Measuring of Women’s Empowerment in Rural Development

Karolína Kučerová

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

In the last seven decades, Women's empowerment (WE) has become a focal point for the international development community. In the developing countries prevails an unacceptable environment, where women are treated with different social, political, economic, and physical conditions in comparison with men. Especially in the rural areas, women are affected by various circumstances, which do not allow them to have the same access to education, community involvement, work, resources and bargaining power. This bachelor thesis provides a comprehensive review of currently applied methodologies, methodological tools and their respective indicators measuring WE in the context of rural development. The literature selection procedure covering scientific and grey literature in the period of 2011 – 2021 ended with 61 literature sources to analyse the methodological approach to WE measurement. The thesis is written in the form of a literature review applying a multidimensional approach and investigating four critical dimensions of WE: economic, agricultural, social and political. All of the methods of WE emphasise agency, decision-making, and control over resources, and they all point out the significance of social and cultural norms. The level of maturity of WE is different per country or region. Therefore, when trying to apply the WE measurement methods for a particular situation, one should consider the WE aspects specific to the studied geographic area and intersectionality.

Keywords

rural women, gender multidimensionality, female farmers, women in agriculture

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 4. 2021

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Jana Mazancová, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / International Cooperation in Agriculture and Rural Development