The purpose of this research is to increase understanding of the socio-cultural processes through which women's empowerment affects the health of subsequent generations of women, or, conversely, the processes through which the cross-generational influence may be thwarted, as the case may be. If women's empowerment is truly an important factor with the potential to influence health and social outcomes, then it should be possible to see the effects of empowerment amplify over time and resonate across generations, especially within the family? Yet few studies have examined this. The study addresses both theoretical and methodological gaps in the literature on the significance of women's empowerment on health. It will extend the utility of a rich existing body of data and produce a data set unusual in its temporal depth, its spatial breadth, and its integration of survey and qualitative data. It will employ survey data from 1994 and 2002 from six villages in rural Bangladesh and repeat the surveys among sub samples of women to provide a longitudinal perspective rare in studies of women's empowerment. In-depth, ethnographic interviews will be conducted with two types of triads of women: 1) young women who married outside of the primary study sites, a population normally lost to community studies; and their mothers and mothers-in-law; 2) young brides who married into the primary study sites, their mothers-in-law and their mothers (who will be traced and interviewed in their own villages of residence). Sub-samples of the young women's husbands and fathers-in-law will also be interviewed to provide male perspectives. Locating the study in longstanding research sites will help us to understand the evolving constellation of opportunities and constraints in the rural Bangladesh environment that influence women's strategies and decisions concerning their daughters and daughters-in-law. The study will examine the influence of women's empowerment on two closely-related outcomes influencing women's health and well-being: age at marriage and age at initiation of childbearing. Early marriage and childbearing among girls is associated with a wide range of negative social and health consequences for young mothers and their infants, and contributes to rapid population growth. The research site, Bangladesh, is second only to Niger as having the highest percentage of adolescent brides in the world, with 68% of girls being married by age 18, according to national survey data from 2004. ? ? ? ?
| Schuler, Sidney Ruth; Rottach, Elisabeth (2010) Women's Empowerment across Generations in Bangladesh. J Dev Stud 46:379-396 |
| Schuler, Sidney Ruth; Islam, Farzana; Rottach, Elisabeth (2010) Women's empowerment revisited: a case study from Bangladesh. Dev Pract 20:840-854 |
