Strengthening women's empowerment and gender equality in fragile contexts towards peaceful and inclusive societies: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Association between the survey-based women's empowerment index (SWPER) and intimate partner violence in sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is high among women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, empowering women enables them to confront and mitigate IPV. In this study, we examined the association between the survey-based women's empowerment index (SWPER) and IPV in SSA.

METHODS

We used data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 19 countries conducted from 2015 to 2021. Our study was restricted to a weighted sample of 82,203 women of reproductive age who were married or cohabiting. We used spatial maps to show the proportions of women who experienced past-year IPV. A five-modelled multilevel binary logistic regression analysis was adopted to examine the association between SWPER and IPV. The results were presented using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with their respective 95% confidence interval (CI). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

RESULTS

With physical and emotional violence, the country with the highest prevalence was Sierra Leone, with a prevalence of 39.00% and 38.97% respectively. Rwanda (10.34%), Zambia (11.09%), Malawi (15.00%), Uganda (16.88%), and Burundi (20.32%) were the hotspot countries for sexual violence. Angola (34.54%), Uganda (41.55%), Liberia (47.94%), and Sierra Leone (59.98%) were the hotspot countries for IPV. A high SWPER score in attitudes to violence significantly decreased the odds of IPV [AOR = 0.70; 95% CI = 0.66, 0.75]. Also, women with medium score in decision-making were less likely to experience IPV compared to those with lower scores [AOR = 0.89; 95% CI = 0.83, 0.95]. However, higher odds of experiencing IPV was found among women with medium score in autonomy compared to those with low scores [AOR = 1.07; 95% CI = 1.01, 1.14].

CONCLUSIONS

Our study has shown that the three dimensions of SWPER significantly predict IPV among women. Consequently, it is crucial that sub-Saharan African countries implement various initiatives, such as IPV advocacy programs and economic livelihood empowerment initiatives. These initiatives should not only aim to improve women's attitudes to domestic violence but also to enhance their social independence, autonomy, and decision-making capacity.

The role of self-efficacy in women's autonomy for health and nutrition decision-making in rural Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

Agency - including the sub-domains of intrinsic agency, instrumental agency, and collective agency - is a critical component of the women's empowerment process. Self-efficacy (a component of intrinsic agency) may operate as a motivational influence for women to make choices according to their own preferences or goals, such that higher self-efficacy would be associated with more autonomous decision-making (a key component of instrumental agency).

METHODS

We examine these relationships using mixed methods. We developed a series of decision-making autonomy indices, which captured alignment between the woman's reported and preferred roles in health and nutrition decisions. Using ordinal logistic regression, we assessed the relationship between generalized self-efficacy and decision-making autonomy.

RESULTS

There was a consistently positive association across all categories of decision-making, controlling for a number of individual and household-level covariates. In a sub-sample of joint decision-makers (i.e., women who reported making decisions with at least one other household member), we compared the association between generalized self-efficacy (i.e., one's overall belief in their ability to succeed) and decision-making autonomy to that of domain-specific self-efficacy (i.e., one's belief in their ability to achieve a specific goal) and decision-making autonomy. Across all decision-making categories, domain-specific self-efficacy was more strongly associated with decision-making autonomy than generalized self-efficacy. In-depth interviews provided additional context for interpretation of the regression analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate the importance of the role of self-efficacy in the women's empowerment process, even in the traditionally female-controlled areas of health and nutrition decision-making. The development of the decision-making autonomy index is an important contribution to the literature in that it directly recognizes and captures the role of women's preferences regarding participation in decision-making.