View of AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDORE

(1)

Vol. 05,Special Issue 03, (IC-WESD-2020) March 2020, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDORE

1Dr. (Mrs.) Meenu Kumar

Visiting Faculty, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Devi Ahilya University, Indore

2Dr. Sonali Nargunde

Professor and Head, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Devi Ahilya University, Indore

Abstract:- Women Empowerment is one of the requisite for overall economic development of society and nation both at micro and macro level. It means ensuring gender equality and encouraging their active participation in economic activities and decisions making. As population of women constitutes approximately 49.6% of the total population of the world, and they are also liable to get equal opportunities in all sphere of life. Women empowerment and gender equality are also the eighth millennium Development goal of UNO. The present study focuses on level of women empowerment, their relationship with various demography variables and the factors which play important role in empowering women. Primary data has been collected from 100 females. Statistical tools like Pearson Coefficient has been used to study the relationship between empowerment and demography, factor analysis for deciding important factors to empower women. The result indicates that women are empowered and education and employment are positively correlated with women empowerment. Factor analysis also reveals education as one of the most important factor in empowering them. Other Factors are indulgence and importance, decision making capabilities, financial security, sociability and awareness.

Keywords:- Awareness, Decision, Education, Women, Empowerment.

1. INTRODUCTION

Woman plays a key role in the development of a nation. According to The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “the empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status is a highly important end in itself. In addition, it is essential for the achievement of sustainable development”. It suggested the governments to establish mechanism for equal representation and participation in political and public sphere. Education can help women to understand their potential, earn money and get rid of poverty illiteracy and health problems. Women empowerment means empowering or authorizing women.

It not only emphasizes empowerment at economic level but it also means improvement in their social, political and cultural status as well. It is defined as improvement in the ability of women to access the development constituents particularly education, health, employment opportunities, rights, and political participation. It is the process of enabling women to cope up with various disabilities inequalities and gender discrimination. It is all about availing equal right, responsibilities, opportunities, and power position in the society so that they can control their own life. Promoting Gender equality is one of the Millennium Development Goal and all the nations have to ensure it.

According to Andrew Mitchell¹, “the nations where women and girls are treated as inferior to men and boys, a vicious circle of limited education, poor employment opportunities, ill health, forced marriages and all too frequently violence and exploitation can be established and perpetuated. Focusing more support on girls offers an opportunity to replace that vicious cycle with a virtuous one that puts women at the heart of their families and their communities. As a result, women are able to bring in money to their families, get involved with local enterprises, and make sure their children are educated.

These are vital agents of change”.

(2)

Esther Duflo³(2011) emphasises the bi-directional relationship between economic development and women‟s empowerment. In one direction, development alone can play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women; in the other direction, continuing discrimination against women can, as Amartya Sen has forcefully argued, hinder development.

1.1 Role of education in women empowerment

The importance of education in economic growth (Schultz⁴ 1961) and human development (Sen⁵ 1985, 1993⁶) has been widely recognized. Education is the powerful tool to enhance the status of women by empowering them in all spheres of life. It is that magic wand which can bring miraculous changes in the life of women and enabling them to understand their potentials their right and developing skills to take decisions. Table No 1 shows that literacy of India in improving per census both in male and females but female literacy is still too far from male literacy.

Table No. 1: Literacy Rate in India Year Male Literacy (%) Female Literacy (%)

1901 9.8 0.6

1911 10.6 1

1921 12.2 1.8

1931 15.6 2.9

1941 24.9 7.3

1951 21.16 8.86

1961 40.4 15.35

1971 45.96 21.97

1981 56.38 29.76

1991 64.13 39.29

2001 75.26 53.67

2011 82.14 65.46

(3)

After independence government has taken stern action and adopted various policies for greater and equal participation of male and female from all section of the societies irrespective of economic status, caste and location in availing health facilities, education, employment and wages. At the global level the picture is very gloomy. Education is the foundation stone of women empowerment as it can only improve the status of women in the society and ward off the inequalities from all walk of life.

1.2 Objective of the study

Women empowerment is one of the important criteria for the advancement of the country The present study has been conducted with following objectives;-

1. To study the overall women empowerment status.

2. To study the relationship between women empowerment with demographic variables like age, education economic condition and employment

3. To study the factors responsible for women empowerment.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Women empowerment has become an important issue as it not only end the gender inequalities but also equip women to be confident in all sphere of life which helps the country to progress. A number of studies have been conducted on this issue and reports that education and working status has direct and positive impact on women empowerment.

(Nowak, Dahal, & Hossain⁷, 2016).

Abrar-ul-haq, M., Jali, M. R. M., & Islam, G. M. N. ⁸(2016) found education and employment key indicators of empowerment in existing literatures.

Mimma Tabassum et al⁸ (2019) evaluated the factors influencing women‟s empowerment in Bangladesh and women empowerment was decided on the basis of decision making power at household level, health care, political and social activities. The study revealed that most of the women usually take decisions regarding household, economy, health care, participation in political and social activities jointly with their husbands.

The research further revealed that urban respondents are relatively more empowered than rural counterparts and it also depends upon types of place of residence.

The working women are freer to decide about their personal, social and political life than the non working women. The research further revealed a strong relationship between decision making power and women empowerment.

Similarly, Malika and Courtney⁹ (2011) study also revealed the role of higher education in women empowerment and found that higher education provides economic independence and increased standing with the family.

Aijaz Jahan and Sashikal A.D.J ¹⁰ (2013) also emphasized the importance of

(4)

Arjun Kumar Thapa and Leena Gurung ¹² analyzed the association between social, economic and demographic factors on the female teachers‟ empowerment level of POKHARA. From 20 schools selected randomly at first stage 189 teachers were interviewed and it was revealed that women‟s self achievement to earn more income, her economic status and positive attitude towards her job influence positively and empowerment them.

Sifat Muntaha Soni1, Shahjadi Ireen and Ashraful Alam Siddique¹³ in their study investigated the association between social, economic and demographic factors on the female teachers‟ empowerment level of kushtia district in Bangladesh. The result indicated that age, educational qualification and monthly income have significant effects on women empowerment level. However they revealed that the women‟s educational qualification was the most significant predictor of empowerment level in Kushtia district. The researchers recommended to strengthen women‟s educational qualification in Bangladesh and to increase involvement of women in income generating activities.

Mila Sell and Nicholas Minot ¹⁴(2018) conducted research in rural Uganda to investigate what individual and household characteristics are associated with women's empowerment and found that age, education, proximity to a paved road and the marketed share of crop production are directly linked with women empowerment. The research also revealed that not only age and education the equality in education between the spouses is more important than the average level of education.

Women empowerment has become a global key concern in terms of development. It is closely connected to the economic, socio-cultural, familial or interpersonal, legal, political, and psychological domains. All the countries are trying their hard to empower women by educating them so that they can also take active part in decisions in all sphere of life and have a respectable position in the society but “the process of empowering women is slow globally and the conditions are worse not only in low income countries, but also in advance countries. For instance, the participation rate of women in labor force is less as compare to men in prime working age, moreover gender gap is much wider at senior corporate level with 23% women as corporate board members in Europe” (Christiansen et al.¹⁵, 2016).

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 Population and sample:- The population for study is the females residing in Indore.100 respondents were selected randomly in a manner so that females from all economic level and all educational level may be represented.

 Data Collection Instruments – Questionnaire:- Research is based on primary information collected through self administered questionnaire which was distributed to the females and collected after its completions.

 Scale for measurement:- The five point Likert scale (5-Always, 4 –Often, 3-Neutral, 2- Seldom and 1- Never) has been used to understand the females views on various issues determining women empowerment.

 Statistical Tools:- For testing the hypothesis of Correlation between female empowerment and different dimension of demography Pearson Coefficient has been used and Factor analysis has been done using statistical software SPSS 17 to understand the factors responsible for women empowerment.

3.1 Hypothesis Hypothesis 1:

 Ho: Martial status is not the significant factor for women empowerment.

 H1: Martial status is the significant factor for women empowerment Hypothesis 2:

 Ho: Age is not the significant factor for women empowerment.

 H1: Age is the significant factor for women empowerment.

Hypothesis 3:

 Ho: Education is not the significant factor for women empowerment.

 H1: Education is the significant factor for women empowerment.

Hypothesis 4:

 Ho: Employment is not the significant factor for women empowerment.

(5)

 H1: Employment is the significant factor for women empowerment.

Hypothesis 5:

 Ho: Income is not the significant factor for women empowerment.

 H1: Income is the significant factor for women empowerment.

4. DATA ANALYSIS

 Demographic profile of the females: The selected female respondents‟ profile is presented in Table No 2. On examining the marital status it has been found that out of 100 respondents 55% were married and 45% were not married.

The respondent‟s age have been grouped in five groups- 18-25years, 25-32 years, 32-39 years, 39-46 years and above 46 years and the result shows that 39 respondents out of 100 belongs to 18-25years age group. 18 respondents are of 25-32 years age group, 17 are in 32-39 years group, 8 respondents belongs to 39-46 years group and 18 are above 46 year.

In the field of education, respondents were classified in above postgraduate, Post graduate, below graduate, 1 to 12^th and not educated.

The Table No 2 discloses that 31 respondents are only graduate followed by 1-12^th standard education the number of them are 32, post graduate are 21. The number of females above PG is 10 and only 6 respondents are found to be not educated. Out of 100 respondents only 38 are doing job and 68 are not doing job. Occupation wise respondents were categorized into students, service class business class and no occupation and their numbers are their percentage are 30, 32 10 and 28 respectively.

When we examine the Table for distribution of respondents on the basis of income it reveals that 68 respondents are not having any income source, 43 respondents are earning between 1-3 lakhs rupees yearly, 18 respondent reported their income fall between 3-5 lakhs Rupees bracket where as 4 are earning 5-7 lakhs and only 3 respondents of the sample are earning above 7 lakhs yearly.

Table No. 2: Demography of respondents Parameters Frequencies Percentage 1.Marital Status

Married

Unmarried 55

45 55

45 2.Age

18-25Years 25-32 Years 32-39 Years 39-46 Years Above 46 Years

39 18 17 8 18

39 18 17 8 18 3.Qualification

Above Post Graduate Post Graduate Graduate

1^st -12^th Standard Illiterate

10 21 31 32 6

10 21 31 32 6 4.Doing Job

Yes No 38

62 38

62 5.Occupation

Student 31 28

(6)

Above Rs 7 lakh 3 3

 Level of Women Empowerment: Women empower has been calculated by asking 23 questions related to their confidence level, their freedom to take decision on various issues, their freedom to spend money, their freedom to mobility, awareness about rights and their ownership in properties. The questions were framed on Likert scale that is 1 -Never 2-Seldom, 3 – Neutral 4- Often and 5 -Always and respondents were asked to show their views on various abovementioned issues.

Table No. 3: Level of Women Empowerment N Mean

Women

Empowerment 100 3.78

The mean of all the respondents were calculated and the result is evaluated as 1- Not at all empowered, 2- No empowered, 3-empowered, 4- empowered and 5 –highly empowered. The result is presented in Table No 3 and it shows the mean as 3.78 which are nearly 4 and it can be concluded the women nowadays are empowered.

 Correlation between women empowerment and Demographic Variables: Table No 4 represents the correlation of women empowerment with respondent‟s demography. On examining the Table it has been found that only education and the occupation are significantly correlated with the empowerment. Pearson Coefficient for Martial Status is 0.167 which is not significant at 0.01 levels accepting the Null hypothesis of Hypothesis 1.

Table No. 4: Correlation between women empowerment and Demographic Variables S. No Demographic

Variables Pearson Coefficient

r Significance

1 Marital Status 0.146 Not Significant

2 Age 0.167 Not Significant

3 qualification 0.425 Significant

4 Occupation 0.224 Significant

5 Income 0.018 Not Significant

The Pearson Coefficient for age and income is o.167 and 0,018 respectively which is again not significantly correlated with women empowerment. However Pearson Coefficient for Qualification is 0.425 which is significant at 0.05 level and it shows that education is correlated with women empowerment. It rejects the Null Hypothesis of H3 which suggest that Education is not correlated with women empowerment and accepting the alternate hypothesis.

Similarly Occupation is also found to be significantly correlated with women empowerment leading to rejection of Null Hypothesis of H4 stating occupation is not correlated with women Empowerment and accepting the alternate Hypothesis. But as the Pearson coefficient for it is 0.224 which shows nominal correlation. The Pearson coefficient for income is also found to be not significant and infers that it is not correlated with empowerment, rejecting Null Hypothesis of H5.

 Reliability Measurement: Table No 5 shows the reliability or internal consistency of sets of questions.

Table No. 5: Measurement of reliability Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

.717 23

Cronbach‟s alpha is a used to measure internal consistency or reliability of a set of test items or set of scale. George and Mallery¹⁶ (2003) has given certain rules to be used to ascertain the internal consistency and reliability. According to him the alpha value > .9 shows excellent >.8 Good, > .7 is acceptable and if it is <7 it is required rechecking deleting

(7)

of items to improve Cronbach‟s alpha. As the Table No 5 shows that the value of Cronbach‟s alpha 0.717 therefore it can be concluded that internal consistency of the scale is acceptable.

4.1 Factor Analysis

4.1. KMO and Bartlett's Test

KMO tests the reliability and validity of the obtained data reduction and its value is 0.711, greater than 0.5 i.e. indicating that the factor analysis can be used for the given set of data.

The Bartlett‟s test of Sphericity is showing the significance (p-value) 0.000 which is less than 0.05 there on indicating that correlate ion matrix is insignificant and factor analysis can be considered on this data set. (Table 6)

Table No. 6: KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling

Adequacy. .711

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 637.890

df 253

Sig. .000

4.2 Total Variance Explained

The first step in interpreting the output was to look at the factors extracted, their Eigen values and the cumulative percentage of variance. The Table No 7 Shows that their eight factors which are having Eigen values more than 1 and their cumulative percentage column shows that these eight factors extracted from Twenty three accounts for 65.31 % of the total variance. Now, the most important thing was that of interpreting what these 8 extracted factors.

Table No 7: Total Variance Explained

Component Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings

Total % of

Variance Cumulative

% Total % of

Variance Cumulative

%

1 4.771 20.741 20.741 4.771 20.741 20.741

2 2.488 10.819 31.560 2.488 10.819 31.560

3 1.702 7.399 38.959 1.702 7.399 38.959

4 1.431 6.221 45.180 1.431 6.221 45.180

5 1.328 5.772 50.953 1.328 5.772 50.953

6 1.237 5.377 56.330 1.237 5.377 56.330

7 1.044 4.537 60.867 1.044 4.537 60.867

8 1.022 4.443 65.310 1.022 4.443 65.310

9 .946 4.113 69.423

10 .901 3.916 73.339

11 .792 3.445 76.784

12 .722 3.137 79.921

13 .688 2.993 82.914

14 .626 2.722 85.636

15 .584 2.537 88.174

16 .498 2.166 90.339

17 .426 1.854 92.193

18 .384 1.670 93.863

19 .341 1.482 95.345

20 .315 1.370 96.715

(8)

4.3 Component Matrix

The Table No 8 represents the component matrix of twenty three factors. For Each factor the highest value is considered in a given row. The Table shows that the first factor consists of 10(ten) variables, the second factor consists of 6 (six) variables, the third factor consists of 1(one), the fourth consists of 2 factors, the fifth factor consists of 1 (one), the sixth, seventh and eight factors consists of 1 ( one) variable each.

Table No 8: Component Matrix Component

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. I am Confident for what I do .486 -.521 -.326 .317

2. I am Confident for my look .560 -.414

3.I am Confident talking with others. .757 .389

4.I am Confident for while taking

decision .480

5.I am free to decide for my/children‟s

education .372 -.564

6.I am free to decide what to eat/

cook. .697 -.311

7.I understand what is right/wrong. .388 .666 8.I am free to decide where I should

go. .438 .493 -.323

9.I can take decision regarding

household purchase. .369 -.485 .389

10.I an free to spend money when

required. .569 -.395

11. I am free to decide where money

should be spent. .501 .315 .366 -.327

12.I am free to wear what I like. .643 -.421 13. I am free to help other if required. .639

14. I am free to go wherever I want. .507 -.428

15. I am free to attend social functions

of family/society. -.401 .514

16. I am free to travel alone. .485 -.300 .434

17. I am aware about my rights. .558 -.397 -.363

18. I know where to go in domestic

violence incidents. .585 -

.592

19. My family and society respect me. .425 .394 .356 -.412 20. My family gives importance to my

opinion. .330 .523 .343 .390

21. My family thinks my decisions are

right. .366 .449 .327

22. I am equally important as I am co-

owner in property. .400 .456 .397

23. I am having my own/joint

account. .488 -.374 .362

Next step of Factor Analysis was naming of factors by identifying the variables that have high loading on individual factors. Table No 7 presents Nomenclature of the factors by clustering the variables according to Table of Component Matrix.

(9)

4.4 Nomenclature of Factors Responsible for Women Empowerment

The Factors were named as Confidence and Freedom ( Factor1), Indulgence and importance (Factor2), Awareness about rights(Factor3), Financial security (Factor4), Social mobility (Factor5), Education (Factor6), Sociable (Factor7) and Decision capacity (Factor8)

Table No 9: Factors Responsible for Women Empowerment

Factors Statements

Factor1

Confidence and Freedom Confident for my look, free to decide what to eat/ cook, free to spend money when required, free to decide where money should be spent, free to wear what I like, free to help other if required, free to go wherever I want, free to travel alone, aware about my rights, family and society respect me Factor 2

Indulgence and

importance

understand what is right/wrong, free to decide where I should go, can take decision regarding household purchase, family gives importance to my opinion, family thinks my decisions are right, having my own/joint account

Factor 3

Awareness about rights know where to go in domestic violence incidents Factor 4

Financial security Confident for what I do, equal importance as I am co-owner in property

Factor 5

Social mobility free to attend social functions of family/society Factor 6

Education free to decide for my/children‟s education Factor 7

Sociable Confident talking with others Factor 8

Decision Capability Confident for while taking decision 4.5 Ranking of the Factors responsible for Women Empowerment:

Table No 10 represents the Factors on the basis of the mean of all the variable comprising the factors and these are arranged on the basis of their ranks. The table reveals that Education is the most important factor as its mean is 4.44 for women empowerment followed by Decision taking ability the mean of which is 4.12.Indulgence and importance is the third most important factor with mean 3.80 followed by Financial Security (mean3.78), Confidence and freedom( 3.72), Social mobility( 3.21) and Interactive with mean 3.20.

Table No. 10: Ranking of Factors Responsible for Women Empowerment

Factors Means Ranking

Education 4.44 I

Decision Capability 4.12 II

Indulgence and importance 3.80 III

Financial Security 3.78 IV

Confidence and freedom 3.72 V

Awareness about rights 3.50 VI

Social mobility 3.21 VII

Sociable 3.20 VIII

5. CONCLUSIONS

(10)

3. The occupation is also found to be significantly correlated with women empowerment. Employment provides financial independency to women not looking for support from other.

4. However, the age, marital status and income is not helping women to empower.

5. Factor analysis also reveals education as the most important factor hor empowerment.

6. The decision making capacity, importance and financial security are other factors which can empower women.

5.1 Policy Implication

Women play key role in the development of a country but education is the most important requisite tool to empower them. Education equip women with all capabilities like instilling confidence, enabling them to take decision, make them to understand what is right and what is wrong and help them to get employment leading a financial security. Indian government is making persistent effort to improve literacy among women and it has succeeded also but the programmes and the schemes have to be continued. A large chunk of female population residing in rural area are deprived of education due to some inevitable reasons, they also need to be mainstream of development by imparting education and empowering them.

REFERENCES

1. Mitchell Andrew (2010), Women empowerment: Lynchpin of development goals, Achieving Gender Equality, Women‟s Empowerment and Strengthening Development Cooperation, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations New York, 2010

2. Srivastava N. (2014) Education: A path to women empowerment (issues and challenges). International Journal of Management and Research and Review. 4(10):1007-1013.

3. Esther Duflo,(2011), “Women‟s Empowerment and Economic Development”, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge.

4. Schultz, T. W. (1961) Investment in Human Capital. The American Economic Review, 51, (1), 1-17.

5. Sen, A. (1985). Commodities and Capabilities. Amsterdam: North Holland.

6. Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Knopf.

7. Nowak, Dahal, & Hossain⁷, (2016), Women Education and Empowerment : Its Impacts on Socioeconomic Development in Bangladesh and Nepal. In Fourth 21st CAF Conference in Harvard, Vol. 9, pp. 135–154.

Bostan, Massachusetts, USA

8. Abrar-ul-haq, M., Jali, M. R. M., & Islam, G. M. N. (2016). Empowering rural women in Pakistan:

empirical evidence from Southern Punjab. Quality and Quantity, 51(4), 1777–1787.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0365-7

9. Mimma Tabassum, Najma Begum, Mohammad Shohel Rana, Mohammad Omar Faruk, Mohammad Mamun Miah, Factors Influencing Women‟s Empowerment in Bangladesh, Science, Technology & Public Policy. Vol. 3, No. 1, 2019, pp. 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.stpp.20190301.11

10. Malika, S., & Courtney, K. (2011). Higher Education and Women‟s Empowerment in Pakistan. Gender and Education, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 29–45.

11. Aijaz J, Shashikala ADJ.(2013) Empowerment of Women through Education. Golden Research Thoughts, 2(10).

12. Joysankar Bhattacharya and Sarmila Banerjee(July 2012) Women Empowerment as Multidimensional Capability Enhancement: An Application of Structural-Equation-Modelling

13. Arjun Kumar Thapa and Leena Gurung (2010), An Assessment Of Factors Influencing Empowerment Level Of Females: A Case Study Of Pokhara, Economic Journal of Development Issues Vol. 11 & 12 No. 1- 2 Combined Issue

14. Sifat Muntaha Soni, Shahjadi Ireen and Ashraful Alam Siddique (February 2016), Factors Influencing Empowerment Level of Women: A Case Study of Kushtia, Bangladesh Most, International Advanced Research Journal in Science, Engineering and Technology Vol. 3, Issue

15. MilaSell and Nicholas Minot (November–December 2018), What factors explain women's empowerment?

Decision-making among small-scale farmers in Uganda, Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 71, , Pages 46-55

16. Nargundkar Rajender (2005), Marketing Research: Text and Cases, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi.