Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria

Time use, or how women and men allocate their time, is an important element of empowerment processes. To extend this area of study, this article proposes and explores the concept of time-use agency, which shifts the focus from the amount of time individuals spend on activities to the strategic choic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Eissler, Sarah, Heckert, Jessica, Myers, Emily, Seymour, Greg, Sinharoy, Sheela, Yount, Kathryn
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Wiley 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141237
_version_ 1855528953481003008
author Eissler, Sarah
Heckert, Jessica
Myers, Emily
Seymour, Greg
Sinharoy, Sheela
Yount, Kathryn
author_browse Eissler, Sarah
Heckert, Jessica
Myers, Emily
Seymour, Greg
Sinharoy, Sheela
Yount, Kathryn
author_facet Eissler, Sarah
Heckert, Jessica
Myers, Emily
Seymour, Greg
Sinharoy, Sheela
Yount, Kathryn
author_sort Eissler, Sarah
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Time use, or how women and men allocate their time, is an important element of empowerment processes. To extend this area of study, this article proposes and explores the concept of time-use agency, which shifts the focus from the amount of time individuals spend on activities to the strategic choices they make about how to allocate their time. It draws on 92 semi-structured interviews from three qualitative studies in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria to explore and compare the salience of time-use agency as a component of empowerment. The article finds that time-use agency is salient among women and men and dictates how they can make and act upon strategic decisions related to how they allocate their time. It also finds that time-use agency is tied to other dimensions of agency beyond decision making and ways of exerting influence in the household. Its findings highlight that women's capacity to exercise time-use agency is conditional on gendered power dynamics and other barriers within households, which together are reciprocally related to local gender norms that dictate how women should spend their time.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace141237
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Wiley
publisherStr Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1412372025-10-26T13:02:31Z Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria Eissler, Sarah Heckert, Jessica Myers, Emily Seymour, Greg Sinharoy, Sheela Yount, Kathryn gender women's empowerment households interviews empowerment decision making qualitative analysis time gender relations Time use, or how women and men allocate their time, is an important element of empowerment processes. To extend this area of study, this article proposes and explores the concept of time-use agency, which shifts the focus from the amount of time individuals spend on activities to the strategic choices they make about how to allocate their time. It draws on 92 semi-structured interviews from three qualitative studies in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria to explore and compare the salience of time-use agency as a component of empowerment. The article finds that time-use agency is salient among women and men and dictates how they can make and act upon strategic decisions related to how they allocate their time. It also finds that time-use agency is tied to other dimensions of agency beyond decision making and ways of exerting influence in the household. Its findings highlight that women's capacity to exercise time-use agency is conditional on gendered power dynamics and other barriers within households, which together are reciprocally related to local gender norms that dictate how women should spend their time. 2022-09 2024-04-12T13:37:31Z 2024-04-12T13:37:31Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141237 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134275 Open Access Wiley Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica; Myers, Emily; Seymour, Greg; Sinharoy, Sheela; and Yount, Kathryn. 2022. Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria. Development and Change 53(5): 1010-1034. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12725
spellingShingle gender
women's empowerment
households
interviews
empowerment
decision making
qualitative analysis
time
gender relations
Eissler, Sarah
Heckert, Jessica
Myers, Emily
Seymour, Greg
Sinharoy, Sheela
Yount, Kathryn
Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria
title Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria
title_full Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria
title_fullStr Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria
title_short Measuring women's empowerment: Gender and time-use agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria
title_sort measuring women s empowerment gender and time use agency in benin malawi and nigeria
topic gender
women's empowerment
households
interviews
empowerment
decision making
qualitative analysis
time
gender relations
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141237
work_keys_str_mv AT eisslersarah measuringwomensempowermentgenderandtimeuseagencyinbeninmalawiandnigeria
AT heckertjessica measuringwomensempowermentgenderandtimeuseagencyinbeninmalawiandnigeria
AT myersemily measuringwomensempowermentgenderandtimeuseagencyinbeninmalawiandnigeria
AT seymourgreg measuringwomensempowermentgenderandtimeuseagencyinbeninmalawiandnigeria
AT sinharoysheela measuringwomensempowermentgenderandtimeuseagencyinbeninmalawiandnigeria
AT yountkathryn measuringwomensempowermentgenderandtimeuseagencyinbeninmalawiandnigeria