Women’s work-related freedom of movement and paid work in three Indian states (Under Review)
Vedavati Patwardhan, Anita Raj, Katherine Hay, Nandita Bhan, Abhishek Singh, Shruti Ambast & Lotus McDougal
Freedom of movement is a critical but underexplored factor influencing women's work participation in India. This study investigates the relationship between women’s work-related freedom of movement and paid work, using cross-sectional survey data from three of India’s most populous states: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Utilizing linear regression, inverse probability weighting and partial identification techniques, we find that women in Bihar and Maharashtra with greater work-related freedom of movement are significantly more likely to engage in paid work. We also find that marital status does not significantly moderate this relationship. This study highlights work-related freedom of movement as a crucial factor in expanding women's economic opportunities and inclusion in India. Our findings contribute to the growing evidence connecting women’s household bargaining power with improved health and human capital outcomes, offering valuable insights for policies aimed at increasing women’s workforce participation.
Examining the relationship between social norms, sanctions, and women's entrepreneurship in three Indian states (Under Review)
Vedavati Patwardhan, Katherine Hay, Nandita Bhan, Anita Raj, Abhishek Singh & Lotus McDougal
Self-employment is a key path for women’s work and livelihoods in India, however, self-employed women face several disadvantages compared to their male counterparts such as smaller business size and turnover, wide earnings gaps, and a disproportionate presence as unpaid family workers. Despite government programs emphasizing female workforce participation, gender gaps in entrepreneurship persist. Thus, it is important to understand the role that social norms may have in shaping women’s entrepreneurship, and, potentially, in catalyzing the benefits of these programs. We examine the relationship between social norms and sanctions around women’s entrepreneurship and the prevalence of women’s entrepreneurship in three Indian states.
Our analysis uses data from a cross-sectional survey conducted in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra during September – October 2022 on behalf of the EMERGE initiative of the Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH) at the University of California, San Diego, in partnership with the International Institute for Population Sciences and with advisement from UN Women. The survey sampled households using multi-stage stratified, population proportionate to size sampling and is representative at the state-level. The final sample size for our analysis is 3284 women across the three states (1046 women in Bihar, 1166 women in Uttar Pradesh, 1072 women in Maharashtra). For each state, we used multivariable logistic regression analyses to examine associations between descriptive norms, sanctions, and women’s entrepreneurship.
We find that women who believed that it was the norm for women to own a business were almost four times more likely to be entrepreneurs in Bihar, nearly five times more likely to be entrepreneurs in Uttar Pradesh, and over seven times more likely to be entrepreneurs in Maharashtra. In Bihar, sanctions significantly moderate the association between supportive descriptive norms and female entrepreneurship. We also find distinct descriptive patterns related to norms and perceived sanctions, highlighting the need to capture both norms and associated sanctions as separate survey measures; assessing descriptive norms alone does not capture all aspects of norms.
Overall, our results suggest that creating greater acceptance of women running businesses is important in promoting women’s entrepreneurship in India. This is in line with evidence that shows that community approval matters for women’s work. Our study underscores the need for policy interventions aimed at increasing women’s labor force participation, and in particular, entrepreneurship, to consider the enabling and limiting role of social norms and sanctions related to women’s entrepreneurship.
Link to PAA 2024, Institute for Human Development (IHD) Global Conclave presentations.
Kathryn M. Barker, Vedavati Patwardhan, Praveen Chokhandre, Ajeet Singh, Abhishek Singh, Anita Raj, Lotus McDougal
Background
Causal frameworks of intimate partner violence (IPV) emphasize a complex interplay between multilevel determinants. Patriarchal systems and normative violence are conceptualized as structural-level drivers of IPV, but empirical examinations are typically limited to proxy measures such as individual attitudes towards IPV.
Methods
We use data from India’s latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) and a structural-level measure of patriarchy to examine the association between patriarchy and IPV (n=61,180 females, ages 18-49) in survey-weighted mixed effects logistic regression models. We also examine spatial patterning of patriarchy using ArcGIS and GeoDa. Regression models examine ever-report of female IPV victimization by a male partner disaggregated by: any form of IPV, emotional-only, physical-only, sexual-only, and all forms.
Results
We find positive linear associations between structural patriarchy and ever-report of IPV. In models examining any-report of IPV, as compared to women in districts with lower levels of structural patriarchy, living in districts with the highest levels of patriarchy is associated with 1.9 times the odds of IPV (aOR=1.92 (95%CI: 1.58, 2.34)). Women’s education level, income quintile, justifications of IPV, spouse alcohol use, and witness of parental IPV and physical abuse in childhood are also associated with IPV in fully adjusted models.
Conclusion
Use of India Patriarchy Index more accurately delineates the role of structural patriarchy from other measures of gender inequality. Findings highlight the need for multilevel prevention strategies that challenge patriarchal norms, justifications of violence, address alcohol use, and acknowledge the intergenerational transmission of violence conducted via social learning in family systems.
Correlates of Women’s Control over Household Income in Malawi (Reject & Resubmit, The Journal of Development Studies)
Vedavati Patwardhan
This study explores women’s control over income in Malawi, a low-income country where households typically have multiple income streams. Drawing on the literature that endowed money is associated with saving and other-regarding behaviour, I theorise that men cede more control to women over public and private transfers than other sources of household income. Using nationally representative survey data, I conduct an empirical investigation of the extent to which income type, family structure, and demographic factors affect women’s control over household income. Logistic regressions demonstrate that in households with both men and women, women have significantly higher odds of having sole control over transfers, compared to farm and non-farm earnings. Marital status is linked with women’s sole control over transfers, with widows and divorcees having higher control than married women. Being a household head is associated with higher control over transfers for women. However, compared to other male relatives, the presence of a male spouse is associated with lower control over income for female household heads. Overall, the results are in line with other evidence on the positive effects of cash and in-kind transfers on women’s household decision-making power, and offer support for designing female-centric transfer programs.
Link to PAA 2022, Women & Gender in Development 2021 presentations.
Drought and Women’s Decision-making over Income in Malawi (draft in progress)
Vedavati Patwardhan
Climate variability is on the rise worldwide, and adverse weather conditions such as droughts and floods are becoming more prevalent (Cook, 2018; Ogunrinde et al., 2021; Ongoma et al., 2018). Households may not pool risk in response to these adverse events, leaving women and girls to bear their brunt. Drought in particular is associated with excess female mortality (Rose, 1999), lower school enrolment for girls (Björkman-Nyqvist, 2013), higher dowry-related deaths and domestic violence (Sekhri & Storeygard, 2014) and a decrease in female land and non-land assets (Quisumbing et al., 2018). Thus, examining the relationship between drought and gendered family dynamics is important to understand if and how households reallocate resources in response to drought and to provide insights for gender-sensitive social protection, agricultural and economic inclusion policies. However, there is a paucity of research on drought and intra-household decision-making, specifically, women’s decision-making related to household income and farm management, and the underlying causal pathways.
Women’s formal labor force participation is decreasing in many low and middle-income countries, however, there is an increasing role for women in agriculture (Asadullah & Kambhampati, 2021; Slavchevska et al., 2016) due to male outmigration and diversification into off-farm labor, in combination with factors such as climate change, war and conflict, and diseases such as HIV that disproportionately affect men. Although women’s economic participation and decision-making is typically considered as ‘empowerment’, higher decision-making autonomy in response to climatic factors may not be reflective of empowerment if accompanied by higher workloads for women on the farm and at home.
In this study, I examine the effect of drought on women’s decision-making over household income from different sources (farm income, non-farm income, public and private transfers) and on women’s farm-related decision-making in Malawi, using nationally representative panel survey data spanning six years (2013-2019) and historical rainfall records. The central hypothesis of the proposed research is that women’s decision-making over household farm plots and over farm income will increase as a result of a drought shock. I investigate male off-farm labor and migration as potential mechanisms, as men are more likely to migrate for seeking employment (Gray & Mueller, 2012) and diversify income sources through non-farm or off-farm employment in response to climate shocks (Akampumuza & Matsuda, 2017; Ito & Kurosaki, 2009). I also test whether the relationship between drought and women’s decision-making over farm plots and farm income differs between households following matrilineal versus patrilineal kinship, as the former is associated with higher women’s land tenure security (Asfaw & Maggio, 2018), lower spousal cooperation, and higher female autonomy (Lowes, 2017).
I find that in households with both men and women, a drought shock (defined as one standard deviation or more below the historical 30-yr average) is associated with a 46% increase in women’s sole control over farm income (p<0.05). I find that drought is also associated with higher sole female farm management (p<0.05). The results suggest that drought alters intra-household decision-making, particularly related to the farm, and highlight the integral role of women in maintaining household resilience in agrarian economies.
Link to CGIAR Cultivating Equality 2021 Conference presentation and video.