The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 33 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment.
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.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“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]
Citations
Cites
Outline of a Theory of Practice.
Frank, A. W., & Bourdieu, P. (1980) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2066038 · Cited by 14,591
Central Problems in Social Theory
Giddens, A. (1979) · Bloomsbury Publishing Plc eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-349-16161-4 · Cited by 8,061
Lukes, S. (1974) · Power · doi:10.1007/978-0-230-80257-5_2 · Cited by 6,654
Outline of a Theory of Practice
Bourdıeu, P. (2007) · Duke University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctv120qr2d.16 · Cited by 5,558
Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses
Mohanty, C. (1988) · Feminist Review · doi:10.1057/fr.1988.42 · Cited by 4,855
Usher, D., & Sen, A. (1987) · Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d économique · doi:10.2307/135247 · Cited by 3,280
(1971) · Cited by 2,327
India Economic Development and Social Opportunity
Drèze, J., & Sen, A. K. (1996) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198290124.001.0001 · Cited by 1,397
Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought
Kabeer, N. (1994) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,362
Self-citationRural credit programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh
Hashemi, S., Schuler, S. R., & Riley, A. P. (1996) · World Development · doi:10.1016/0305-750x(95)00159-a · Cited by 1,345
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 101–115 of 115
Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis
Caruso, B. A., Conrad, A., Patrick, M., Owens, A., Kviten, K., Zarella, O., Rogers, H., & Sinharoy, S. S. (2022) · PLOS Water · doi:10.1371/journal.pwat.0000026 · Cited by 94
Reframing women’s empowerment in water security programmes in Western Nepal.
Leder, S., Clement, F., & Karki, E. (2017) · Gender & Development · doi:10.1080/13552074.2017.1335452 · Cited by 76
Understanding empowerment in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH): a scoping review
Dery, F., Bisung, E., Dickin, S., & Dyer, M. (2020) · Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development · doi:10.2166/washdev.2019.077 · Cited by 74
Widows: Agents of change in a climate of water uncertainty.
Gabrielsson, S., & Ramasar, V. (2013) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.01.034 · Cited by 68
Rivas, C., Vigurs, C., Cameron, J., & Yeo, L. (2019) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd013135.pub2 · Cited by 65
Negotiating Women’s Agency through ICTs: A Comparative Study of Uganda and India
Masika, R., & Bailur, S. (2015) · Gender, Technology and Development · doi:10.1177/0971852414561615 · Cited by 61
Demography of Aging in Arab Countries
Yount, K. M., & Sibai, A. M. (2009) · International Handbook of Population Aging · doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8356-3_13 · Cited by 62
Riaz, S., & Pervaiz, Z. (2018) · Quality & Quantity · doi:10.1007/s11135-018-0713-x · Cited by 49
The Patriarchal Bargain and Intergenerational Coresidence in Egypt
Yount, K. M. (2005) · The Sociological Quarterly · doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2005.00007.x · Cited by 42
Michalscheck, M., Groot, J. C. J., Fischer, G., & Tittonell, P. (2020) · Land Use Policy · doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104325 · Cited by 36
Leddy, A. M., Mantsios, A., Davis, W., Muraleetharan, O., Shembilu, C., Mwampashi, A., Beckham, S. W., Galai, N., Likindikoki, S., Mbwambo, J., et al. (2020) · Culture, Health & Sexuality · doi:10.1080/13691058.2019.1659999 · Cited by 29
Gender, Social Change, and Living Arrangements Among Older Egyptians During the 1990s
Yount, K. M., & Khadr, Z. (2008) · Population Research and Policy Review · doi:10.1007/s11113-007-9060-7 · Cited by 27
Positionality of women in homeownership: A process of gender contract negotiation
Adu-Gyamfi, A., Cobbinah, P. B., & Poku-Boansi, M. (2021) · Housing Studies · doi:10.1080/02673037.2019.1690131 · Cited by 16
Kyriakidou, N., Bobade, A. P., & Nachmias, S. (2015) · Women's Voices in Management · doi:10.1057/9781137432155_16 · Cited by 2
Eseza, N., Andrew, N., & David, N. (2026) · F1000Research · doi:10.12688/f1000research.186397.1
Metadata
- 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
- 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
- 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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
