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.
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Notes
- 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.
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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
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