Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa
Women in developing countries are disempowered relative to their contemporaries in developed countries. High youth unemployment and early marriage and childbearing interact to limit human capital investment and enforce dependence on men. In this paper, we evaluate an attempt to jump-start adolescent...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Jezik: | en_US |
| Izdano: |
World Bank
2022
|
| Teme: | |
| Online dostop: | http://hdl.handle.net/10361/15846 |
| id |
10361-15846 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
dspace |
| spelling |
10361-158462022-01-10T21:01:52Z Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa Bandiera, Oriana Buehren, Niklas Burgess, Robin Goldstein, Markus Gulesci, Selim Rasul, Imran Sulaiman, Munshi Africa Adolescents Women empowerment Women in developing countries are disempowered relative to their contemporaries in developed countries. High youth unemployment and early marriage and childbearing interact to limit human capital investment and enforce dependence on men. In this paper, we evaluate an attempt to jump-start adolescent women’s empowerment in the world’s second-youngest country: Uganda. In this two-pronged intervention, adolescent girls are simultaneously provided vocational training and information on sex, reproduction and marriage. Relative to adolescents in control communities, after two years the intervention raises the likelihood that girls engage in income-generating activities by 72 per cent (mainly driven by increased participation in self-employment), and raises their monthly consumption expenditures by 41 per cent. Teen pregnancy falls by 26 per cent, and early entry into marriage/cohabitation falls by 58 per cent. Strikingly, the share of girls reporting sex against their will drops from 14 per cent to almost half that level and preferred ages of marriage and childbearing both move forward. The findings indicate that women’s economic and social empowerment can be jump-started through the combined provision of vocational and life skills, and is not necessarily held back by insurmountable constraints arising from binding social norms. 2022-01-10T04:19:48Z 2022-01-10T04:19:48Z 2018. 2018-12 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/10361/15846 en_US https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/publications/womens-empowerment-in-action-evidence-from-a-randomised-control-trial-in-africa/ application/pdf World Bank |
| institution |
Brac University |
| collection |
Institutional Repository |
| language |
en_US |
| topic |
Africa Adolescents Women empowerment |
| spellingShingle |
Africa Adolescents Women empowerment Bandiera, Oriana Buehren, Niklas Burgess, Robin Goldstein, Markus Gulesci, Selim Rasul, Imran Sulaiman, Munshi Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa |
| description |
Women in developing countries are disempowered relative to their contemporaries in developed countries. High youth unemployment and early marriage and childbearing interact to limit human capital investment and enforce dependence on men. In this paper, we evaluate an attempt to jump-start adolescent women’s empowerment in the world’s second-youngest country: Uganda. In this two-pronged intervention, adolescent girls are simultaneously provided vocational training and information on sex, reproduction and marriage. Relative to adolescents in control communities, after two years the intervention raises the likelihood that girls engage in income-generating activities by 72 per cent (mainly driven by increased participation in self-employment), and raises their monthly consumption expenditures by 41 per cent. Teen pregnancy falls by 26 per cent, and early entry into marriage/cohabitation falls by 58 per cent. Strikingly, the share of girls reporting sex against their will drops from 14 per cent to almost half that level and preferred ages of marriage and childbearing both move forward. The findings indicate that women’s economic and social empowerment can be jump-started through the combined provision of vocational and life skills, and is not necessarily held back by insurmountable constraints arising from binding social norms. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Bandiera, Oriana Buehren, Niklas Burgess, Robin Goldstein, Markus Gulesci, Selim Rasul, Imran Sulaiman, Munshi |
| author_facet |
Bandiera, Oriana Buehren, Niklas Burgess, Robin Goldstein, Markus Gulesci, Selim Rasul, Imran Sulaiman, Munshi |
| author_sort |
Bandiera, Oriana |
| title |
Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa |
| title_short |
Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa |
| title_full |
Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa |
| title_fullStr |
Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Women’s empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa |
| title_sort |
women’s empowerment in action: evidence from a randomized control trial in africa |
| publisher |
World Bank |
| publishDate |
2022 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10361/15846 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT bandieraoriana womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica AT buehrenniklas womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica AT burgessrobin womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica AT goldsteinmarkus womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica AT gulesciselim womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica AT rasulimran womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica AT sulaimanmunshi womensempowermentinactionevidencefromarandomizedcontroltrialinafrica |
| _version_ |
1814308385236975616 |