How Much Does Women’s Empowerment Influence their Wellbeing? Evidence from Africa

Abstract

One of the eight Millennium Development Goals is to ‘promote gender equality and empower women.’ However, only 1% of official foreign aid is currently spent on gender equality and human rights. Using individual-level survey data from 39 villages in northern Senegal, we model the effects that freedom within the home have on married women’s subjective wellbeing. We find the direct effects on wellbeing to be of a similar magnitude to the direct effects of consumption, education and morbidity. These results suggest the need for a review of aid allocation priorities.