The project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) is a survey-based tool that measures women’s empowerment and inclusion in agricultural development projects. In a recent discussion paper led by Kathryn Yount, Professor and Asa Griggs Candler Chair of Global Health at Emory University, a team of colleagues from Emory University and the International Food Policy >> Read more
“A4NH: How does the process of validating survey items help us answer research questions about nutrition, gender, and women’s empowerment?
Heckert: We have a lot of underlying theories that suggest that improving household gender dynamics or empowering women may improve the nutritional outcomes of women themselves and/or their children. There has been considerable effort to fill in this broad framework with empirical evidence. To generate that empirical evidence reliably, we need valid measures of women’s empowerment and/or other aspects of household gender dynamics.
Yount: One of the obvious benefits of Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index(WEAI) is the measurement of empowerment for men and women. The comparability of measurement across genders helps us understand how disparities in empowerment can be related to disparities in health and nutrition.“
