Empowering Absence? Assessing the Impact of Transnational Male Out-Migration on Left behind Wives

Experiences of left-behind family members of transnational migrant workers have been in the shadow of academic discourse on migration. To contribute to the slowly growing body of literature, this study explores the impact of male out-migration on left-behind wives. The study proposes and applies a novel framework to estimate Women Empowerment Index (WEI) for comparing the empowerment level across households with and without men in transnational labor. Cross-sectional surveys and unstructured interviews were used to collect data from 373 respondents from three selected areas in Nepal. Results indicate that left-behind wives experience a higher degree of decision-making authority, physical mobility, and involvement in socio-political spheres compared to women with husbands at home. However, left behind wives were found to experience increased unpaid workload and decreased access to information, together with emotional and psychological costs in the absence of their husbands.