When Family and Households Matter: Women’s Empowerment Dynamics in a Ghanaian Setting

Josephine Ackah, London School Of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Sarah Walters, .
Kofi Awusabo-Asare, University of Cape Coast
Anushé Hassan, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Fabian Sebastian Achana, Navrongo Health Research Center
Rebecca Sear, Brunel University London

Family and household dynamics could offer a different perspective on our understanding of women's empowerment. We establish evidence from a Ghanaian context where studies on the influence of family and households on women’s empowerment are rare to unearth nuances that are missed in existing studies. Using four rounds of the Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (2003-2022), we examine if women's household structure predicts their empowerment in decision making (health, large household purchase, visits to relatives and income) and attitudes to violence, exploring the socio-cultural influence of kinship while tracking changes over time. Logistic regression models were run to test associations. Household structure mattered for women’s empowerment. Our results showed that women were highly empowered if they lived alone or with children only and less empowered if they lived in extended affinal households (with parents-in-law). However, not all women in extended households had low empowerment. Women also had higher odds of being empowered if they lived in extended natal (with own parent) and other extended households. In most households, the difference between women with matrilineal and patrilineal kinship lineage was negligible however, evidence of increasing empowerment was observed. Embedding household and family dynamics in empowerment discourses, conceptualization and measurements is crucial.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Families, Unions and Households

See extended abstract.