Indicators for gender equality and the empowerment of women: from concept to practice

Abstract

As part of the project “Developing Gender Indicators in Agriculture,” we conducted a literature review in order to understand how research and agricultural development projects in Latin America measure women’s empowerment and gender inequalities. The research allowed us to conduct a close examination of the theoretical concepts and the methodologies employed, and the way in which both of these are linked, in practice. In the study, we uncovered similarities in the theoretical definitions of women’s empowerment and gender inequality used, but differences in the way in which each study operationalizes these concepts. These different operationalizations were found in turn to be connected with the methodological approaches that guided each research study or program. We also found discrepancies in the theoretical frameworks used and the results presented, with many of the reviewed studies basing their theoretical frameworks on the concept of empowerment, but framing their results in terms of reaching or benefiting women, but not necessarily in terms of women’s empowerment.