Development and validation protocol for an instrument to measure women’s empowerment in urban sanitation across countries: The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales

Ss, Sinharoy; Conrad, Amelia; Patrick, Madeleine; McManus, Shauna; Caruso, Bethany A.

doi:10.1101/2021.05.04.21256595

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We identified only one article that used a quantitative tool to assess women's empowerment related to WASH, the Empowerment in WASH Index, [308] highlighting an opportunity for future work. Additional tools are under development, such as the Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales, [309] and Kayser et al (2019) propose four priority areas for assessing gender equality and empowerment related to WASH [24] Adjacently related, another tool is under development focusing specifically on gender equality: the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Gender Equality Measure (WASH-GEM) [310]. The momentum around measuring empowerment and WASH, while exciting, merits caution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Historically, water and sanitation programs have focused on women’s instrumental value in improving conditions and behaviors. No reviews have synthesized evidence on water and sanitation and women’s and girls’ empowerment. This review a) identified empirical water and sanitation research that engaged empowerment and/or empowerment-related domains; b) reported empowerment-related terminology used, research locations, methods leveraged, if water and/or sanitation was the focus; and c) synthesized evidence. A conceptual model of women’s and girls’ empowerment, which includes three interrelated domains (agency, resources, institutional structures), informed the search and analysis. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CABI Global Health, PsycINFO, CINAHL and AGRICOLA for peer-reviewed sources presenting research on water and/or sanitation and either empowerment and/or related terms from the model (4 May 2020). We identified 12,616 publications; 257 were included, representing over 1,600,000 participants. We used the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and followed the ‘best-fit framework synthesis’ analysis approach, using the model domains and sub-domains as codes. We inductively identified two additional sub-domains relevant to water and sanitation: privacy and freedom of movement. Thematic analysis guided synthesis of coded text. The majority of research took place in Asia (46%; 117) or Africa (40%; 102), engaged adults (69%; 177), and was published since 2010; (82%; 211). The greatest proportion of studies focused on water (45%; 115). Over half of studies used the term empowerment, yet only 7% (17) provided a clear definition or conceptualization. Agency was the least commonly engaged domain (47%; 122); the Resources domain was dominant (94%; 241). Measures for assessing empowerment are limited. Inclusion of only peer-reviewed sources in English is a main limitation. Well-conceptualized water and sanitation research that engages women’s and girls’ empowerment is limited. A more comprehensive ‘transformative WASH’ that includes gender-transformative approaches to challenge and reduce systemic constraints on women’s and girls’ resources and agency is long overdue.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…CIs serve to strengthen the survey tools before large-scale deployment (Beatty and Willis, 2007). The resulting tool, called ARISE (Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment), measures subdomains of women's empowerment based on the model developed by van Eerdewijk et al (2017), Sinharoy et al (2022Sinharoy et al ( , 2023. As the CI data included rich responses and went beyond cognitive debriefing, there was scope for further analysis.…”

Section: Study Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

An exploration of sanitation-related decision-making, leadership, collective action, and freedom of movement among women in urban Tiruchirappalli, India

Doma

Patrick²,

Conrad³

et al. 2023

Front. Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionSanitation research in India has emphasized the disproportionate burden that unsafe and inadequate WASH can have on women and girls. However, there is a gap in research exploring women's agency in relation to their sanitation experiences, and agency is an integral domain of their empowerment.MethodsCognitive interviews related to sanitation and empowerment were conducted with women in three life stages in India to validate survey tools that measure urban sanitation and women's empowerment; this paper is a secondary thematic analysis of qualitative data generated from 11 cognitive interviews in Tiruchirappalli, India, that focus on agency, specifically the sub-domains of decision-making, leadership, collective action, and freedom of movement. Women had the freedom to move to and from sanitation facilities and initiatives, with no restrictions from household members.ResultsWe observed differences at the household and community levels with women voicing more confidence, as well as the responsibility, to make sanitation-related decisions in the household than at the community level. Women mentioned strong trust and belief in women's sanitation-related leadership capabilities and support for women-led sanitation initiatives. However, many did not hold leadership positions themselves due to various limitations, from gendered responsibilities to women's lack of self-confidence. Women also discussed anecdotes of collectively working with other women toward improving the local sanitation environment.DiscussionThis analysis highlights the value of strong trust and confidence among women in their ability to make important sanitation-related decisions at all levels of society. Maintaining and strengthening trust in female community members and highlighting women-led groups' achievements in the sanitation space should be prioritized. Community spaces must incorporate provisions that encourage women to share sanitation-related opinions in an environment that respects their engagement. WASH programming must engage with authority figures, leaders, and officials when seeking to increase women's agency and involvement with sanitation-related issues.

show abstract

Water, Sanitation, and Women’s Empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis

Caruso

Conrad

Patrick

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundWater and sanitation programs historically have focused on women’s instrumental value in improving effectiveness and impact of programs, though focus is shifting to consider how programming and conditions may contribute to women’s empowerment an gender equality. To date no systematic review has comprehensively assessed and synthesized evidence on water and sanitation and women and girls’ empowerment. The primary aims of this review were to: a) identify empirical water and sanitation research that engaged empowerment and/or empowerment-related domains from a pre-specified conceptual model; b) tabulate and report how empowerment-related terminology was used, where and when research was conducted, what methods were leveraged, and if water and/or sanitation was the primary focus; c) synthesize findings by empowerment domain and water and/or sanitation focus.Methods and FindingsThe conceptual model of women’s and girls’ empowerment developed by van Eerdewijk et.al (2017) informed our search strategy and analysis. The model presents three interrelated domains (agency, resources, institutional structures) and 13 sub-domains of empowerment. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CABI Global Health, PsycINFO, CINAHL and AGRICOLA for any peer-reviewed sources presenting research related to water and/or sanitation and either empowerment and/or related terms from the conceptual model (4 May 2020). Systematic and ancestry and decendency searching identified 12,616 publications, of which 257 were included following screening, representing 1,600,348 participants. We assessed all studies using the Mixed-Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT). We followed the ‘best-fit framework synthesis’ approach for analysis, using the domains and sub-domains of the conceptual model as codes to assess all included sources. During coding, we inductively identified two additional sub-domains relevant to water and sanitation: privacy and freedom of movement. Thematic analysis guided synthesis of coded text by domain and sub-domain. The majority of research took place in Asia (46%; 117) or Africa (40%; 102), engaged adults (69%; 177), and were published since 2010; (82%; 211). A greater proportion of studies focused on water (45%; 115) than sanitation (22%; 57) or both (33%; 85). Over half of articles use the term empowerment yet only 7% (17) provided a clear definition or conceptualization. Agency was the least commonly engaged domain (47%; 122) while the Resources domain was dominant (94%; 241). Measures for assessing empowerment and related domains is limited. This review was limited by only including sources in English and only includes menstruation-focused research in the context of water and sanitation.ConclusionsWater and sanitation research specifically engaging women’s and girls’ empowerment in a well-defined or conceptualized manner is limited. A substantial body of research examining domains and sub-domains of empowerment exists, as does research that illuminates myriad negative impacts of water and sanitation conditions and circumstances women’s and girl’s well-being. Available research should be used to develop and evaluate programs focused on improving the life outcomes of women and girls, which has only been minimally conducted to date. A more comprehensive ‘transformative WASH’ that includes gender-transformative approaches to challenge and reduce systemic constraints on women’s and girls’ resources and agency is not only warranted but long overdue.

show abstract

Development and validation protocol for an instrument to measure women’s empowerment in urban sanitation across countries: The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales

Cited by 3 publications

References 15 publications

Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis

Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis

An exploration of sanitation-related decision-making, leadership, collective action, and freedom of movement among women in urban Tiruchirappalli, India

Water, Sanitation, and Women’s Empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About