Women's Health Research Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
PLoS One. 2021 May 28;16(5):e0252294. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252294. eCollection 2021.
Empowerment is considered pivotal for how women access and use health care services and experience their sexual and reproductive rights. In Mozambique, women's empowerment requires a better understanding and contextualization, including looking at factors that could drive empowerment in that context. This study aims to identify socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioural determinants of different domains of women's empowerment in Mozambique.
Using the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2015 for Mozambique, a sample of 2072 women aged between 15 and 49 years old were included in this study. The DHS's indicators of women's empowerment were used in a principal component analysis and the obtained components were identified as the domains of empowerment. Logistic regressions were run to estimate the association of socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioural characteristics with each domain of empowerment. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated.
Three domains of women's empowerment were identified, namely (1) Beliefs about violence against women, (2) Decision-making, and (3) Control over sexuality and safe sex. Region, rurality, the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and partner's controlling behaviours were associated with Beliefs about violence against women, while Decision-making and Control over sexuality and safe sex were also associated with education, age and wealth. Employment, polygamous marriage and religion was positively associated with Decision-making, and access to media increased the odds of Control over sexuality and safe sex.
Women's empowerment seems to be determined by different socio-economic, demographic, and behavioural factors and this seems to be closely related to different domains of empowerment identified. This finding affirms the multi-dimensionality of empowerment as well as the importance of considering the context- and community-specific characteristics.
赋权被认为是妇女获得和使用医疗保健服务以及体验其性和生殖权利的关键。在莫桑比克，妇女赋权需要更好地理解和本土化，包括研究可能推动该背景下赋权的因素。本研究旨在确定莫桑比克妇女赋权的不同领域的社会经济、人口和行为决定因素。
本研究使用 2015 年在莫桑比克进行的人口与健康调查（DHS）的数据，纳入了 2072 名年龄在 15 至 49 岁之间的妇女。采用主成分分析法对 DHS 妇女赋权指标进行分析，确定赋权的各个领域。采用逻辑回归估计社会经济、人口和行为特征与赋权各个领域之间的关联。计算了粗和调整后的比值比（OR）和相应的 95%置信区间（95%CI）。
确定了妇女赋权的三个领域，即（1）对暴力侵害妇女行为的看法，（2）决策，和（3）对性和安全性行为的控制。地区、农村地区、亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）经历和伴侣的控制行为与对暴力侵害妇女行为的看法有关，而决策和对性和安全性行为的控制也与教育、年龄和财富有关。就业、一夫多妻制婚姻和宗教与决策呈正相关，而媒体的使用增加了对性和安全性行为的控制的可能性。
妇女赋权似乎受到不同的社会经济、人口和行为因素的影响，这似乎与确定的不同赋权领域密切相关。这一发现肯定了赋权的多维性，以及考虑到具体情况和社区特点的重要性。
