Rural Women Empowerment in New Valley Governorate, Egypt

Aims: The objectives of this study are to: i) Measure the rural women’s empowerment level, and ii) Determine factors affecting rural women’s empowerment level.

Study Design: One-time point cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Data were collected through personal interviews of 300 rural women (240 from Al-Mounirah village belonging to El-Kharga district and 60 ones from Al-Thaniyah (the second) village belonging to Darb El-Arbaien, Paris District), during the period from May to June, 2016 using a questionnaire form.

Methodology: Frequencies, percentages, range, average, standard deviation, weighted average (relative weight), T test, Pearson’s simple correlation, Step-Wise Regression Analysis, and verification of hypotheses were used for data processing and presentation.

Results: Findings revealed that dimensions of rural women’s empowerment could be ranked as social (relative weight = 60.8%), cognitive and psychological (RW = 60.7% for each), economic (RW = 58.7%), and finally the political dimension of empowerment (RW = 56%). Of the studied eleven independent variables, eight variables accounted for 71.9% of variance in rural women’s economic empowerment, seven accounted for 61.7% of variance in political empowerment, eight accounted for 69.6% of variance in social dimension, one accounted for 4% and 1.6 of variance in cognitive and psychological dimensions, respectively. Results also indicated that the eight independent variables (family type, average of sons’ education, average age of sons, family size, women’s age, women’s employment status, and husband’s age) accounted for 63.4% of variance in rural women’s overall empowerment.

Conclusion: The study concluded that rural women’s empowerment could be strengthened through support factors influencing it.