Husain Waqar, Ijaz Farrukh, Husain Muhammad Ahmad, Ammar Achraf, Trabelsi Khaled, Jahrami Haitham
Department of Humanities, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad Campus, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Department of Training and Movement Science, Institute of Sport Science, Johannes Gutenberg- University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
BMC Psychol. 2025 Jan 30;13(1):88. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02393-w.
The concepts of masculinity and femininity have historically shaped gender roles, leading to inequality and gender-based discrimination. Women's autonomy, defined as the ability to make independent choices across various life domains, remains inadequately measured by existing scales. This study addresses this gap by developing and validating the Women Autonomy Scale (WAS).
The development and validation of the WAS involved four phases with a total of 2,252 adult women from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. These phases included exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and assessments of convergent and discriminant validity by using the Psychosocial Life Satisfaction Scale and the Dependent Personality Disorder sub-scale of the Personality Disorders Questionnaire.
The WAS demonstrated high reliability across the four phases (α = 0.810 to 0.857). Test-retest reliability was 0.788 after two weeks of initial administration. EFA revealed a four-factor structure consisting of 18 items: personal freedom, freedom from conventional femininity, freedom from conventional masculinity, and freedom from shame. CFA confirmed this structure, showing good fit indices (CFI = 0.951, RMSEA = 0.052). The scale's convergent validity was established through a significant positive correlation with the Psychosocial Life Satisfaction Scale (r = 0.394, p < 0.01), and discriminant validity was confirmed via a significant inverse correlation with the Dependent Personality Disorder sub-scale (r = -0.255, p < 0.01).
The WAS is a reliable and valid instrument for comprehensively assessing women's autonomy. It addresses limitations of previous measures and provides a robust tool for research and policymaking aimed at promoting gender equality and women's empowerment.
男性气质和女性气质的概念在历史上塑造了性别角色，导致不平等和基于性别的歧视。女性自主权被定义为在各个生活领域做出独立选择的能力，现有量表对其衡量仍不充分。本研究通过开发和验证女性自主量表（WAS）来填补这一空白。
WAS的开发和验证涉及四个阶段，共有来自巴基斯坦拉瓦尔品第和伊斯兰堡的2252名成年女性参与。这些阶段包括探索性因素分析（EFA）、验证性因素分析（CFA），以及通过使用心理社会生活满意度量表和人格障碍问卷中的依赖型人格障碍子量表对聚合效度和区分效度进行评估。
WAS在四个阶段均表现出高信度（α = 0.810至0.857）。初次施测两周后的重测信度为0.788。EFA揭示了一个由18个项目组成的四因素结构：个人自由、摆脱传统女性气质、摆脱传统男性气质和摆脱羞耻感。CFA证实了这一结构，显示出良好的拟合指数（CFI = 0.951，RMSEA = 0.052）。该量表的聚合效度通过与心理社会生活满意度量表的显著正相关得以确立（r = 0.394，p < 0.01），区分效度则通过与依赖型人格障碍子量表的显著负相关得到证实（r = -0.255，p < 0.01）。
WAS是一种可靠且有效的工具，可用于全面评估女性自主权。它解决了先前测量方法的局限性，并为旨在促进性别平等和妇女赋权的研究和政策制定提供了一个有力的工具。
