Cogent Social Sciences

2024, VOL. 10, NO. 1, 2407026

https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2407026

Area Studies  | Research Article

What determines women empowerment in India? A capability-based
approach
Sunetra Nath and Gurudas Das
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Silchar, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The present study aims to quantify women’s empowerment by constructing an index Received 22 April 2024
and attempts to investigate the potential drivers that accelerate women’s degree of Revised 2 August 2024
empowerment using a capability-based approach. In the study, 416 married women Accepted 17 September
from the Barak Valley region of Assam, India, serve as the primary sample. The index 2024
was developed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) in SPSS software. EFA identifies KEYWORDS
eight domains of women empowerment in the Indian context: technological Measuring women
acquaintance, household decision-making, freedom of movement, economic empowerment;
independence, community and political participation, gender-based violence, leadership, determinants of women
and work-life balance. Then, linear multiple regression was performed using the index empowerment; capability
as regressand and socio-demographic and economic factors and self-reported approach; exploratory
factor analysis
capabilities as regressors in the STATA software. We find that besides traditional factors,
spousal work status difference, spousal work regularity, parental asset ownership, the SUBJECTS
cultural orientation of the household head, membership in multiple community groups, Gender Studies; South
pre-marital agency, and financial literacy play a significant role in determining women’s East Asian Studies;
empowerment. Gender & Development;
Economics; Gender
Studies - Soc Sci;
Women’s Studies;
Economics and
Development

1. Introduction
Gender inequality has always been a challenge in the development agenda of a country. A nation can-
not develop at its full potential unless its women are empowered. Women are the primary means by
which social norms and attitudes favouring gender equality are transferred to their children. In fact,
women’s empowerment brings forth innumerable positive familial and social outcomes. However, there
is no conventional definition of women empowerment as a concept since it is multidimensional and
evolving. This concept is often interpreted in relation to different forms of power: ‘power to’, ‘power with’,
‘power within’, and ‘power over’ (Rowlands, 1997). While ‘power to’, ‘power within’, and ‘power with’ corre-
spond to positive forms of women’s agency, that is, instrumental, intrinsic and communal or collective
agency, respectively (Malapit et al., 2019), ‘power over’ corresponds to coercive actions, a negative form
of women’s agency (Kabeer, 1999; Malapit et al., 2019). An individual’s agency refers to the freedom to
pursue and achieve personally meaningful goals or values. Women empowerment, thus, entails more
than just giving women access to opportunities or resources; it also entails giving them the agency and
voice to decide what matters to them in life. However, the exercise of women’s choices or agency is
contingent upon several contextual circumstances, such as institutional (legal framework) and
socio-cultural hurdles, such as disempowering social norms, that impede their empowerment (Maiorano
et al., 2021). So, in order to effect radical change in their lives, women have to overcome structural con-
straints such as dehumanising social norms that they have internalised. This study, thus, defines women
empowerment as the process by which women gain the ability to make strategic life choices and

CONTACT Sunetra Nath [email protected] Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology
Silchar, Silchar-788010, Assam, India
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2407026.
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been
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2 S. NATH AND G. DAS

transform their lives by challenging structural constraints with the help of both tangible and intangible
resources and achieve favourable outcomes at the personal and relational levels.
Although the notion of women empowerment entered the development discourse in the late 1980s,
it gained momentum after a decade following the publication of an influential article by Naila Kabeer
that laid down the conceptual meaning of women empowerment (Kabeer, 1999). Kabeer’s conceptuali-
sation of empowerment derives its foundation from Sen’s Capability Approach (Sen, 1985), which priori-
tises freedom as its foundational principle, emphasising that empowerment encompasses the enhancement
of individuals’ substantive freedoms rather than solely focusing on expanding their resources or oppor-
tunities. In fact, Sen’s idea of empowerment extends beyond economic measures, comprising social,
political, and personal dimensions that collectively enhance individuals’ welfare and autonomy.
Empowerment is realised through policies and interventions designed to strengthen individuals’ capabil-
ities, which include initiatives that advance education, healthcare, economic prospects, social inclusivity,
and engagement in political processes. Kabeer’s resource-agency-achievement model defines women’s
agency as their capacity to make decisions and attain meaningful outcomes that they value. Therefore,
measuring empowerment necessitates assessing women’s agency, which enables them to achieve valued
outcomes (achievements) with the help of resources (factors/conditions that facilitate women in attaining
agency).
The notion of empowerment also gained increasing relevance in development debates following its
inclusion in the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015
(United Nations, 2000, 2015). Since then, some ‘empowerment lens’ has increasingly been introduced in
publicly-funded development programmes and private research initiatives (Maiorano et al., 2021), consid-
ering the numerous ways that women’s empowerment affects development outcomes.
Empowered women can play a better role in shaping the quality of a nation’s human resources by
instilling desired values and attributes in their children–be it physical, psychological, behavioural or intel-
lectual (Lavy et al., 2020; Maiorano et al., 2021). Working women also have the ability to contribute to
the financial expenses of not only their in-law’s family but also their natal family after marriage. In that
way, women have a deeper social reach than men. An economically empowered woman exerts a signifi-
cantly greater impact on social well-being than a male does. A woman is more inclined to treat
poverty-stricken people more sympathetically than a man, who might treat them harshly. Women are
also more likely to save when their income or bargaining power in the household increases, as compared
to men (Lee & Pocock, 2007; Seguino & Floro, 2003). Women are also more efficient than their male
counterparts in allocating resources (earned or unearned income) to family healthcare (Thomas, 1990).
Precisely, studies found that when women have higher bargaining power in the household, measured in
terms of ownership of farmlands, the household’s budget share on food and education increases (Doss,
2006; Duflo & Udry, 2004), and share on tobacco and alcohol decreases (Doss, 2006). The macroeconomic
impact of women empowerment is also substantial. Research shows that women’s empowerment through
increased political, economic, and social rights is found to reduce income inequality in middle-income
countries (Wang & Naveed, 2021). As a result, besides women empowerment per se, its impact on vari-
ous individuals and institutions has attracted the attention of academia and change agents.
Since the notion of women empowerment varies across spatiotemporal planes (Malhotra & Schuler,
2005; Schuler et al., 1997), a single empowerment measure cannot capture the inherent socio-cultural
diversity across countries. Although attempts have been made to add a gendered dimension to measur-
ing human development or gender inequality at the level of international organisations, such as the
United Nations Development Program’s Gender Development Index (GDI), Gender Empowerment Measure
(GEM), and the Gender Inequality Index (GII), no universally accepted Women Empowerment Index (WEI)
has been developed using cross-country comparable domains that specifically measure women’s exercise
of choices or agency in different areas of their lives and using context-specific indicators that capture
within-country cultural diversities among women. This might be because the construction of WEI is an
emerging academic field involving multidimensional challenges. Although some sector-specific indices of
women empowerment (Alkire et al., 2013; Galiè et al., 2019; Malapit et al., 2019; Narayanan et al., 2017)
are developed that capture women’s agency, they only account for women empowerment at national
level (Phan, 2016). Similarly, some non-sectoral indices (Ewerling et al., 2020; Phan, 2016; Richardson
et al., 2018) are developed at the individual level, but they cannot adequately capture different
 Cogent Social Sciences 3

components of women’s agency. Moreover, there is no consensus on the domains constituting women’s
agency. However, the existing domains are believed to come under two broader forms of women’s
agency: instrumental and intrinsic (Ewerling et al., 2020; Malapit et al., 2019; Miedema et al., 2018).
Women’s instrumental agency is perceived in their household decision-making, freedom of movement,
community and political participation, control over the use of income, and control over reproductive
decisions (Malapit et al., 2019; Miedema et al., 2018). Similarly, women’s intrinsic agency is viewed in
their attitudes and perceptions of dominant gender norms, views and experiences of intimate partner
violence, and self-efficacy (Malapit et al., 2019; Miedema et al., 2018). Although some sector-specific
studies have recognised domains such as women’s work balance and leadership as components of
instrumental agency (Alkire et al., 2013; Galiè et al., 2019; Malapit et al., 2019), the domains are in the
nascent stage and are measured using indicators that are specific to the agriculture and livestock sector.
Attempts to develop indicators under those domains that can be generalised at the non-sectoral level
are negligible.
Similarly, although studies have identified access to and use of mobile phones as a resource or
determinant of women empowerment since it expands women’s networks and opens up self-employment
opportunities (Ameen & Willis, 2016; Azra Batool, 2018; Islam & Slack, 2016), no attempt has been
made to incorporate women’s knowledge of information and communication technology or techno-
logical acquaintance as a domain of women’s agency in measuring the Women Empowerment
Index (WEI).
Therefore, apart from including some traditional domains of women’s agency, viz., economic indepen-
dence, household decision-making, freedom of movement, community and political participation, and
gender-based abuse, the study has added three vital yet less explored domains, viz., technological
acquaintance, leadership and work-life balance to develop the index of women empowerment, which
can be compared across countries. However, to capture the inherent socio-economic diversity among
Indian women, indicators specific to women in the Indian context under each domain are incorporated.
Moreover, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is employed to identify new domains or factors of women’s
empowerment in the Indian context, as it is recognised as the best data reduction technique for identi-
fying novel factors of latent constructs that are not well-supported by existing theory (Costello & Osborne,
2005; Hair et al., 2019).
The Women Empowerment Index (WEI), thus constructed, is then used as a dependent variable in a
multiple regression analysis. The available spectrum of determinants identified in the literature can
broadly be categorised into socio-demographic characteristics, economic characteristics, and self-reported
capabilities (Table 1). Since the construct of women empowerment is subject to spatiotemporal changes,
the determinants influencing women empowerment found in existing studies may not be equally rele-
vant for all cases. Hence, the authors have incorporated some undiscovered determinants under each
classification to capture the contemporary reality in relation to the study area. These include
socio-demographic factors like the cultural orientation of the household head and membership in mul-
tiple community groups; economic factors like spousal work status difference, spousal work regularity,
and parental asset ownership; and self-reported capabilities like pre-marital agency and financial literacy.
Although several techniques, such as logistic regression, hierarchical regression, and two-stage least
square techniques, are used in the literature in order to estimate the determinants of women empower-
ment (Allendorf, 2012; Anderson & Eswaran, 2009; Cinar & Kose, 2018; Kazembe, 2020; Mahmud et al.,
2012), the nature of the data used in this study does not support the application of these techniques.
The authors have applied linear multiple regression to estimate the determinants of women’s empower-
ment as it is the best-suited technique when the dependent variable is continuous.
Thus, the study’s novelty lies in its attempt (i) to expand the extant literature on women’s agency by
incorporating three new domains (technological acquaintance, leadership, and work-life balance) in con-
structing a women empowerment index. (ii) to improve the conventional domains of women’s agency
by incorporating some new indicators (e.g. I can support my natal family financially whenever required
(EI5); if I (ever) experience gender-based abuse, I (shall) take steps to enforce correction (GBA2), and so
on), (iii) and to shed light on a few additional determinants specific to the Indian context that have not
received adequate attention so far (e.g. the cultural orientation of the household head, membership in
multiple community groups, parental asset ownership).
4 S. NATH AND G. DAS

Table 1. Explanatory variables with their measurement scales.

Variable/Dummy
Variables Codings Measurement Scales
Economic Variables
1 Women’s Educationa WEDU_P Primary (Below matriculation) =1 (Reference)
WEDU_S Secondary (Matriculation and Intermediate) =2
WEDU_T Tertiary (Graduate and above) =3
2 Spousal Working Status Difference SWSD_HW Only the husband works = 1 (Reference)
SWSD_WW Only wife works = 2
SWSD_BW Both work= 3
SWSD_BNW Both do not work = 4
3 Spousal Income Differenceb SID_WLH Wife earns less than her husband = 1 (Reference)
SID_WEH Wife earns equal to her husband = 2
SID_WGH Wife earns more than her husband = 3
4 Spousal Work Regularity SWR_HR Only husband is regular = 1 (Reference)
SWR_WR Only wife is regular = 2
SWR_BR Both are regular = 3
SWR_BIR Both are irregular = 4
5 Women’s Asset Ownership (property/business/vehicle)c WAO No asset = 0
Owns asset = 1
6 Parental Asset Ownership (property/business/vehicle) PAO_INAST Income-earning assets = 1
PAO_NINAST Non-income earning assets = 2
PAO_B Both = 3
PAO_N None = 4 (Reference)
Socio-demographic Variables
7 Woman’s aged AGE Discrete
8 Number of dependent people in the household (Household NDH Discrete
size-earning people)e
9 Maximum years of membership in a Community Group YMCG Discrete
(SHG/NGO/Others)f
10 Number of Community Groups (SHG, NGO, Others) in NMCG Discrete
which the woman is/was a member
11 Religiong RELI Hindu = 0 (Reference)
Muslim = 1
12 Casteh GEN General = 1 (Reference)
OBC Other Backward Classes =2
SC/ST Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes = 3
13 Substance abuse by husband (Alcohol/drugs)i SAH_N Never = 1 (Reference)
SAH_S Sometimes = 2
SAH_O Often = 3
14 Cultural orientation of the household head, measured by COHH_C Not allowed for any of these four
four questions:Are you allowed to drape any attire of (Conservative)=1(Reference)
your choice? COHH_M Allowed up to three of these four
• Are you allowed to communicate freely with people? (Moderate)=2
• Are you allowed to do paid work outside? COHH_L Allowed for all of these four (Liberal)=3
• Do in-laws gender-discriminate your children?
15 Place of residencej RES Rural = 0
Urban = 1
16 Access to mobile technologyk AMT_NM No mobile = 1 (Reference)
AMT_NONET Owns mobile without internet = 2
AMT_WNET Owns mobile with Internet =3
Women’s Self-reported Capabilities
17 Gender-related Legal Awareness, measured by six questions: GRLA Awareness of up to three issues (Low)=0
• Are you aware of domestic violence laws in India? Or Are Awareness of more than three issues (High)=1
you acquainted with any legal practitioner?
• Do you have a marriage certificate in your possession?
• Are you aware of women’s reservations in local
self-government?
• Are you aware of the female inheritance law in India?
• Are you aware of the location of the Judiciary in your
proximity?
• Are you aware of the location of your local Police
Station?l
18 Women’s pre-marital agency: PMA Received no or little support = 0
Did you receive adequate support to pursue your goals Received full support = 1
before marriage?
19 Financial literacy, measured by two questions: FL_N Not aware of anyone (Nil) =1 (Reference)
• Can you operate offline banking transactions? FL_M Aware of any one of the two (Moderate)=2
• Can you operate online banking transactions? FL_H Aware of both (High)=3
Note. Variables in Italics are conceived by the author.
a
(Abbas et al., 2021; Lopes et al., 2021), b(Abbas et al., 2021; Habibov et al., 2017), c(Allendorf, 2007; Mishra & Sam, 2016), d(Samanta, 2020),
e
(Wei et al., 2021), f(Garikipati, 2008), g(Lopes et al., 2021; Samanta, 2020), h(Allendorf, 2007; Samanta, 2020), i(Parekh et al., 2022), j(Allendorf,
2012; Samanta, 2020), k(Azra Batool, 2018), l(Akhter & Cheng, 2020; Schuler & Hashemi, 1994).
 Cogent Social Sciences 5

The rest of the paper is outlined as follows. In Sections 2 and 3, the authors discuss the literature
review and outline the research methodology, respectively. In Section 4, they discuss the results of the
study. Finally, in Section 5, the authors conclude with policy implications and shortcomings of
the study.

2. Literature review
Although there are several approaches to conceptualise and measure women empowerment, the widely
used one is the resources-agency-achievement framework of Naila Kabeer (1999), developed from the
capability approach of Amartya Sen (1985). Resources are the conditions that facilitate the attainment
of agency, which denotes women’s free will to accomplish certain life goals or values that they consider
as important. Achievements, on the other hand, are the outcomes of the empowerment process. In his
seminal work ‘Development as Freedom’ (Sen 1999), Amartya Sen delineates several essential capabili-
ties pivotal for fostering women’s empowerment. These encompass the ability to maintain good health,
with access to healthcare facilities and the autonomy to make informed health-related decisions.
Education is identified as a critical capability that facilitates the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Economic opportunities, such as access to employment, resources, and financial credit, along with the
rights to manage and possess property, are also regarded as crucial. Social and cultural rights are also
emphasised, that is, the ability to participate in social and cultural life without facing discrimination
based on gender, ethnicity, or religion. Political participation is also highlighted as pivotal for influenc-
ing decision-making processes at community and national levels. Additionally, the capability to access
supportive social networks, including familial, community, and institutional support systems, is seen as
integral to women’s empowerment. Sen argues that empowering women requires expanding these
capabilities, thereby enabling them to pursue lives aligned with their values and aspirations. Both
resources and agency together constitute the ‘capabilities’ of an individual, according to Sen. However,
the literature suggests that women’s level of empowerment can be best measured using the agency
dimension since the resources or achievements can act both as the drivers or outcomes of empower-
ment depending on the nature of the study (Alkire et al., 2013; Maiorano et al., 2021; Malapit et al.,
2019). Therefore, several women empowerment indices–both sectoral and non-sectoral–have been
developed at the country level using the agency dimension (Alkire et al., 2013; Dickin et al., 2021; Galiè
et al., 2019; Maiorano et al., 2021; Malapit et al., 2019; Narayanan et al., 2017; Richardson et al., 2018;
Samanta, 2020; Yount et al., 2016).
Despite several debates on the domains constituting women’s agency in the literature, domains such
as household decision-making, freedom of movement, community and political participation, control
over the use of income, attitude towards dominant gender norms, and views and experiences of intimate
partner violence are generally agreed upon in the South-Asian literature on women empowerment.
Besides these conventional domains, work balance and leadership have been identified as domains of
women’s agency in a few sector-specific studies. However, the domains are not well-developed, and it
becomes difficult to generalise the indicators assessing them to all women (Alkire et al., 2013; Galiè
et al., 2019; Malapit et al., 2019). Similarly, no doubt, ownership and usage of mobile phones have been
viewed as resources for empowering women (Azra Batool, 2018; Islam & Slack, 2016); women’s techno-
logical acquaintance, that is, their ability to efficiently apply information and communication technology
in doing daily tasks has not yet been identified as a domain of women’s agency.
With regard to the driving forces of women’s agency, the capability approach-based studies consider
resources as the preconditions that enhance women’s agency (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005; Kabeer, 1999).
Resources include tangible assets (cash, education), intangible assets (human resource, social capital)
(Kabeer, 1999), and institutional contexts (legal framework) (Malhotra & Schuler, 2005). Broadly, the capa-
bility approach-based studies identify three categories of resources or determinants of women empow-
erment: socio-demographic characteristics, such as women’s age, marital status, place of residence,
household size, family structure, religion, caste/ethnicity, exposure to print and electronic media (Akram,
2018; Garikipati, 2008; Kazembe, 2020; Khalid et al., 2020; Mahmud et al., 2012; O’Hara & Clement, 2018;
Samanta, 2020; Soharwardi & Ahmad, 2020; Trommlerová et al., 2015), economic characteristics, such as,
women’s education, ownership of land or property, having a paid job, having a bank account, household
6 S. NATH AND G. DAS

wealth, husband’s education and employment, spousal educational and income difference, mother’s
employment status and parental education (Akram, 2018; Allendorf, 2007; Banerjee et al., 2023; Garikipati,
2008; Habibov et al., 2017; Khalid et al., 2020; Soharwardi & Ahmad, 2020; Trommlerová et al., 2015), and
self-reported capabilities such as women’s health status, happiness, accommodation, perception of
respectful and unfair treatment, legal awareness, freedom of mobility before marriage, and financial
inclusion (Abrar-ul-haq et al., 2017; Akhter & Cheng, 2020; Arshad, 2023; Banerjee et al., 2023; Schuler &
Hashemi, 1994; Trommlerová et al., 2015).
However, some relevant factors that might significantly influence women empowerment, particularly
in the Indian context, have not yet been tested. For instance, although women’s work (paid) status has
been found to empower them (Abbas et al., 2021; Akram, 2018), whether spousal work status difference
and work regularity influence women’s degree of empowerment needs to be enquired. Apart from that,
the impact of ‘pre-marital agency’ measured by the freedom to pursue any desired goal before marriage
and ‘parental asset ownership’ on women’s empowerment needs to be assessed. Moreover, although
being a community group member has been found to empower women in previous studies (Achandi
et al., 2019), how membership in multiple groups affects women’s empowerment is unknown. Likewise,
the impact of the cultural orientation of the household head (liberal or conservative mindset) and wom-
en’s financial literacy on women empowerment are also unknown.
Therefore, this study intends to broaden the existing set of domains at the non-sectoral level by add-
ing work-life balance, leadership, and technological acquaintance in constructing a comprehensive
Women Empowerment Index. However, indicators unique to Indian women within both conventional and
new domains are included in order to highlight the intrinsic socioeconomic diversity among Indian
women. Moreover, women’s capabilities, as suggested by Sen, are captured in this study using various
indicators in computing the WEI. Specifically, women’s autonomy in healthcare decisions is conceived
using three indicators: women’s say in child-bearing decisions (HDM2), women’s say in child healthcare
decisions (HDM5), and women’s ability to consult a medical professional whenever they feel unwell (EI1).
Similarly, women’s educational autonomy is measured using the indicator: women’s ability to pursue any
professional course or diploma at their will (EI6). Economic opportunities are captured using three indi-
cators, viz., women’s ability to purchase any fixed asset (EI2), ability to save for contingencies in the
future in the bank account (EI3) and the ability to mobilise funds to invest in income-generating activi-
ties (EI4). Social and cultural right is highlighted using two indicators, viz., women’s ability to join com-
munity groups (CPP1) and ability to extend help to victims of gender-based abuse whenever required
(GBA3). Women’s agency in exercising civil and political rights is captured using three indicators, viz.,
ability to attend political rallies or meetings (CPP2), ability to join a political party of one’s choice (CPP4)
and ability to contest elections (CPP5). The capacity to access supportive social networks is incorporated
using three indicators, viz., women’s ability to settle disputes in their family (LSP1), ability to settle dis-
putes in their social space or workplace (LSP2), and the ability to maintain harmony in their social space
or workplace (LSP4). The indicators of WEI are detailed in Table A2 in Appendix 2, supplementary mate-
rial. Further, in order to capture the factors influencing women empowerment, which are sensitive to
spatiotemporal variations, some new determinants are included, viz., spousal working status difference,
spousal work regularity, pre-marital agency, parental asset ownership, membership in multiple commu-
nity groups, the cultural orientation of the household head, and financial literacy.

3. Research methodology
3.1. Study area
The sample area comprises the three districts of the Barak Valley region of Assam, India, viz., Cachar,
Karimganj and Hailakandi. The Valley’s economy is agro-based, with 35.44 per cent of the total geograph-
ical area under cultivation (Directorate of Economics and Statistics Assam, 2022) and about 39 per cent
of the workforce involved in agriculture (Government of India, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c). As a result, the
Valley, which lacks a manufacturing base, is considered one of the state’s underdeveloped regions. Due
to severe communication issues with the rest of the country, especially with the state capital of Guwahati,
no other resource-based industry, except the tea plantation sector, established during the colonial period,
 Cogent Social Sciences 7

could thrive in the Valley. However, the Valley has a strong tertiary sector with expanding healthcare,
education, and hospitality services and cross-border trade with Bangladesh.
While Muslims and Hindus make up approximately an equal proportion of the Valley’s population, the
majority of them live in rural areas (86.94%) (Government of India, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c). The percentage
of women who work is also limited to only 14.72 per cent (Government of India, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c).
Besides, despite having a 50 per cent reservation for women in local self-governments, their influence in
polity management is marginal. Given all these facts, it might be interesting to know the determinants
for policy-making for strengthening women’s empowerment at the grassroots level.

3.2. Sample design

Using a structured questionnaire, a primary sample of 416 married women respondents, aged 26 to 60,
from the three districts of Assam, India’s Barak Valley—Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi—was gathered
between December 15, 2021, and March 28, 2022. In order to collect the data from the Valley’s rural and
urban areas, the study used a two-stage purposive sampling method.
The Valley comprises 27 Community Development (CD) Blocks (Cachar-15, Karimganj-7, Hailakandi-5)
and 29 Census Towns (Cachar-19, Karimganj-7, Hailakandi-3) according to the latest Indian Census, that
is of 2011. In stage I, the authors selected thirty per cent of the towns and blocks from each district
using two criteria: high female literacy rate (HFLR) and high female workforce participation rate (HFWPR).
Thus, nine CD blocks (Cachar-5, Karimganj-2, Hailakandi-2) and nine towns (Cachar-6, Karimganj-2,
Hailandand-1) were chosen for the study. Since education and earned income have a significant role in
enhancing women empowerment, as demonstrated by previous empirical research, the authors have
used HFLR and HFWPR as the selection criteria (Akram, 2018; Trommlerová et al., 2015). Similarly, in
Stage II, using the same criteria (HFLR and HFWPR), 4 per cent of the villages from the CD blocks and
25 per cent of the wards from the chosen towns were selected. As a result, the study had a final sample
of 25 villages (Cachar-13, Karimganj-7, and Hailakandi-5) and 27 wards (Cachar-14, Karimganj-8, and
Hailakandi-5).
The G* Power Software (Version 3.1.9.7) (Faul et al., 2009) was then used to choose the sample frame.
It suggested a minimum sample size of 263 households with thirty-two predictor variables, a 5% signif-
icance level, a 5% effect size, and a 95% statistical power for performing two-tailed linear multiple
regression. Fifty-two units (25 villages + 27 wards) were created by dividing these 263 households evenly,
resulting in 5.06 households per unit. However, to compensate for the potential loss of precision from
purposive sampling, a random selection of eight households was made from each village (25*8 = 200)
and ward (27*8 = 216). Thus, using the random sampling technique, responses from 416 households
(rural-200, urban-216) were obtained. All the participants were guaranteed complete anonymity and data
confidentiality, and the survey was conducted only after acquiring their verbal consent to participate. We
obtained only verbal consent from the respondents since 39.7 per cent of the study’s respondents have
a low education level (below matriculation).

3.3. Research method and model specification

Two steps made up the research methodology. First, the domains of the women empowerment con-
struct were determined, and its index value was calculated using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA).
Second, the factors influencing women’s empowerment in the Indian context were examined using linear
multiple regression.
EFA was applied using the SPSS software (Version 29) to discover the domains of women empower-
ment after performing Barlett’s Test of Sphericity, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test of sample adequacy, and
Harman’s one-factor test for common method bias. EFA produced factor scores for each factor (domain)
of women empowerment. The Women Empowerment Index (WEI) was then calculated by reapplying EFA
to those factor scores. Then, a linear multiple regression using the STATA program (Version 17) was per-
formed with WEI as the regressand and some socio-demographic, economic, and self-reported character-
istics as the regressors.
8 S. NATH AND G. DAS

The authors also tested for normality of error terms for the dependent variable and heteroskedasticity
and multicollinearity for the predictors using normal P-P plot in SPSS, Breusch-Pegan/Cook-Weisberg test
and Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) test in STATA respectively. The error terms followed the normality
assumption, and the model had VIF values lower than 5 for all predictors (Table 4), as recommended by
Hair et al. (2019). However, the model suffered from heteroskedasticity with F (32, 383) =2.16 and
Prob > F = 0.0004. Hence, robust standard errors were computed during the regression analysis to address
heteroskedasticity.
Besides, since most of the predictors used in the study were categorical variables with more than two
categories, they had to be transformed into dummy variables. A variable having n categories has n-1
dummy variables in the model, and the results are interpreted keeping the remaining category as a
reference. The regression equation used in the study is symbolically represented in equation (1).

WEIi = αi + β1WEDU _ Si + β2 WEDU _ Ti + β3SWSD _ WWi + β4 SWSD _ BWi + β5SWSD _ BNWi + β6 SID _ WEHi
+ β7SID _ WGHi + β8 SWR _ WRi + β9 SWR _ BR i + β10 SWR _ BIRi + β11WAOi + β12PAO _ INASTi + β13PAO _ NINASTi
+ β14PAO _ Bi + β15AGEi + β16NDHi + β17 YMCGi + β18NMCGi + β19RELIi + β20 OBCi + β21SC / STi + β22SAH _ Si (1)
+ β23SAH _ Oi + β24 COHH _ Mi + β25COHH _ Li + β26RESi + β27AMT _ NONETi + β28 AMT _ WNETi + β29GRLAi + β30PMA i
+ β31FL _ Mi + β32FL _ Hi + ui

where,
WEIi is the index value of the empowerment level of ith women, where i = 1, 2, …,416,
αi is the intercept, and
ui is the error term.
The explanatory variables cited in Equation 1 are detailed in Table 1.

4. Descriptive statistics
Following normalisation, the mean Women Empowerment Index (WEI) of the sample is 0.555, accompa-
nied by a standard deviation of 0.261. The average age of women in the study is 38 years, with a stan-
dard deviation of 7.422. Educational attainment among women in the sample reveals that the largest
proportion have completed secondary education (43.3 per cent), followed by those with primary educa-
tion (39.7 per cent) and tertiary education (17.1 per cent).
In terms of spousal work status, households where only husbands are employed constitute 38.9 per
cent, while those with exclusively working wives account for 7 per cent, and households where both
spouses work comprise 52.6 per cent. Furthermore, a minority of women (17.1 per cent) earn incomes
equivalent to their spouses, and a smaller percentage (15.4 per cent) earn more than their spouses,
compared to 67.5 per cent who earn less. Regarding work regularity, households, where only the hus-
band has a regular income, constitute 32.2 per cent, while households where only the wife has a regular
income and those where both spouses have regular incomes are comparatively lower at 13.2 per cent
and 18 per cent, respectively. Additionally, only 10.3 per cent of women in the sample possess assets.
The descriptive statistics for all the variables used in the study are given in Table A1 in Appendix 1,
supplementary material.

5. Results and discussion

5.1 Exploratory factor Analysis (EFA)
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), a data-driven measuring technique, was used to identify and categorise
the indicators under various factors to develop the women empowerment construct (Richardson, 2017).
The indicators of women empowerment were measured using a five-point Likert scale (Never = 1, Rarely
= 2, Sometimes = 3, Often = 4, Always= 5). At first, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sample adequacy
and Barlett’s Test of Sphericity of sampling distribution were carried out. In this study, the KMO value
exceeded the minimum threshold value of 0.50 and was found to be 0.925 (Hair et al., 2019). Similarly,
Barlett’s measure was highly significant (p < 0.001) and had a value of 14097.620 with 630 degrees of
 Cogent Social Sciences 9

Table 2. Exploratory factor analysis results.

Factor Loading
Factor/Domain Indicator Communality TA HDM FM EI CPP LSP GBA WB
Technological TA1_Rev .687 .513
Acquaintance (TA) TA2_Rev .814 .955
TA3_Rev .761 .771
TA4_Rev .518 .781
TA5_Rev .816 .948
TA6_Rev .833 .847
Household HDM1 .533 .588
Decision-making HDM2 .627 .581
(HDM) HDM3 .734 .582
HDM4 .581 .815
HDM5 .516 .760
HDM6 .443 .575
Freedom of Movement FM1 .725 .748
(FM) FM2 .781 .765
FM3 .701 .878
FM4_Rev .832 .910
FM5 .764 .726
Economic EI1 .732 .792
Independence (EI) EI2 .704 .831
EI3 .725 .776
EI4 .770 .857
EI5 .809 .761
EI6 .725 .624
Community and CPP1 .609 .713
Political Participation CPP2 .806 .861
(CPP) CPP4 .924 .977
CPP5 .601 .730
Leadership (LSP) LSP1 .740 .774
LSP2 .833 .916
LSP4 .956 .975
Gender-based Abuse GBA1_Rev .874 .951
(GBA) GBA2 .957 .981
GBA3 .870 .814
Work Balance (WB) WB1 .722 .832
WB2 .547 .754
WB3 .686 .770
Source: Authors’ Calculations.

freedom. Therefore, the sample used was considered adequate and appropriate for conducting EFA. Then,
Harman’s one-factor test was conducted to check whether the data suffered from Common Method Bias
(CMB). The results indicated no CMB in the sample since the total variance explained by the single great-
est factor was 38.386%, which was much below the threshold of 50% (Podsakoff et al., 2003).
Then, the initial factors were extracted using Principal Axis Factoring with Promax rotation (Carpenter,
2018). The number of factors to retain was determined by the Scree plot and the ‘eigenvalue greater
than one’ criterion (Carpenter, 2018; Kaiser, 1960). The eight factors suggested by the Scree plot and the
‘eigenvalue greater than one’ criterion were finally kept after removing the indicators with cross-loadings
and factor loadings below 0.50. As a result, the original set of 42 indicators was reduced to 36, grouped
under eight factors (Table 2). The eight factors accounted for 72.932 per cent of the overall variance in
women empowerment (Table 3). All the communalities’ values were also significantly above the recom-
mended threshold of 0.4 (Table 2), suggesting that the factors sufficiently account for the variation in
the associated indicators (Costello & Osborne, 2005). Further, all the factors had a high level of internal
consistency or reliability with Cronbach’s α values above 0.8 (Cortina, 1993) (Table 3). The description of
the indicators and their supporting literature is given in Table A2 in Appendix 2, supplementary material.
Technological acquaintance (TA) is found to be the most significant domain of women empowerment,
accounting for 37.68 per cent of the total variance (Table 3). Technical familiarity can have multiple pos-
itive implications for women. It increases women’s global outreach, opens up various self-employment
opportunities, and makes them aware of their rights and freedoms. Therefore, technological acquain-
tance acts as a precursor to women’s economic empowerment. The second important domain identified
is women’s household decision-making. This is because unless women can act according to their choices
within the household, achievement in other domains would hardly make any difference. The third domain
identified is women’s freedom to visit different places independently. When women have freedom of
10 S. NATH AND G. DAS

Table 3. Reliability and total variance explained of factors.

Factor Cronbach’s α Eigenvalue Percentage of variance Cumulative percentage
TA 0.930 13.819 37.680 37.680
HDM 0.866 4.591 12.076 49.756
FM 0.910 2.532 6.238 55.995
EI 0.935 1.943 4.712 60.707
CPP 0.890 1.702 4.035 64.742
LSP 0.933 1.538 3.599 68.341
GBA 0.964 1.156 2.589 70.930
WB 0.830 1.017 2.002 72.932
Source: Authors’ Calculations.

mobility, it enables them to use the opportunities beyond the four walls of their homes. In fact, it acts
as sine qua non for attaining economic freedom. Likewise, economic independence, whether women can
spend their finances or their husbands’ finances independently, is identified as the fourth domain.
Similarly, the active engagement of women in the community and political activities is recognised as the
fifth domain. Further, women’s engagement in leadership roles in their family, society, or workplace is
identified as the sixth domain. Lastly, women’s attitudes and experiences of gender-based abuse in their
family and surroundings, followed by whether women have work-life balance, are identified as the sev-
enth and eighth domains, respectively (Table 2).
After identifying the domains of women empowerment, the WEI is calculated using Bartlett’s method
by applying the same extraction and rotation method in EFA but with the number of factors to be
extracted set to one. Bartlett’s method is chosen over other methods since it employs the maximum
likelihood technique to yield unbiased estimates of the real factor scores (DiStefano et al., 2009).

5.2 Regression results

Using this derived WEI as the dependent variable against the set of explanatory variables listed in Table
1, linear multiple regression is conducted, as shown in equation (1). The results are presented in Table 4.
The overall significance of the explanatory variables in the model is calculated using the F statistics,
F (32, 383) =91.53, which is highly significant (Table 4), denoting that all the variables under study sig-
nificantly impact women’s empowerment. The model has an R2 of 0.81, which depicts that the model
explains 81 per cent of the variance in women empowerment. The adjusted R2, which comes out to be
0.794, further illustrates the percentage of variation in women’s empowerment after adjusting for the
number of predictors in the model.
Regarding economic determinants, results show that women’s secondary and tertiary education posi-
tively impact women’s empowerment. Precisely, women with higher education levels are found to be
relatively more empowered than those with lower education (primary). Education leads to empowerment
since it has both instrumental and intrinsic values. Besides boosting women’s self-worth and self-confidence
by enhancing their knowledge base, education opens various job opportunities for them. This finding
conforms to previous research, which found the positive influence of women’s education on their level
of empowerment (Akram, 2018; Obayelu & Chime, 2020).
Regarding the variable spousal work status difference, it is found that the dummy variable ‘only wife
works’ is positive but insignificant. This could be because, in a male-dominated society, the occurrence
of cases where only women are working is very rare, as against their husbands’ cases (i.e. ‘only husband
works’). This is also evidenced in the sample, where ‘only wife works’ is merely 7 per cent, compared to
‘only husband works’, which accounts for 38.9 per cent. In such a context, when women join the work-
force together with their husbands, it accelerates their empowerment. Therefore, the dummy variable
‘both spouses work’ is found to be positive and significant when compared to ‘only husband works’
(Table 4). Similarly, for the variable ‘spousal work regularity’, it is found that ‘only wife is regular’ exhibits
a positive correlation but lacks statistical significance. The plausible explanation is that since married
women have to manage their families, housework and children, few women find time to engage in reg-
ular work. As a result, cases of ‘only wife is regular’ are very few in this sample (13.2 per cent), as against
‘only husband is regular’ (32.2 per cent). However, compared to ‘only husband is regular’, the variable
‘both are regular’ is positive and significant (Table 4). This is because when both husband and wife earn
 Cogent Social Sciences 11

Table 4. Regression results.

Dependent Variable: Women Empowerment Index (WEI)
Standardised Collinearity statistics
Explanatory variables Coefficients (B) (VIF)
Women’s Education
Secondary .113 (.106) ** 3.23
Tertiary .102 (.135) ** 3.62
Spousal Work Status Difference
Only wife works .055 (.175) 2.83
Both work .171 (.092) *** 3.22
Both do not work −.027 (.220) 1.27
Spousal Income Difference
Wife earns equal to her husband .044 (.077) 1.76
Wife earns more than her husband .094 (.102) *** 2.59
Spousal Work Regularity
Only wife is regular .015 (.126) 2.90
Both are regular .073 (.090) ** 2.25
Both are irregular −.056 (.077) 2.13
Women’s Asset Ownership .045 (.090) * 1.26
Parental Asset Ownership
Income-earning assets .056 (.176) * 1.45
Non income-earning assets .042 (.089) 3.00
Both .099 (.094) ** 2.94
Age .035 (.004) 1.48
NDH −.067 (.032) 3.71
YMCG .071 (.013) * 2.99
NMCG .102 (.078) *** 2.84
Religion −.171 (.116) *** 2.04
Caste
OBC −.071 (.064) ** 1.50
SC/ST −.111 (.085) *** 1.81
Substance Abuse by Husband
Sometimes −.058 (.067) * 1.45
Often −.066 (.135) ** 1.71
Cultural Orientation of the Household Head
Moderate .170 (.092) *** 4.01
Liberal .225 (.093) *** 4.70
Place of Residence .103 (.086) ** 2.63
Access to Mobile Technology
Owns mobile without Internet −.022 (.095) 2.51
Owns mobile with Internet .100 (.095) ** 3.11
Gender-related Legal Awareness .066 (.080) ** 1.74
Pre-marital Agency .077 (.078) ** 2.10
Financial Literacy
Moderate .073 (.104) ** 1.97
High .106 (.107) ** 3.49
Constant (.228) ***
R2 0.81
Adjusted R2 0.794
F statistic F (32, 383) =91.53 ***
Sample Size 416
Note. Robust standard errors are in parenthesis, *=p < 0.10, **=p < 0.05, ***=p < 0.01.
Source: Author’s calculations after primary survey.

and have regular earnings, it gives greater autonomy and self-confidence to women as they can spend
their earnings according to their necessities without being dependent on their spouses. Such results are
an extension of studies that recognised women’s employment as a means to increase their household
decision-making power (Akram, 2018; Trommlerová et al., 2015).
The study also finds that the variable (dummy) ‘wife earns more than her husband’ positively impacts
women’s empowerment. When women earn higher incomes, they contribute more to household budget
allocation, which enables them to earn more respect among family members. Greater respect raises their
self-esteem and thus empowers them more. This finding corroborates with Abbas et al. (2021) and
Habibov et al. (2017), who also observed that earning higher incomes than their spouses boosts women’s
empowerment.
Women’s asset ownership also positively impacts their empowerment level. Specifically, compared to
women who do not own assets such as property, vehicles or business, women who own them are found
to be more empowered. This is because asset ownership reduces women’s dependency on their spouses
and enables them to exercise greater control over economic and family decision-making, which is
12 S. NATH AND G. DAS

instrumental for their empowerment. This finding is consistent with empirical studies that recognised
women’s asset ownership as a key determinant of women empowerment (Akram, 2018; Khalid et al., 2020).
Similarly, it is found that parental asset ownership positively influences women’s empowerment. That
is, women whose parents own either income-earning assets or both income-earning and non-income-earn-
ing assets are comparatively more empowered than women whose parents do not own any assets. In
the Indian context, women rely on their parents for their emotional support even after marriage. When
women’s parents are financially well-off, women get more courage to decide whether to stay in a
non-cooperative marriage or not. That is, parental asset ownership gives women better self-sustaining
options outside their in-laws’ house. Hence, they feel more empowered. This finding fairly correlates with
previous studies that found a positive association between women’s assets at marriage or inherited
assets and their intra-household bargaining power (Quisumbing, 1994; Rahman, 2013).
Regarding socio-demographic variables, the results show that women’s participation in multiple com-
munity groups and involvement in a group for a longer duration uplift their empowerment. Duration of
membership and multiple memberships increase women’s awareness of various social issues and stigmas
and enable them to raise their voices collectively, thereby raising their self-esteem and empowerment. A
study conducted in India also found the positive influence of the duration of self-help group member-
ship on women’s empowerment (Garikipati, 2008).
The study’s findings also reveal that Hindu women are relatively more empowered than their Muslim
counterparts. Indeed, studies have shown that Muslim women are lagging far behind Hindu women
owing to constrained freedom of expression, mobility and social interaction (Desai & Temsah, 2014;
Mason & Smith, 2003).
Further, the caste variables, OBC and SC/ST, are found to negatively influence women’s empowerment.
That is, women belonging to OBC and SC/ST are found to be less empowered than those from the
General caste women in the sample. The plausible explanation for General-caste women being more
empowered is that, despite having restricted mobility (Allendorf, 2007; Samanta, 2020), they receive bet-
ter education and employment opportunities than women of OBC and SC/ST caste. Descriptive studies
also showed that despite having reservations for OBC, SC, and STs in educational institutions and gov-
ernment jobs, women from those castes lagged behind in pursuing higher education and engaging in
gainful employment (Chouhan, 2013; Dunn, 1993; Khatoon, 2013).
Further, women whose husbands sometimes or often consume alcohol or drugs are found to be com-
paratively less empowered than women whose husbands do not consume any such substances. The
reason can be that substance abuse by husbands is associated with intimate partner violence, which
reduces women’s self-esteem and becomes detrimental to women’s empowerment. A study conducted
in India also found the negative influence of alcohol consumption by husbands on women’s empower-
ment levels (Parekh et al., 2022).
It is also found that women’s empowerment in their household increases when the household head
has moderate or liberal views on giving adequate liberty to women to drape any attire, pursue a paid
job outside, freely communicate with people and have a gender-neutral attitude to raising their children.
The reason is straightforward: the moderate or liberal mindset of the household head gives greater free-
dom to women to act as per their choices, thereby enhancing their morale and self-esteem. This finding
is moderately justified by earlier research that observed that women’s participation in the workforce was
negatively impacted by their husbands’ conservatism or the conservative atmosphere of their homes
(Ahmed & Sen, 2018; Göksel, 2013).
This study also identifies a spatial impact on women’s empowerment. In fact, results indicate that
women living in urban areas are more empowered than women living in rural areas. The explanation
appears to be obvious. Urban settings studded with urban amenities, liberal mindsets, and higher job
opportunities for women all help to strengthen and expand women’s empowerment. This impact of
location on women’s empowerment is also corroborated by Allendorf (2012).
Like other instrumental factors, possessing a mobile phone with internet facilities also enhances wom-
en’s empowerment. In fact, for women, a mobile phone is more than a communication device; it boosts
their confidence, enhances their perceived security, keeps them in touch with multiple familial and social
networks, and provides them with health, education and employment-related information (Islam & Slack,
2016; Mehta & Mehta, 2014). Besides, it enables women to learn diverse skills, earn a living through
 Cogent Social Sciences 13

self-employment and ICT-based jobs, and facilitate daily tasks through mobile banking, mobile marketing
and m-commerce (Ameen & Willis, 2016). No other device has ever made women feel so empowered as
the mobile phone. This finding is corroborated by previous studies that identified a positive association
between access to mobile phones and women empowerment (Islam & Slack, 2016; Noor & Hoque, 2021).
Results also suggest that women’s gender-related legal awareness enhances their level of empower-
ment. Gender-related legal awareness and its projection, as and when required, casts a safety net around
them and boosts their confidence, particularly in a hostile family environment. As a married woman has
to migrate from a parent-guided family structure to an in-laws-guided family set-up, gender-related legal
awareness often helps her to delineate the outer perimeter of attitudinal compromise. This finding gets
partial support from previous studies, which observed that women’s awareness of marriage registration
and ability to seek legal safety against domestic abuse is associated with a higher degree of empower-
ment (Abrar-ul-Haq et al., 2017; Akhter & Cheng, 2020).
Women’s pre-marital agency also plays a pivotal role in enhancing their empowerment level. Adequate
support from the parents to pursue their goals before marriage (pre-marital agency) enables them to
acquire skills and capabilities that form the bedrock of struggle for the rest of their lives. The higher the
quality of the skill set, the more effective the capabilities, and the higher the confidence and perceived
feeling of empowerment.
Financial literacy–measured in terms of the capability of performing online and/or offline banking
transactions–is also found to enhance women’s empowerment. Being conversant with financial literacy
endows immense confidence in women and makes them competent enough to be self-reliant and inde-
pendent in handling their finances. Managing finances is all about managing one’s life: the key to one’s
existential challenges. This finding correlates with an ethnographic study that observed that women who
were familiar with digital banking had more influence over their husbands’ spending (Liu, 2022).

6.1. Conclusion
The objective of the present study is twofold. First, how can the notion of ‘women empowerment’ be
measured? Second, which factors determine women’s empowerment? To measure the notion of women’s
empowerment, a non-sectoral ‘Women Empowerment Index (WEI)’ is constructed by incorporating eight
domains, of which work-life balance, leadership, and technological acquaintance are newly conceived.
Even the other five conventional domains have been modified by adding eight new context-specific
indicators. The WEI constructed using EFA, is then used as a regressand against 19 regressors, of which
12 are selected from the literature, and seven are newly conceived and tested here for the first time.
The study’s findings involve a startling revelation about the overwhelming influence of
socio-demographic factors like ‘cultural orientation of the household head’, ‘religion’, ‘caste’ and ‘residence’
on women’s empowerment compared to self-acquired attributes like education, income, employment, or
awareness of legal and financial matters. Although self-acquired attributes do positively impact women’s
empowerment, unlike societies in advanced countries (Aziz & Sabri, 2023; Pettersen & Solbakken, 1998),
they do not play a decisive role, perhaps because the outer perimeter of women’s empowerment in
Indian society is still delimited by the stereotyped norms set by the socio-cultural environment in which
they live.
Next to socio-demographic factors, economic factors exert a significant influence on women’s empow-
erment. Although patriarchal norms often delimit married women’s participation in the workforce, when
women join the workforce alongside their husbands (i.e. both work), or both have regular sources of
income, or women earn more than their husbands, it gives them immense confidence to shape up their
familial architecture. Not only do they call on respect, but the stereotyped prohibitory boundary around
them also turns out to be quite flexible. In India, with female labour market participation being quite
low, employment and income status of women are found to exert more influence on women empower-
ment compared to women’s educational status (as evident from Table 4, where education variables are
significant at five per cent levels compared to work status and income variables–’spousal work status
difference’ and ‘spousal income difference’– that are significant at one per cent levels). Contrary to the
findings in developed countries where women’s intra-household decision-making is more influenced by
higher education levels than by their employment status (Mader & Schneebaum, 2013), the author’s
14 S. NATH AND G. DAS

observation on employment having more influence on women’s empowerment than educational status
stands out as unique that holds good in the Indian situation. Moreover, as women’s assets at marriage
(dowry) are found to have raised their intra-household bargaining power (Quisumbing, 1994; Rahman,
2013) in rural settings, the study has enquired about the impact of parent’s assets on women (daughter)
empowerment and found it to be positive. When women’s parents are economically well-off, it not only
benefits in shaping women’s capabilities but also provides them strong psychological support to fall back
in adverse situations. In fact, parental asset ownership acts as a protective shield for women against
external shocks, particularly when they are not financially independent.
Besides these socio-demographic and economic factors, self-reported capabilities like pre-marital
agency and financial literacy are also found to have an essential role in determining women empower-
ment. All these socio-demographic, economic and self-reported determinants together explain 81 per
cent variation in women empowerment, which is comparatively much higher than the variance explained
by the existing set of determinants identified in previous studies in the Asian context that vary between
32.8 and 62.3 per cent (Batool et al., 2020; Rammohan & Johar, 2009).

6.2. Implications
Our study proposes policy recommendations across three distinct levels: firstly, at the organisational and
governmental levels involved in development efforts; secondly, at the level of households; and thirdly, at
the individual level. At the organisational level, policies that promote female education and especially
focus on reducing female dropout rates in schools and colleges should be formulated. It is also impera-
tive to formulate policies aimed at augmenting women’s workforce participation alongside their spouses.
When both partners contribute economically and have a regular flow of income, it not only improves
their financial stability but also enhances prospects for their children’s future. Hence, development organ-
isations should devise incentive-based policies that encourage private sector companies to hire more
women than men. Besides, employment-generating policies that particularly target women from margin-
alised groups, such as the Muslim community, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other
Backward Classes (OBCs) should be framed. Initiatives should also be undertaken to promote
self-employment among women, complemented by campaigns focusing on skill enhancement, digital
literacy, and financial empowerment. In Indian society, factors like conservatism, religion, and casteism
often delimit women’s exercise of choices. Therefore, unless social, religious and political elites initiate
measures to uproot these social evils and bring egalitarian reforms in society, the objective of empow-
ering women from every section of society cannot be achieved. They should also undertake steps to
ensure network connectivity in all villages, and provisions for subsidised mobile recharge facilities for
women should be made. This initiative will, in turn, expand women’s access to mobile technology,
enabling them to broaden their knowledge base and engage in online entrepreneurial endeavours.
Besides, in order to make women vigilant of various crimes, awareness campaigns on legal laws, such as
domestic violence laws and women’s property rights, should be organised as community projects.
Government organisations should also implement laws on the partial ban on alcohol to reduce the inci-
dence of domestic violence and other health hazards resulting from its consumption. Further, there is a
necessity of establishing educational and healthcare facilities in remote sections of society in order to
minimise the rural-urban disparity among people.
At the household level, the household heads must ensure that a liberal atmosphere prevails within
the household where women are not treated differently than their male counterparts with regard to
pursuing paid employment, choosing attire, engaging in open communication, and adopting a
gender-neutral approach to child-rearing. Male members of the family should also assist in women’s
housework. This support is crucial as it enables women to achieve a balance between work and personal
life, thereby enabling them to participate in community groups and the political administration of the
nation. Such engagement will enhance women’s self-esteem, as well as yield various positive societal
outcomes. It is imperative to encourage women to participate actively in various socio-economic com-
munity groups, such as Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), for a lon-
ger duration. This engagement will not only enhance their awareness of diverse social issues but also
foster a supportive network that will offer moral assistance during challenging times. Women should also
 Cogent Social Sciences 15

be encouraged to accumulate assets such as businesses, vehicles, or property, as these investments can
offer crucial financial security during periods of necessity. Further, parents should prioritise building
assets, both income-earning and non-income-earning, for their children’s future, particularly for their
daughters. This financial security will, in turn, provide women with greater emotional support and
empowerment, enabling them to make informed decisions regarding their marital situations, including
whether to remain in a non-supportive marriage. Moreover, parents should strive to eliminate gender
distinctions between their sons and daughters, allowing girls to pursue their aspirations without hin-
drance. Encouraging girls to develop proficiency in income-earning skills and achieve economic indepen-
dence enables them to navigate financial challenges and continue supporting their parents even after
marriage.
At the individual level, women should acquaint themselves with the latest technology and banking
services and stand up for their rights and freedom in every sphere, be it their household, community or
workplace. They should also uphold their choices in household decisions and mobility, strive to become
economically independent and take up leadership roles in their personal, social and professional sphere.
They should also actively participate in the community and the political administration of the country.
Further, women should rise above social constraints and raise their voices against any abusive behaviour
faced by them or people in their vicinity.

6.3. Limitations of the study and scope for future research

This research, which focuses on the Indian environment, is conducted at the micro level using district-level
data. Attempts can be made to replicate the study at the macro level using state-level data on a larger
sample and in other Southeast Asian countries to increase the generalizability of the findings. Moreover,
the factors or domains of women empowerment that are identified using Exploratory Factor Analysis
(EFA) in the current study can be verified on a different sample using analytical techniques, such as
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), to improve the applicability of the results beyond national borders.

Author’s Contribution
Sunetra Nath (first author) drafted the work, collected data, and analysed and interpreted the results.
Prof. Gurudas Das (second author) reviewed all versions of the draft critically. Both authors contributed
to the study’s conception and design. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work,
and they approve the publication of the final version.

Disclosure statement
No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval
There was no ethics committee for non-clinical research at the researcher’s institution or other institutions in the
state (Assam) when the study was conducted. Hence, we could not obtain ethical approval from an ethics commit-
tee for the study. However, the researcher’s institution has a research committee for undertaking PhD programmes.
As this manuscript is part of an ongoing PhD research by the first author, Sunetra Nath, titled ‘Women Empowerment
and Economic Well-being: A Household Level Study in the Barak Valley of Assam’, ethical approval has been granted
by the research committee or the Doctoral Committee of the registered PhD (Registration No: 20-3-21-104) from the
researcher’s institution (National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam, India). This research has been conducted
following all the guidelines given by the Belmont Report, 1979. Since this study is non-clinical, observational, and
does not involve experimental intervention and grouping participants into treatment and control groups, it falls
under minimal risk of harm.

Funding
We acknowledge that no funds or grants were received during the preparation of this manuscript.
16 S. NATH AND G. DAS

About the authors

Sunetra Nath is a Ph.D research scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of
Technology Silchar since March, 2020. She has completed her Masters (Economics) from Assam University, Silchar,
India in 2018. Currently, she is working as an Assistant Professor (Economics) in Government Model Degree College,
Diblong, Dima Hasao, Assam, India since August, 2024. Her research interests include well-being research on women
and children, development economics, area studies, and entrepreneurship research.
Gurudas Das is a Professor of Economics in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of
Technology, Silchar. Previously, he worked as a Lecturer in Economics at St. Anthony’s College, Shillong, Meghalaya,
Research Fellow at OKD Institute of Social Change and Development, Guwahati, Assam, and as a Reader in Economics
at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya. His research interests include international trade, development
economics, regional economics and area studies.

ORCID
Sunetra Nath http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4921-0960

Data availability statement

The dataset used in the study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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