Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment.

Kabeer, Naila

doi:10.1111/1467-7660.00125

Cited by 4,976Gender, Education, and Development IssuesGender, Labor, and Family DynamicsIncome, Poverty, and Inequality

Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment.

Kabeer, Naila·1999·Development and Change

DOI 10.1111/1467-7660.00125

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Abstract

This paper begins from the understanding that women's empowerment is about the process by which those who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices acquire such an ability. A wide gap separates this processual understanding of empowerment from the more instrumentalist forms of advocacy which have required the measurement and quantification of empowerment. The ability to exercise choice incorporates three inter‐related dimensions: resources (defined broadly to include not only access, but also future claims, to both material and human and social resources); agency (including processes of decision making, as well as less measurable manifestations of agency such as negotiation, deception and manipulation); and achievements (well‐being outcomes). A number of studies of women's empowerment are analysed to make some important methodological points about the measurement of empowerment. The paper argues that these three dimensions of choice are indivisible in determining the meaning of an indicator and hence its validity as a measure of empowerment. The notion of choice is further qualified by referring to the conditions of choice, its content and consequences. These qualifications represent an attempt to incorporate the structural parameters of individual choice in the analysis of women's empowerment.

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Empowerment theory posits that access to resources, agency, and achievements are central to women's empowerment processes.
“These outcomes are consistent with empowerment theory, which posits that access to resources, agency, and achievements are central to women ' s empowerment processes”
From The Role of the Parish Development Model in Promoting Rural Transformation and Women's Financial Empowerment in Uganda: A Systematic Review (2026) · cites this paper as Kabeer, 1999
Naila Kabeer (1999) defined empowerment as 'the expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them'.
“Naila Kabeer (1999), who defined empowerment as 'the expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them' [31].”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [31]

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Authors: Kabeer, N.
Affiliations: University of Sussex (GB)
Corresponding author: Kabeer, Naila
ORCID: Kabeer, Naila
Venue: Development and Change
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 1999-07
Volume: 30
Issue: 3
Pages: 435-464
ISSN: 0012-155X (ISSN-L)
1467-7660
DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00125
OpenAlex: W2117701253
Cited by: 4,976
References: 33
Citations by year: 2026: 671 · 2025: 511 · 2024: 397 · 2023: 412 · 2022: 349 · 2021: 356 · 2020: 274 · 2019: 287 · 2018: 231 · 2017: 205 · 2016: 165 · 2015: 188 · 2014: 173 · 2013: 138 · 2012: 123
FWCI: 58.34
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 1264 d)
Locations: Development and Change (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Education › Gender, Education, and Development Issues
Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
Keywords: women's empowerment, empowerment measurement, empowerment indicators, agency, resources, achievement, choice, well-being outcomes

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Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment.

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