Date of Graduation

5-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Advisor/Mentor

Nalley, Lawton L.

Committee Member

Rucker, Jill

Second Committee Member

Farmer, Amy

Abstract

Melinda Gates stated, “If you search for poverty, you will find women who don’t have power. If you explore prosperity, you will find women who do have power and use it.” Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, women are expected to perform disproportional amounts of labor but are often ignored in household decision-making regarding social and economic matters. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) states that women in Mozambique are highly disadvantaged, relative to men, due to low levels of education, maternal health risks, restricted economic prospects, and cultural norms. This study aims to better understand the causes of female empowerment in Northern Mozambique via a survey which was administered to 58 households in Nampula, Mozambique in 2019. The survey enumerator requested to interview the husband and wife separately regarding a series of social and economic household decision-making questions. Answers where only the husband had a say in a decision were given a zero, and those where the wife/both were given a one. Each participant was given a “decision-making score”, where zero represented no equality for women and seven represented full household decision-making equality. These total scores were regressed on variables the literature had identified as contributing to female empowerment in Africa. The study found that waiting to get married at an older age resulted in more economic bargaining power for women vis-à-vis their husbands, and women with secondary education possessed significantly greater bargaining power. Equality within households is heterogenous, and understanding its determinants may allow for future development to enhance equality and promote economic and societal growth.

Keywords

Women empowerment; Mozambique; agricultural economics; economics; development; service learning

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