Female autonomy and women's welfare: An introduction

• Author: Finn Tarp,Smriti Sharma
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12542

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Female autonomy and women's welfare: An

introduction

Smriti Sharma

1

|

Finn Tarp

2

1

Newcastle University Business School, United Kingdom

2

UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, Finland

Correspondence

Smriti Sharma, Newcastle University Business School, 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 4SE, United Kingdom.

Email: smriti.sharma@newcastle.ac.uk

Gender equality and female empowerment are important goals in themselves. They are also poten-

tial means to achieving desirable outcomes in domains related to fertility, child health, education,

and poverty alleviation (e.g., Duflo, 2003; Lundberg, Pollak, & Wales, 1997; World Bank, 2012).

This has led to women's empowerment being a key policy goal in recent decades, especially since

the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

in 1979.

1

In 2015, gender equality was listed as Goal 5 in the UN Sustainable Development

Goals.

2

There is as well a consensus that outcomes for women have improved considerably during

recent decades especially in terms of educational attainment, fertility, life expectancy, and labor

force participation (Heath & Jayachandran, 2018). However, significant gender gaps remain, and

women fall behind in the labor market, continue to be underrepresented in the political arena, have

weaker legal rights, and face overt discrimination (Duflo, 2012; World Bank, 2012). Furthe r, these

gender gaps and gender‐biased attitudes are more prevalent in low‐income countries.

A sizable disadvantage and discrimination that women and girls face arises within their house-

holds. In fact, this inequality faced by girls within their households from an early age contributes

to worse later‐life outcomes for them. Evidence from India and China points towards a prefer ence

for sons leading to skewed sex ratios and “missing women,”lower spending on daughters, prac-

tices related to dowry, and a general lack of decision‐making power in the hands of women

(Anderson, 2007; Jayachandran, 2015). Female genital mutilation practised in parts of Africa and

the Middle East has affected at least 200 million young girls (UNICEF, 2016). Across most devel-

oping countries, property and inheritance rights are stacked in favor of males (Hallward‐Driemeier,

Hasan, & Bogdana Rusu, 2013) and women are frequent targets of domestic violence.

Acknowledging the potential gains that could accrue from increased female autonomy, we need a

better understanding of how changes in local contexts and environments alter women's autonomy,

welfare, and decision‐making. While we know from existing literature that improved labor market

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2018 UNU-WIDER. Review of Development Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

DOI: 10.1111/rode.12542

Rev Dev Econ. 2018;22:1385–1389. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rode

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