Women's Empowerment in Agriculture and Intrahousehold Nutritional Well-Being: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

Esha Sraboni, Brown University

Using nationally-representative survey data from Bangladesh, I examine the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture and intrahousehold dietary diversity, which is recognized as an important indicator of individual nutritional well-being. I use the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index to assess the extent of women’s empowerment in agriculture and instrumental variables techniques to correct for the potential endogeneity of empowerment. I find that women’s overall empowerment is significantly associated with improved dietary diversity for all age groups. Women’s empowerment in the domains of leadership and resources, and empowerment gaps between men and women present more mixed results for younger members of the household, lending support to the conclusion that empowerment in other domains and/or factors other than empowerment in agriculture could play a greater role in improving child nutrition.