Exploring Links between Women's Business Ownership and Empowerment among Maasai Women in Tanzania

Abstract

Despite increasing interest and effort to support women's empowerment globally, women remain a severely disadvantaged group in nearly every country throughout the globe. In the current study, we examine the relationship between women's participation in financial markets and different indices of empowerment. Questionnaires were administered to three groups of Maasai women (N = 224) living in rural, northern Tanzania: women who were members of cooperatively owned business groups, women who owned businesses independently via microcredit loans, and women who did not own businesses. Group difference tests revealed that cooperative business owners reported higher levels of agency than independent owners, and lower levels of partner control and greater involvement in financial decision making than nonbusiness owners. Independent owners reported greater involvement in financial decision making, and lower levels of agency than nonowners. Additionally, results from structural equation models demonstrated that participation in cooperatives, versus independent or nonbusiness ownership, was associated with fewer experiences of domestic violence and enhanced psychological well-being via the effects of partner control, agency, and financial decision making. Policy implications regarding the importance of considering

The impact of husbands' involvement in goal‐setting training on women's empowerment: First evidence from an intervention among female microfinance borrowers in Sri Lanka

“…Previous research has stressed the need to address the structural base of gender inequities and to take cultural norms into account (e.g., Connell, ; Dutt et al, ). In the current research, the training aimed to stimulate joint goal setting among couples with the aim to change gender roles with respect to their income‐generating activity.…”

“…The underlying gendered power imbalances were not addressed. To stimulate gender equity, attention should be given to the root sources of the gendered power imbalances and manifestations of gender roles in local contexts (e.g., Dutt et al, ; Pratto & Walker, ). To the best of our knowledge, only one longitudinal field experiment investigated the impact of a gender and business training (focussing on the specific role of female entrepreneurs [gendered power imbalances, gender roles] and business skills) and the impact of inviting husbands to join this training on female borrowers' empowerment (Huis et al, ).…”

A relational perspective on women’s empowerment: Intimate partner violence and empowerment among women entrepreneurs in Vietnam

“…Men traditionally make investments in larger expenditures. If women gain power over these decisions, this is indicative of greater empowerment (e.g., Dutt et al ., ; Johnson, ). However, men’s controlling behaviour over their wives is one of the most apparent barriers to women’s empowerment (Dutt et al , ; Grabe et al , ; Kabeer, ).…”

“…Previous research showed that men’s controlling behaviour influenced different aspects of women’s empowerment. More precisely, husband’s controlling behaviour (e.g., allowing women to visit family and friends) was negatively related to self‐esteem and positively to physical violence and depression among women business owners in Tanzania (Dutt, Grabe, & Castro, ). Similar results were found among women landowners in Nicaragua and Tanzania showing that husbands controlling behaviour was positively related to women’s experience of physical and psychological violence (Grabe et al , ).…”

“…In contrast, men traditionally make decisions about larger expenditures, such as buying and selling of land and property (e.g., Kabeer, ). Decisions that are conventionally not made by women may be most indicative of greater empowerment (e.g., Dutt et al ., ; Johnson, ). Therefore, we distinguish between small and larger expenditures in our research.…”