Analysis of Factors Affecting Women Empowerment in the Development of Bangladesh

Abstract

Women empowerment plays a pivotal role in the overall development of a country. This study utilizes four dimensions related to women empowerment for calculating an empowerment index, as no specific concept of women empowerment exists in the datasets (BDHS 2017-18 and BDHS 2022). The bivariate analysis was performed to investigate the percentage distribution of the Women Empowerment Index (WEI), constructed with the association of the dimensions, with various covariates. The ANOVA F-test and Pearson Chi-Square test are applied for finding the adjusted association between selected dimensions and covariates in the study years. Covariates with a p-value less than 0.05 in both study years are incorporated in the multivariate regression models. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to determine the adjusted effects of selected covariates on women's empowerment, as the empowerment index is an ordinal response variable. An ordinal probit model was tested to understand the likelihood of the categories being employed in the empowerment of women. Both the models were tested to be a good and adequate fit. Overall, the women empowerment rate has seen a decrease throughout the consecutive study years. Though, the number of less empowered women has decreased, the amount of empowered women has also seen a little bit of downfall in Bangladesh. Some recommendations were specified based on the results for enhancing women empowerment in our country.