Intra-Household Power Dynamics: Analysing Women's Autonomy in Decision-Making and Mobility across Regional Contexts in India

Priyotosh Laha, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Paramita Majumdar, International Institute for Population Sciences, India

Empowering women entails providing women authority, and freedom to choose their paths in life. Power is an important concept in empowerment. Gender inequality in the distribution of power within households leads to women being disadvantaged, in terms of access to resources and pursuing opportunities. This study provides a bottom-up perspective by looking into the power structures within the households, in Indian society, known for its patriarchal nature. The aims are to explore various context-specific characteristics of couples indicating power relations within the household and understand to what degree household power dynamics influence women's decision-making and freedom of mobility in society. The study used data from the couple file of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey. The present study comprises two outcome variables: “Household autonomy”, and “Mobility autonomy” of a woman. The two main explanatory variables are – power index and controlling index capturing intra-household power dynamics between couples. Findings show a wide regional variation of women's autonomy and suggest that the intra-household power dynamics and couple relations remain significantly associated with autonomy of married women in India. The study reveals gender adverse norms continue to govern Indian households even after significant socio-economic advancements, although with notable regional variations.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Families, Unions and Households, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Human Capital, Education, and Work

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