Determinants of women's Empowerment in El-Beheira Governorate

Background: Women empowerment has gained a higher priority in today's global development plan and is strongly linked with multiple development outcomes. Women empowerment is a multifaceted phrase .This phrase has many dimensions: demographic, social, psychological, cultural and economic. Aim of study: to assess the determinants of women's empowerment in EL-Beheira Governorate. Design: A cross sectional descriptive design was used. Setting: The study was conducted on 4 out of 16 directorates in El-Beheira governorate, namely; Shobrakhet, Damanhour, Elrahmania and HoshEisa Subject: a convenient sample of 807 women were selected from Maternal and Child Health centers (MCH) as clients, doctors, nurses, administrative work and workers in the previously mentioned settings. Tool for data collection: A structured interview questionnaire, which included two parts; part I was used to assess socio-demographic characteristic of the studied women. Part Π was used to assess women empowerment indicators. Results: Total empowerment indicators were (fair empowerment). The highest mean percent of empowerment indicators was related to psychological indicators followed by political indicators and social indicators. While, the lowest mean percent score was related to health indicators and economic indicators. Conclusion: the study revealed that women's age at marriage and women who have children (1-2 children) are the most independent risk factors associated with women empowerment (OR=3.326, P=0.001, OR=2.305, P=0.041) respectively and women's age and education are the most independent protective factors associated with women empowerment (OR=0.414, P=<0.001, OR=0.357, P=<0.001) respectively. Recommendations: Improve women's access to reproductive health care services, in particular, by removing financial barriers through mutual health insurance schemes and promoting gender balance in access to education across the country, by insisting on the enrolment of a higher percentage of girls in schools from the primary level.