Factors associated with women s economic, personal and socio-cultural
empowerment: analysis of 2022 Kenya demographic and health survey
#MMPMID41188764
Nabimanya B
; Mayanja E
; Kyarikunda M
; Nkamusiima D
; Kagarura WR
; Kiwuwa-Muyingo S
; Kadengye DT
BMC Womens Health
2025[Nov]; 25
(1
): 538
PMID41188764
show ga
BACKGROUND: The importance of women empowerment has been conceptualized not only
as fundamental and core to fulfilling human rights, but also a basic requirement
for enhancing women's contributions to the development process in their national
economies. The concept of women empowerment can consider several aspects of a
woman including at personal, economic, social-cultural or community, and
multidimensional levels. Kenya has implemented several policies and legal
frameworks to support women's empowerment. However, there is limited up-to-date
research that provides an in-depth examination of the factors associated with the
women's empowerment in Kenya, for the four different dimensions of empowerment.
This paper explores the determinants of women empowerment among married women in
Kenya. METHODS: We analyzed secondary data from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and
Health Survey. For the final analysis, we used a weighted sample of 18,312
currently married women. All frequencies and percentages in the results section
are weighted. At the multivariate stage of analysis, the effect of explanatory
variables on women empowerment was investigated using multilevel mixed effects
logistic regression model. We computed adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95%
confidence interval (95% CI). Variables with a P-value of less than 0.05 in the
multi variable binary logistic regression analysis were considered statistically
significant predictors of the outcome variable. RESULTS: We observed a high
proportion of women empowered at a personal (74%) and social-cultural levels
(81%) while low proportions of 22% and 18% are empowered at the economic and
multidimensional scales respectively. Out of all women who are economically
empowered, larger proportions are also empowered at the personal (87%) and
social-cultural (92%) scales, while 80% are empowered in all the three dimensions
of empowerment. Women's characteristics such as being older, attaining formal
education, being in employment, and having an employed partner were positively
associated with women's empowerment. On the other hand, women who live in rural
areas and those who justify norms associated with beating were negatively
associated with women's empowerment. CONCLUSIONS: Finds from this study show that
economic empowerment plays an important role in the formation of personal and
social-cultural empowerment. There is therefore a need for policy reforms to
improve the economic conditions of the households and to give special emphasis on
the education of women, promote women's employment opportunities and access to
resources.
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