We Adapted SDG5 Because Subgoals of SDG5 Are Not Relevant to Us: Understanding Women’s Economic Empowerment from Asian Stakeholder Perspectives Público

Abstract

Background: Globally, women face many challenges to reaching economic parity with men. Women’s economic empowerment is cited as the most direct means towards economic gender parity. This secondary analysis aims to better understand women’s economic empowerment in an Asian specific setting versus conventional Western-oriented definitions in hopes of improving context specific understandings of women’s economic empowerment in other context specific settings using culturally appropriate understandings.

 

Methods: Team members from the parent study recruited 40 individuals and conducted 21 interviews from six of the 18, 50x2030 initiative eligible Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, with the Philippines later added to replace Myanmar representing. In-country stakeholders were purposefully selected to maximize diverse perspectives and represented 10 governmental entities and 11 civil society organizations and/or research institutions. Semi-structured interview guides were used to ask questions about institutional priorities and challenges and successes related to women’s economic empowerment data use. Grounded Theory Methodology was used to perform a secondary analysis of data to elicit themes around stakeholder understandings of women’s economic empowerment in their context specific settings.

 

Results: The analysis and resulting frameworks and theory identified five stakeholder priorities: 1) the burden of unpaid labor in women’s economic empowerment; 2) financial decision making towards women’s economic empowerment; 3) access to economic resources and opportunities; 4) empowering employment towards income generation; and 5) increased labor force percentages towards economic participation. Two Asian context-specific women’s economic empowerment frameworks where also identified: 1) contextual modifiers to the empowerment process and 2) understanding the impact of empowerment. Lastly, a theory of stakeholder understanding was developed to explain stakeholder understandings of women’s empowerment in their context-specific settings.

 

Conclusion: More similarities versus differences were found in Asian stakeholder priorities and understandings of women’s economic empowerment when compared to conventional Western-derived understanding of women’s economic empowerment. This is attributed to many factors including the significant influence international organizations play in defining measures and prioritizing women’s empowerment agendas as well as the positionality of in-country stakeholders to international organizations in employment and education.

Table of Contents

I: INTRODUCTION  1

Background   1

Study Rationale   1

Problem Statement   2

Purpose Statement   2

Research Question   3

Significance Statement    4

II: LITERATURE REVIEW   4

Introduction   4

Conventional Understandings of Women’s Economic Empowerment   5

Critique of Women’s Empowerment     6

Study Relevance  9

III: METHODS   10

Study Setting  11

Study Sample   11

Table 1  12

Study Instruments and Fieldwork   12

Qualitative Data Analysis 13

Ethical Considerations  14

IV: RESULTS   14

Overview  14

Figure 1  16

Stakeholder Priorities   17

Emergent Themes of Women’s Economic Empowerment   23

Theory of Stakeholder Understanding   26

V: DISCUSSION   29

Summary 29

Study Limitations 34

Public Health Implications 35

Recommendations   35

Conclusion   35

VI: REFERENCES  36

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Hubert Department of Global Health
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Palabra Clave	Women's Economic Empowerment Women's Empowerment
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Kathryn M. Yount, Emory University
Committee Members	Erin R. Johnson, Emory University

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