Women's Status and Empowerment

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development focused sharp attention on accounting for gender roles, needs, and relations when designing policies and programs that address population, health, and nutrition issues. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has also highlighted the need to understand how gender inequalities in power, access, and resources affect the spread of infection.

Today, MEASURE DHS data and analysis provide an in-depth look at the life courses of women and men (for example, when they first have sex, marry, and have their first child, whether they work, and whether they control income and household decisions); at gender differentials in education and in children's health and health care; and at women's experience of various forms of gender-based violence.

Modules and Indicators

All DHS surveys include the following women's status and empowerment indicators:

• Literacy and educational attainment
• Employment and occupation
• Control over own earnings (most surveys)
• Age at first marriage
• Age at first birth
• Contraceptive use
• Spousal age and education differences

DHS surveys implemented since 1999-2000 contain information on the following additional women's status and empowerment indicators:

• Women's participation in household decisions
• Women's attitudes toward wife-beating by husbands
• Women's opinions on whether a woman can refuse sex with her husband
• Hurdles faced by women in accessing health care for themselves

DHS surveys for some countries include a module of additional questions on women's status and empowerment in the DHS Women's Status Module. Indicators available from the module include:

• Choice of spouse
• Natal family support
• Asset ownership
• Control over money for different purposes
• Knowledge and use of micro-credit programs
• Attitudes about gender roles
• Freedom of movement
• Membership in any association
• Having a bank account