Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen

Women’s decisionmaking indicators are widely used in social science research, though insufficient attention is given to measurement issues. We interrogate variations in indicator construction using survey experiments undertaken in the context of transfer programs in Ecuador, Yemen, and Uganda. Findi...

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Autores principales: Peterman, Amber, Schwab, Benjamin, Roy, Shalini, Hidrobo, Melissa, Gilligan, Daniel O.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142940
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author Peterman, Amber
Schwab, Benjamin
Roy, Shalini
Hidrobo, Melissa
Gilligan, Daniel O.
author_browse Gilligan, Daniel O.
Hidrobo, Melissa
Peterman, Amber
Roy, Shalini
Schwab, Benjamin
author_facet Peterman, Amber
Schwab, Benjamin
Roy, Shalini
Hidrobo, Melissa
Gilligan, Daniel O.
author_sort Peterman, Amber
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Women’s decisionmaking indicators are widely used in social science research, though insufficient attention is given to measurement issues. We interrogate variations in indicator construction using survey experiments undertaken in the context of transfer programs in Ecuador, Yemen, and Uganda. Findings show that small variations can lead to meaningful differences in how women are ranked on decisionmaking, as well as change conclusions on whether programs have significant impacts on decisionmaking. Results also raise questions as to how well indicators capture dimensions of empowerment as they are not consistently associated with measures of women’s status. Finally, in the context of Uganda, results indicate that measures are susceptible to social desirability bias, however further investigation is needed to assess this potential. We conclude that choices made in indicator construction matter and in the absence of standardized guidance, current practice is ad-hoc. Further, despite the wide use of these indicators, evaluating program success on women’s empowerment solely through standard decisionmaking indicators is not recommended. Finally, measurement innovation utilizing context-specific understanding of intra-household dynamics is needed.
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spelling CGSpace1429402025-02-24T06:48:32Z Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen Peterman, Amber Schwab, Benjamin Roy, Shalini Hidrobo, Melissa Gilligan, Daniel O. gender women's empowerment surveys social protection empowerment transfer programmes decision making cash transfers survey design women Women’s decisionmaking indicators are widely used in social science research, though insufficient attention is given to measurement issues. We interrogate variations in indicator construction using survey experiments undertaken in the context of transfer programs in Ecuador, Yemen, and Uganda. Findings show that small variations can lead to meaningful differences in how women are ranked on decisionmaking, as well as change conclusions on whether programs have significant impacts on decisionmaking. Results also raise questions as to how well indicators capture dimensions of empowerment as they are not consistently associated with measures of women’s status. Finally, in the context of Uganda, results indicate that measures are susceptible to social desirability bias, however further investigation is needed to assess this potential. We conclude that choices made in indicator construction matter and in the absence of standardized guidance, current practice is ad-hoc. Further, despite the wide use of these indicators, evaluating program success on women’s empowerment solely through standard decisionmaking indicators is not recommended. Finally, measurement innovation utilizing context-specific understanding of intra-household dynamics is needed. 2021-05-01 2024-05-22T12:11:21Z 2024-05-22T12:11:21Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142940 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149844 Open Access Elsevier Peterman, Amber; Schwab, Benjamin; Roy, Shalini; Hidrobo, Melissa; and Gilligan, Daniel O. 2021. Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen. World Development 141(May 2021): 105387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105387
spellingShingle gender
women's empowerment
surveys
social protection
empowerment
transfer programmes
decision making
cash transfers
survey design
women
Peterman, Amber
Schwab, Benjamin
Roy, Shalini
Hidrobo, Melissa
Gilligan, Daniel O.
Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen
title Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen
title_full Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen
title_fullStr Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen
title_full_unstemmed Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen
title_short Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen
title_sort measuring women s decisionmaking indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in ecuador uganda and yemen
topic gender
women's empowerment
surveys
social protection
empowerment
transfer programmes
decision making
cash transfers
survey design
women
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142940
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