RESUMEN
Background: Women empowerment has been identified significant effects on many aspects of human development
Objective: To assess the effect of education and duration of marriage on women empowerment at household level
Subjects and Methods: Study design: Cross sectional descriptive study. Study place: Model town, Bahawalpur. Study duration: From 1" January 2013 to 30th June 2013. Sample size: Expecting the female literacy rate 47% in a population with 5% precision and 95% level of confidence, calculated sample size was 378. Sampling technique: It was simple random sampling. Data collection and analysis: Data was collected by using pretested questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS version 17. Women empowerment was measured by asking ten questions. Response of each question was divided into three categories and each category was scored as, Not at ail = 1, to some extent = 2 and to great extent = 3. The composite score of each respondent was 30. The women's empowerment on the basis of composite score was divided into three levels, the score in between 1-10 = low, 11 -20 - medium and from 21-30 was taken as high empowerment.
Results: Among the illiterate group only 8% women had high level of empowerment, in primary/middle group 33.3%, in third group [matric/intermediate] 53.4%, while in graduate or above group 80.3% respondents were highly empowered. Education was significantly associated with the women's empowerment at household level [p < 0.0000]. In a group of marriage duration < 5 years 16.3% women had high level of empowerment as compared to 15.7% in 6-10 year, 45% in 11-15 years and 53% in > 16 years category. Significant association was found between duration of marriage and women empowerment [p <0.0000]
Conclusion: There is significant association between the education, marriage duration and women's empowerment at household level