Decision-Making Ability as a Source of Empowerment Among Rural Women of Pakistan

The issue of decision-making ability is paramount to women’s empowerment. The current study intends to examine the role of women’s autonomy in decision-making by considering the resources that needed to demolish the restrictions at various levels including cultural and institutional. To highlight the influence of the decision-making process among women based on gender power relationships, various programs, researches, and policy debates have been commenced. This study examined the decision-making ability among the rural women of southern Punjab as a source of their empowerment. A cross-sectional survey design using quantitative techniques was employed. A multistage cluster sampling technique was adopted to generate information. Total twenty-four villages from three divisions of southern Punjab (Bahawalpur, Multan, D.G. Khan) and 600 women were selected as respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, that is, frequencies and percentages. The principle component analysis was used to validate the items of each variable. The findings revealed that out of the six decision-making variables considered in the paper, the respondents were found to have low decision-making ability in the studied area. The paper concluded that rural women have a relatively lower level of decision-making ability on issues concerning them, their household and the society at large. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.