Socioeconomic Differentials in Employment Status and Involvement in Household Decision-Making Among Ever-Married Women in Nigeria

Abstract

Prior studies have assessed economic/instrumental dimensions of women's empowerment relative to its agency dimensions. This study assessed ever-married women's participation in the labor market as a form of agency for empowerment and household decision-making in Nigeria. The study utilizes secondary data from three national surveys of Nigeria's 2003 to assess the differences and relationship between indices and the status of women's labor market participation and their empowerment or household decision-making over an 11-year period. Explanatory variables adopted were age group, religion, employment status, educational level, household wealth index, and region. Binomial logistic regression was used to predict the proxy variables of women's empowerment from the explanatory variables. Findings showed that women's access to paid employment, educational status, and the household wealth index improved their participation in household decision-making. However, the single factor that consistently increased the likelihood of an ever-married woman to be involved in all forms of household decision-making from 2008 to 2013 was household wealth. Also, religion affected the ability of ever-married women to participate in household decision-making. The ability of Muslim women to participate in all forms of decision-making decreased from 2008 to 2013. The study concluded that the factors that enhance household wealth will enhance married women's ability to be involved in household decision-making. Education of women is, however, a significant contribution to enhancing the balance of inequity between men and women in household decision-making. The attenuating effect of Islam on this prospect needs further investigation and interventions for married women living in Northern Nigeria.

Gendered Barriers to Formal Health-Care Utilization: Modeling Health-Care Demand in a Low-Resource Setting

“…Healthcare access and utilization are unequal (Titus et al, 2015), which is partly explained by socio-cultural factors (Azuh et al, 2015). As in other countries, empowerment and decision-making autonomy of Nigerian women play a crucial role in health outcomes and access to care (Antai, 2011(Antai, , 2012Singh et al, 2012;Adedini et al, 2014;Ariyo et al, 2017;Soetan & Obiyan, 2019).…”

“…Spousal age dierences have a signicant negative eect on wives' decision-making power even after controlling for individual-level characteristics such as education, employment, and income-generation (Kritz & Makinwa-Adebusoye, 1999). Dierences in relative income are another key determinant of women's intrahousehold bargaining power with respect to household resource allocation and health (Ariyo et al, 2017;Soetan & Obiyan, 2019;Opata et al, 2020). 3…”

Gendered Barriers to Formal Healthcare Utilization: Modelling Healthcare Demand in a Low-Resource Setting

“…Healthcare access and utilization are unequal (Titus et al, 2015), which is partly explained by socio-cultural factors (Azuh et al, 2015). As in other countries, empowerment and decision-making autonomy of Nigerian women play a crucial role in health outcomes and access to care (Antai, 2011(Antai, , 2012Singh et al, 2012;Adedini et al, 2014;Ariyo et al, 2017;Soetan & Obiyan, 2019).…”

“…Husbands generally have a nal say in health-related decisions regardless of their age. Wives gain decision-making power as they grow older (Soetan & Obiyan, 2019), but the proportion of women who can decide on health remains well below the proportion of men at all ages (Angel- Urdinola & Wodon, 2010). Spousal age dierences have a signicant negative eect on wives' decision-making power even after controlling for individual-level characteristics such as education, employment, and income-generation (Kritz & Makinwa-Adebusoye, 1999).…”

“…Spousal age dierences have a signicant negative eect on wives' decision-making power even after controlling for individual-level characteristics such as education, employment, and income-generation (Kritz & Makinwa-Adebusoye, 1999). Dierences in relative income are another key determinant of women's intrahousehold bargaining power with respect to household resource allocation and health (Ariyo et al, 2017;Soetan & Obiyan, 2019;Opata et al, 2020). 3…”