Second Conference: “New Directions in Welfare”

1. Paris, July 6th-8th, 2011 Second Conference: “New Directions in Welfare” A Structural Model of Female Empowerment and Capabilities Paola Ballón Fernández International Institute of Labour Studies, ILO University of Geneva, Switzerland

2. Introduction Motivation of the study: The relation between the Capability Approach and female empowerment as a desired policy objective that: • is important in its own right (intrinsic importance)  “missing dimension” • is important for achievingother policy goals (instrumental importance) • is a necessarycondition for poverty reduction (MDG, The Beijing Platform for Action, The Cairo Programme for Action) Aim of the study: • To model female empowerment in a capability perspective. • To apply it empirically to the study of female empowerment in Cambodia (DHS, 2005). Account for “missing dimensions”, and provide better insights for intra-family allocative processes, and for broadening policy debate on gender equality. Complementary tool for development assistance programmes.

3. Outline of the presentation: Introduction • Empowerment in a Capability Perspective • The Structural Model • The Empirical Application: Cambodia, DHS (2005). • Selected Results • Conclusions

4. 1. Empowerment in a Capability perspective The conceptual framework Sen (1999), Kabeer(2001): • Empowerment is a dynamic process rooted in the idea of human agency and choice  progression from a state of disempowerment. • where women: are the significant actors of change, have the possibility to choose among real alternatives Definition of female empowerment: “Decision-making ability of a woman: strategic and non-strategic life choices” • Strategic choices are life consequential choices: deciding who/when to marry; # children • Non-strategic choices are less consequential ones.

5. 1.Empowerment in a Capability perspective (cont.) The process of empowerment: • Differentiates between: Feasible (latent) decision-making, • Actualized decision-making • (observed indicators of decision outcomes) • Is characterized by: • Resources that precondition the ability to choose  theoretically supported by the intra-householdgender dynamicsliterature, known as “extra-household environmental parameters or EEP’s” (McElroy, 1990) Values and traditions: reflect the transformative mechanism of feasible decision-making into actualized decisions. This conceptual framework is practically implementedby means of a: “structural economic model”  Multiple-indicators multiple-causes model (MIMIC).

6. Transformative mechanism Latent Observed Empowerment“feasible decision-making ” Decision outcomes “actualized decision-making” “Resources” (pre-condition the ability to choose) Values and traditions (influence the transformative mechanism) 2. The Structural Economic Model Model: Potential vis-à-vis actualized choice. “Resources”: enhancing factors.

7. Latent Empowerment dimensions Decision-outcomes observed Exogenous enhancing factors(resources) Values/traditions (exogenous) Structural Model Measurement Model (continuous) (categorical) 2. The Structural Model: MIMIC

8. 3. The Theoretical Model for Cambodia

9. Cambodia: DHS, 2005 3. The Empirical application: Decision outcome indicators

10. Loadings Values/traditions Multiple indicators: 3a.Results - Measurement equations

11. Loadings Values /traditions Multiple indicators: 3. Familial strategic life choices

12. Multiple indicators: 3. Second-order “economic” choices

13. Multiple causes: 3b.Results Enhancing factors

14. What can we say about empowerment across dimensions? Compare the cumulative distributions using stochastic dominance analysis. “Self” dominates “familial” Women have greater decision making ability in the “self” domain 3c.Results Not possible to conclude

15. Empowerment status in the self-strategic domain by education level

16. This paper has applied a conceptual framework proposed to measure female empowerment within the capability approach through an econometricmodel, taking into account, the different types of decisions, values/traditions, and enhancing factors. • The empirical context concerns self-strategic, familial-strategic, and non-strategic economic decisions of Cambodian women. • The empirical results: • Confirm the importance of values/traditions, like living with in-laws, being aware about AIDS, wife beating acceptance, in the transformative mechanism of decision-making ability into actualized decision-outcomes. • Highlight the major role played by enhancing factors such as the respondent’s and her parents’ (mainly the father’s) education level, in promoting empowerment in all the three domains. • A Mimic model for measuring female empowerment provides a holistic approach of the constitutive elements of empowerment,and therefore better insights for intra-family allocative processes and successful development assistance. Conclusions