Conceptual Framework on Socio-Cultural Status and Women's Empowerment

Abstract

Although women's empowerment varies across communities and cultures, past research has poorly conceptualized how sociocultural status influences variations in women's empowerment between two or more subcultures within a given society. Based on theory and literature review, this chapter develops a new conceptual framework that helps understand relationships between sociocultural status and women's empowerment between two or more subcultures in a given geographic territory or a given society. In so doing, the authors conceptualize sociocultural status into 1) socioeconomic status (e.g., education, occupation, income, or inheritance of family property) and 2) cultural status (e.g., values, norms, attitudes, tradition, autonomy) that may induce variations in women's empowerment (e.g., control over resources and participation in decision-making), after accounting for background factors. This new broad-based conceptual framework induces cross-cultural variations in women's empowerment across societies that may have practical implications in enhancing women's empowerment for sustainable development.