Influences of Women’s Empowerment on Health across Generations in Bangladesh

Location: Bangladesh

Funder: National Institutes of Health

Duration: 2006-2008

The empowerment of women has been widely acknowledged as an important goal in international health and development. If women’s empowerment truly is an important factor with the potential to influence health and social outcomes, then it should be possible to see the effects of empowerment extend over time and resonate across generations, especially within the family, yet few studies have examined this.

This project will examine the socio-cultural processes through which women’s empowerment affects the health of subsequent generations of women (as well as the processes through which the cross-generational influence may be thwarted.) 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).

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.

Contact: Sidney Schuler