and yield a matrix indicating significantly different group means at an alpha level of The Duncan s test for post hoc comparisons shows that all the three mean values are different from one another (Table 6.4 and Fig.6.3). No homogeneous subsets of mean values of Empowerment Index have been identified. This result shows that GOs and NGOs have separate identities in effecting empowerment.

10 258 Fig. 6.3 Means Plots 6.4 Factors Determining Rural Women Empowerment Based on the literature review and the survey conducted among the beneficiaries, age of the beneficiaries, their family size, education, family education index, occupation of the husband, annual family income, and duration of participation in the NGOs/GOs have been taken as the variables to find out the factors determining women emowerment. Age is considered as an important factor in empowerment. As a woman grows older, she gathers experience, which can equip her

11 259 to assert herself. 6. The size of the family also plays a significant role. As the size of the family decreases, the women find their burdens lighter 7. The level of education of the women and their families is usually taken as an important indicator of empowerment. The higher the level of education, the higher the level of empowerment. 8 Occupation of the husbands and the annual family income also influence the level of empowerment. Finally, the period of participation in the organizations determines how far the women are empowered. 9 These factors have been tested through Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. This is used to model the value of a dependent scale variable based on its linear relationship to one or more predictors. The linear regression model assumes that there is a linear, or "straight line" relationship between the dependent variable and each predictor. This relationship is described in the following formula. Y i = β 0 + β 1X i β px ip + e i where, Yi is the value of the ith case of the dependent scale variable p is the number of predictors βj is the value of the jth coefficient, j=0,...,p Xij is the value of the ith case of the jth predictor ei is the error in the observed value for the ith case

12 260 The model is linear because increasing the value of the jth predictor by one unit increases the value of the dependent by bj units. Note that b0 is the intercept, the model-predicted value of the dependent variable, when the value of every predictor is equal to 0. For the purpose of testing hypotheses about the values of model parameters, the linear regression model also assumes the following: o The error term has a normal distribution with a mean of 0. o The variance of the error term is constant across cases and independent of the variables in the model. An error term with non-constant variance is said to be heteroscedastic. o The value of the error term for a given case is independent of the values of the variables in the model and of the values of the error term for other cases. The linear model with Empowerment Index as the Dependent Variable (DV) and following Independent (explanatory) variables (IV) can be specified as: EM = β 0 + β 1X 1 + β 2X 2 + β 3X 3 + β 4X 4 + β 5X 5 + β 6X 6 + β 7X 7 + e EM = Empowerment Index X1 = Age of the respondent X2 = Family size X3 = Education of the respondent X4 = Family Education Index X5 = Occupation of husband

13 261 X6 = Annual Family Income X7 = Duration of participation at the NGOs/GOs e = Error term The model is found to be reasonably fit as indicated by the value of adjusted R Square, the coefficient of determination (.418). The ANOVA table which tests the acceptability of the model from a statistical perspective, reports that the F test is statistically significant (p=.00). The significance value of the F statistic is less than 0.05, which means that the variation explained by the model is not due to chance. The regression coefficient values are explained in the following table. Model Table 6.5 Regression Coefficient Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. Collinearity Statistics B Std. Error Beta Tolerance VIF (Constant) Age of beneficiary Family size Education of the respondent Family education index Occupation of husband Annual family income Duration of participation in NGO/GO Regression analysis result shows that only three variables - family size, annual family income, and duration of participation in

14 262 NGOs/GOs - have significant influence on the dependent variable. Again, it may be noted that the coefficient values of the significant variables are small; for annual family income the value is zero. To determine the relative importance of the significant predictors, we have to consider the standardized coefficients. Duration of participation in NGO/GO is found to have the highest value. Even though it has a smaller coefficient compared to family size, annual family income actually contributes more to the model because it has a larger absolute standardized coefficient. As per the study, age of the beneficiaries, their education, family education index, and the occupation of the husbands are found to have no significant influence in empowering rural women. As economic upliftment is vital in rural women empowerment, means to generate more income assumes significance. The largest number of the beneficiaries is found in the middle-age group. It is a time when the women are more in need of supporting income for their families. Otherwise, age does not have any significance in their empowerment. Most of the beneficiaries are engaged in petty business and micro enterprises. Higher level of education is not a requirement for such activities. Majority of the beneficiaries have education below SSLC. 10 The husbands of the beneficiaries do not have occupations good enough to support the families completely.

15 263 Therefore, their occupations do not help the empowerment of their women. The last column in the Coefficient table is Collinearity Statistics.The presence of multicollinearity has been examined by Tolerance Ratio and by Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) 11. Both of them assure that the presence of multicollinearity is within safe limits. Fig. 6.4 Histogram of Residuals Histogram of the residuals has been used to check the assumption of normality of the error term (Fig 6.4) The shape of the histogram approximately follows the shape of the normal curve ensuring the normality of the error term.

16 264 Conclusion Based on the indices identified by different researchers, this study has identified four indices to measure empowerment: personal development idex, domestic consultation index, mobility index, and political/social involvement index. The empowerment index calculated shows the highest mean value for the NGOs, followed by both GOs and NGOs. The Post Hoc Tests do not show any homogeneous subsets of mean values of the Empowerment Index. This result shows that GOs and NGOs have separate identities in their programmes and modes of implementation. Seven independent variables age of the beneficiaries, family size, education of the beneficiaries, family education index, occupation of the husbands, annual family income, and duration of participation in the GOs/NGOs - have been chosen to identify the factors determining rural women empowerment. The Multiple Linear Regression analysis has identified family size, annual family income, and duration of participation in the organization as the key factors contributing towards empowerment. The other factors do not have any direct bearing on their empowerment.

17 265 End Notes 1. Empowerment Index is an index used here to measure the level of empowerment among the rural people and is calculated through the information elicited through primary survey. Questions were indcluded in the interview schedule accordingly (Refer Appendix No.1). 2. Refer Chapter V. The one-way ANNOVA procedure produces a one-way analysis of variance for a quantitative dependent variable by a single factor (independent) variable. Analysis of variance is used to test the hypothesis that several means are equal. This technique is an extension of the two-sampletest. 3. Refer Chapter V, tables 5.49, 5.50, 5.51, 5.52, 5.53, 5.54, 5.55, 5.56, 5.57, 5.58, and Refer Chapter V, table Refer Chapter V, tables 5.62 and 5.63 and also refer Cverall Impact, A woman s behaviour varies across the stages in the life cycle (Mason, 1986). As a woman grows older, experience can teach her to stand up for her own rights. As her children grow older and are less dependent on her, she can assert herself better without the threat to her children s well being (Refer: M Kassam, and Femida Handy (2004): Women s Empowerment in Rural India, (ed) V.V.Ramani, Women Empowerment: Issues and Experiences, The ICFAI University Press.

18 A woman s role in household decision-making, control over money matters, and other important matters is a function of the family size and structure (Malhotra and Mather, 1997). 8. Education is taken as one of the indicators of empowerment (Malhotra and Mather 1997). Indeed, many of the variables that have traditionally been used as proxies for empowerment, such as education and employment are better described as enabling or sources of empowerment (Kishor, 2000). Empowerment requires an understanding the self and the cultrual and social expectations, which may be enabled by education (Stromquist, 1995). 9. If the NGO is providing models of empowerment through its leadership and core values, we expect that association and the length of tenure with the NGO will affect the E-index positively (Femida Handy and Meenaz Kassam, 2004). 10. Educational qualification of the beneficiaries (refer Chapter IV, Profile of the beneficiaires, Table 4.9) 11. The last column in the Coefficient table is Collinearity Statistics. In this column, we get statistics for testing multicollinearity in the model. Collinearity Statistics gives two values - Tolerance and VIF (Variance Inflation Factor) As one can see Tolerance is just the inverse of VIF. A value of VIF higher than five (or Tolerance less than 0.2) indicates the presence of multicollinearity (Refer Statistical methods for practice and research - A guide to data analysis using SPSS, Ajai S Gaurand Sanjaya S Gaur, Response Books, New Delhi: A division of Sage Publications, 2006).

19 267 References Amin Rahul, Becker Stan and Byes Abdul (1998). NGO-promoted Micro Credit Programs and Women s empowerment in Rural Bangladesh: Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence, The Journal of Developing Areas, Winter, pp Human Development Report (1995). Measuring gender inequality Chapter III, Delhi: Oxford Universtity Press, pp Kassam, M. and Femida Handy (2004). Women s Empowerment in Rural India, (ed.) V.V.Ramani, Women Empowerment: Issues and Experiences, The ICFAI University Press. Kishor, Snitha (2000). Empowerment of Women in Egypt and Links to the Survival and Health of Their Infants, (ed.) Harriet Presser and Gita Sen, Women s Empowerment and Demographic Processes; Moving Beyond Cairo, New York: Oxford University Press. Malhotra, Anju and Mark Mather (1997). Do Schooling and Work Empower Women in Developing Countries? Gender and Domestic Decisions in Sri Lanka, Sociological Forum, Vol.12, No (4), pp Stromquist, Nelly P. (1995). The theoretical and Practical Bases for Empowerment, Women, Education and Empowerment: Pathways Towards Autonomy, Carolyn Model-Anonuevo (ed.), Report of the International Seminar held at UIE, January 27 - February 2, 1993, Hamburg, Germany, Paris: UNESCO.

20 268 Index Amin, Becker& Bayes 251 Analysis of Variance 255,256 Beneficiaries 254,262 Domestic consultation index 251,252,253,254 Economic participation 250 Empowerment index 250,253,254 Facets of empowerment 250 Femida Handy and Meenaz Kassam 251 Gender Empowerment Measure 250 Malhotra, Schuler and Boender 251 Mobility index 251,252,253,254 Personal development index 251,252,253,254 Political/social involvement index. 251,252,253,254 Tolerance Ratio 262 Variance Inflation Factor 262