Measuring Women’s Empowerment in Rwanda

Abstract

This study examines the determinants of women's empowerment in Rwanda using the data obtained from the Demographic and Heath Survey (DHS) (2010). It uses a regression analysis to investigate the association between women's empowerment and its covariates. The study also uses a multinomial logistic regression to assess what determines households' decision-making and attitudes toward physical abuse of spouses. It finds variables of sources of empowerment such as education and media exposure to have a net positive association with women's empowerment, while other variables such as residence and the age at first marriage to be negatively associated with women's empowerment. A further analysis shows that the effects of education, age of the respondent, wealth and the number of children ever born remain strong conditions which effect households' decision-making and attitudes about physical abuse. In general, it seems that for women to fully realize their potential and rights, specific emphasis should be put on variables that increase their access to resources and knowledge such as education, employment for cash, and media exposure, but variables that are negatively associated with their empowerment such as higher age at first marriage should also be taken into account.