Journal of Socialomics

Abstract

Women Empowerment: A Quantitative Exploration

Taseer Salahuddin and Alia Ahmad

Empowerment is a value-laden cultural specific construct. Dimensions of women empowerment vary with variation of social, religious and cultural norms. Current article presents a quantitative analysis based on the culturally and socially specific dimensions of women empowerment derived via ethnographic exploration in Punjab, Pakistan. For the first time Alkire-Foster methodology of index building has been used to explore local composition and structure of women empowerment construct. Instead of using one-size-fit-all dimensions of women empowerment locally derived definitions would lead to targeted and effective policies. Therefore, measurement of level of empowerment among women and resultant policies for their empowerment is recommended based on this new method of measurement.