Individual and Households Determinants of Women Empowerment: Application to the Case of Egypt

This research deals with women’s empowerment as an outcome of interest by defining the different individual and socio-demographic determinants that affect women’s empowerment in the Egyptian society. The paper analyzed two dimensions of women’s empowerment; the decision-making and the mobility aspects of Egyptian women. Using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2012, we estimated a decision-making index and a mobility index. Our results came in line with the literature; age, education, employment, poverty status, number of children, having an adult son in addition to a woman’s husband, and her father’s characteristics appeared as significant determinants of empowerment. Further, most of these determinants, showed varying impact depending on the dimension of empowerment studied. The regional context was found to be very important in explaining Egyptian women’s empowerment. Context was not only found to be an important determinant of women’s empowerment as measured by our two indices, but it was also found to affect the impact of the other individual and socio demographic determinants on women’s empowerment.