Abstract
The main objective of this chapter is to explore the relationship between women’s empowerment and their nutritional status in Ethiopia. We used a nationally representative data from the 2005 Ethiopian DHS and employed a logistic regression model for the multivariate analysis. The findings indicate that 28% of Ethiopian women were moderately and severely undernourished, but the level is three times higher in rural areas (32.1%) than urban areas (10.2%). Holding other main determinants constant, the odds of undernutrition among respondents with low decision-making autonomy is 54% (OR = 1.54) greater than those with high decision-making autonomy. Women living in a larger household size (5–8 persons) are 1.34 times (OR = 1.34) at higher risk of undernutrition than women with lower household size (1–4). We conclude that women’s decision-making autonomy is an important determinant of their nutritional status. Women’s educational attainment, employment status, and household property (wealth) are the major pathways through which the decision-making autonomy of women affects nutritional status. The need to incorporate women’s empowerment as part of the national nutrition strategy as well as further indepth research are suggested in order to see the effects of the agro-ecological zones and cultural factors on women’s nutritional status.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Malnutrition refers to any disorder of nutrition whether it is due to dietary deficiency, under-nutrition, excess diet, or over-nutrition (Britannica Student Encyclopedia, 2005).
- 2.
GHI is a multidimensional approach to measuring hunger and malnutrition by combining three weighted indicators: the proportion of undernourished as a percentage of the population (the share of population with insufficient dietary energy intake); the prevalence of underweight in under-five children (weight loss & reduced growth); and the mortality rate of under-five children (fatal synergy between inadequate dietary intake and unhealthy environments).
- 3.
From the frequency distribution, the value for the response “someone else” was nil and that is why husband’s decision was used as a third category.
- 4.
In line with the DHS data, employment status in this study reflects occupational status.
- 5.
In this study only married, non-pregnant and non-lactating mothers were included to avoid the impact of weight gain during pregnancy on the interpretation of the statistical values.
- 6.
The frequency of partners by their occupational status indicates that only 1.7% of them were not working during the time of data collection. This might lead to misinterpretation of results.
- 7.
The main objective of the multivariate analysis is to examine the relationship of each variable with women’s malnutrition when the effects of other variables are held constant.
References
Administrative Committee on Coordination/Subcommittee on Nutrition (ACC/SCN). (2000). Fourth Report on the World Nutrition Situation. Geneva, ACC/SCN in collaboration with IFPRI.
Bogalech, A. and Mengistu, A. (2007). Women’s Empowerment in Ethiopia: New Solutions to Ancient Problems. Ethiopia, Pathfinder International.
Bradley, S.E.K. and Mishra, V. (2008). HIV and Nutrition among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa, DHS Analytical Studies No. 16. Calverton, MD, Macro International Inc.
Britannica Student Encyclopedia. (2005). Malnutrition, Encyclopedia: Britannica Premium Service, http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article?tocId=9275642.
Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and ORC Macro. (2001). Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2000. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Calverton, MD, CSA and ORC Macro.
Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and ORC Macro. (2006). Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2005. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Calverton, MD, CSA and ORC Macro.
Devereux, S. (2000). Food Insecurity in Ethiopia: A discussion paper for DFID. http://cram-forum.jrc.it/Shared%20Documents/Food%20Insecurity%20in%20Ethiopia.pdf
Edilberto, L. (1997). Maternal nutritional status. DHS Comparative Studies No. 24. Calverton, MD, USA: Macro International Inc.
Federal Democratic and Republic of Ethiopia Population Census Commission (2008). Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007. Population and Housing Census: Population size by age and sex. December 2008, Addis Ababa.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2005). The state of insecurity in the world 2005. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005.http://ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/a0200e/a0200e.pdf
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2008). The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008: High Food Prices and Food Security-Threats and Opportunities. Rome, Italy, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Grebmer, K.V., Fritschel, H., Nestorova, B. et al. (2008). Global Hunger Index. The Challenge of Hunger 2008. Bonn, Washington DC, Dublin.
Haddad, L. (1999). Women’s Status: Levels, Determinants, Consequences for Malnutrition, Interventions, and Policy. Asian Development Review 17(1, 2): 96–131, Asian Development Bank.
Hall, J.A. and Rosenthal, R. (1995). Interpreting and Evaluating Meta-analysis. Evaluation for Health Professionals 18(4): 393–407.
Heaton, T.B. and Forste, R. (2007). Domestic Violence, Couple Interaction and Children’s Health in Latin America. Journal of Family Violence 23: 183–193, Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007.
Hindin, M.J. (2003). Understanding Women’s Attitudes Towards Wife Beating in Zimbabwe. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2003.
International Food Policy Research Institute. (2004). The Changing Face of Malnutrition. IFPRI Forum. Ed. Uday Mohan. Published by IFPRI and its 2020 Vision Initiative. Washington DC, USA.
Macro International Inc. (2008). Nutrition of Young Children and Women, Ethiopia 2005. Calverton, MD: Macro International Inc.
Oniang’o, R. and Mukudi, E. (2002). Nutrition and Gender. In Nutrition: A Foundation for Development. Geneva, ACC/SCN.
Rahman, M.M. and Nasrin, S.O. (2009). Mothers Nutritional Status in an Impoverished Nation: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh. The Internet Journal of Nutrition and Wellness 7, 1.
Teller, C. and Gugsa Yimer. (2000). Levels and Determinants of Malnutrition in Adolescent and Adult Women in Southern Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of Health Development 14(1): 57–66.
Tsegaye Demissie, Yared Mekonen, and Jemal Haider, (2003). Agroecological Comparison of Levels and Correlates of Nutritional Status of Women. Ethiopian Journal of Health Development 17(3): 189–196, http://ejhd.uib.no/ejhdv17-no3/6Tsegaye%20Demissie.pdf.
Uthman, O.A. and Aremu, O. (2007). Malnutrition Among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: Rural-Urban Disparity. Rural and Remote Health 8:931. (Online source http://www.rrh.org.au)
Woldemariam Girma and Timotiows Genebo. (2002). Determinants of Nutritional Status of Women and Children in Ethiopia. Calverton, MD, ORC Macro.
World Food Program. (2005). Emergency Food Security Assessment Handbook. Rome, WFP.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tebekaw, Y. (2011). Women’s Decision-Making Autonomy and Their Nutritional Status in Ethiopia: Socio-Cultural Linking of Two MDGs. In: Teller, C. (eds) The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8918-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8918-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8917-5
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8918-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)