Women's Decision Making-Yemen is a 6-item measure of the decision making power that a woman has within her own household. It asks women who in their family has the final say on decisions regarding different domains, and then enquires about disagreements and potential resolutions with respect to the said decisions. This measure has also been validated for use in Ecuador and Uganda.
Geographies Tested: Yemen
Populations Included: Female
Age Range: Adolescents, Adults
1. I want you to imagine an ideal situation of a household. Who in the household would have the last word in the decision?
2. Who in your household generally has the last word in the decision:
Response Options:
Respondent - 1
Husband - 2
Someone else - 3
Respondent and husband jointly - 4
Respondent and someone else jointly - 5
Decision not made not applicable - 98
3. In the last 3 months, has there been any disagreement in regards to this decision?
Response Options:
Yes - 1
No - 2
4. When the disagreement was resolved, who had final decision?
5. Now imagine, if you were to have a disagreement, who would take the final decision?
Response Options:
Respondent - 1
Husband - 2
Someone else - 3
Disagreement ongoing - 4
Compromise - 5
Decision not made not applicable - 98
6. Now, I want you to imagine an ideal situation of a household. Who in the household would have the last word in the decision?
Response Options:
Respondent - 1
Husband - 2
Someone else - 3
Respondent and husband jointly - 4
Respondent and someone else jointly - 5
Decision not made not applicable - 98
Four different measures can be constructed, using raw summations over the number of domains in which (1) the woman is the sole decisionmaker, (2) the woman is a sole or joint decisionmaker, (3) the woman is the ultimate sole decisionmaker after a dispute/disagreement (actual or hypothetical), and (4) the woman’s ideal decisionmaker aligns with the actual decisionmaker.
Peterman, A., Schwab, B., Roy, S., Hidrobo, M., & Gilligan, D. O. (2021). Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen. World Development, 141, 105387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105387
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