A mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) approach to measure women’s empowerment in agriculture: evidence from Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

There exists comprehensive literature on women’s empowerment; however, studies on the measurement of empowerment in the agricultural context are scarce, particularly in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Pakistan. In this paper, we used the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), which includes five domains, i.e. resources, production, income, leadership, and time, to measure women’s empowerment in the agriculture sector. A survey of 600 rural women and 18 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted by using multi-stage sampling. The results show that about 72% of the women are disempowered, and attribute to low socio-economic conditions, i.e. they have limited access to resources and little leadership skills as rural women in AJK are not free to speak in public. The results further reveal that women are also disempowered in some other indicators, such as autonomy in production, income, and leisure time. So, based on the current findings, it is proposed that government should strengthen these areas through effective policies to improve the status of women.

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)
• disempowerment
• mixed method approach
• Azad Jammu & Kashmir
• Pakistan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Tehsil is an administrative unit hierarchically above the local city, town or village but subordinate to a larger state or province.

2 The permission usually depends on the economic condition of the house as well as the religious practice. However this aspect was not explored further in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 713111025].

Notes on contributors

Noshaba Aziz

Noshaba Aziz is a postdoctoral fellow at Nanjing Agricultural University, China. She received PhD degree from Northwest A & F University, China. Her research interests include women empowerment, food security, and rural development.

Imran Khan

Imran Khan is working as assistant professor in economics department of the University of Haripur, Pakistan. His research interests include global warming, environmental issues etc.

Dinithambigai Nadahrajan

Dinithambigai Nadahrajan is a PhD scholar at University Utara Malaysa. Her research interests include worklife balance, corporate social responsibility, developmental economics, and organization behavior etc.

Jun He

Professor Jun He is serving as the Director of Department of Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China. He received his PhD from Nanjing Agricultural University. His research interests are economic theory, agricultural economy and rural development, social security theory and system.