Women’s empowerment measurements in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic literature review

TL;DR

This paper reviews how women's empowerment is measured in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting inconsistencies in definitions and indicators.

Contribution

The study provides a systematic synthesis of quantitative measurements of women’s empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Findings

There is considerable variation in how women’s empowerment indicators are defined and conceptualized.

Empowerment is multidimensional, including decision-making, resource control, and reproductive autonomy.

Indicator selection is often limited by data availability.

Abstract

Quantifying women’s empowerment has gained prominence as a research focus globally. We conducted a systematic review of the literature examining the measurement of women’s empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The objectives of the study is to describe quantitative measurements of women’s empowerment based on individual-level data. We searched PubMed/Medline, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases, along with forward and backward citation tracking, for studies published between 2010 and 2025. The search yielded 1898 records, of which 98 studies met the inclusion criteria. All included studies were peer-reviewed, conducted either across multiple countries or within specific national contexts and analysed data from women of reproductive age. The review revealed considerable variations in the definition of women’s empowerment indicators, the conceptualization of dimensions and a general lack of consensus regarding what specific indicators were intending to measure. This review offers a comprehensive synthesis of the existing quantitative evidence on women’s empowerment measurement in SSA. Furthermore, the findings underscore that empowerment is inherently multidimensional, encompassing aspects such as women’s decision-making, control over resources and autonomy in sexual and reproductive matters. Importantly, the selection of dimensions and indicators is often constrained by the availability of relevant data.

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