WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

In advance of International Women’s Day this year we spoke with our Director Karen Brooks about the gender research in CGIAR, its role in PIM, and why, in Karen's opinion, "quality, opportunism (in the good sense of the term), and voice" are important for the gender research to achieve the greatest impact.

The purpose of cognitive interviewing is to systematically identify and analyze sources of response error in surveys, and to use that information to improve the quality and accuracy of survey instruments. The new paper describes the cognitive interviews undertaken in Bangladesh and Uganda in 2014 as part of the second round of pilots intended to refine the original version of the Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (WEAI).

This paper by Cheryl Doss, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Agnes Quisumbing, and Sophie Theis just published in Global Food Security inspects four pervasive gender myths: 1) Women account for 70% of the world's poor; 2) Women produce 60–80% of the world's food; 3) Women own 1% of the world's land; and 4) Women are better stewards of the environment.

Is women's participation in the household decisionmaking a good indicator that they also have individual decision-making power? Does autonomy equal empowerment? The new discussion paper by Greg Seymour (PIM/IFPRI) and Amber Peterman (UNICEF Innocenti) seeks to bridge existing gaps in understanding the measurement of women's autonomy through examples from Bangladesh and Ghana.

Three new working papers just published by the World Bank Group analyze the three key constructs in women’s empowerment: time use, women’s agency, and ownership and control of assets. The papers are part of a broader collaboration among several researchers to improve the measurement of these constructs, known both for their centrality in the current policy debate on gender equality and for the challenges posed by their measurement.

The paper presents the abbreviated version of the WEAI, summarizing the modifications to the original index and discussing possibilities for further development of empowerment metrics based on the WEAI.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most pervasive form of violence globally—with 1 in 3 women physically or sexually abused