The ‘Downside’ of Women Empowerment in India:

An Experimental Inquiry into the Role of Expectations

New Directions in Welfare Conference

University of Oxford - 29 June 2009

Luuk van Kempen

Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN)

• Development scholars and practitioners tend to embrace capability approach to well-being, as witnessed by rise of ‘empowerment’ concept

– Empowerment = expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them (cf. Kabeer, 1999)

• Subjective well-being (happiness) approach is dismissed based on evidence of ‘hedonic adaptation’ to material deprivation (see e.g. Clark, 2007)

• Question: If we embrace a capability approach, can subjective well-being be safely ignored altogether?

• Diener & Biswas-Diener (2005) argue that subjective well-being determines in part the success of empowerment processes

– “Negative emotions can stop the cycle of empowerment”

Well-being and Empowerment (I)

• Some evidence from micro-credit impact studies that empowerment processes can provoke negative emotions (at least in initial stages):

– Ahmed, Chowdhury & Bhuiya (World Development, 2001), in a cross-sectional survey among >2,000 poor rural women in Bangladesh, find that:

1) Participants in micro-credit program tend to report lower levels of emotional well-being than non-participants, especially during first 3 years of program

2) Participants are more likely to cope with negative emotions by adopting a fatalistic or resigned attitude than non-participants → disempowered attitude (cf. Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2005)

• Authors ascribe negative effect from micro-credit on SWB to:

1) defiance of traditional gender roles → anxiety / tension

2) “other subjective factors such as the gap between expectation and achievement from program participation” → disappointment / frustration

Well-being and Empowerment (II)

• Research question: Can expectation shortfalls jeopardize the success of empowerment efforts through SWB failure?

• Methodology: Potential impact of unrealistic expectations is ‘simulated’ in simple experimental game that mimics empowerment process

– Participants consist of female members of credit and savings self-help groups in Orissa (n = 156)

– In total, 15 games were played, each with a different self-help group

• Two locations: Balangir district (9 games) and Puri district (6 games)

• Money earned by participants in the game is added to group’s savings account → collective rather than individual payoff

– Average group earnings amount to Rs. 250-500 (± PPP US$ 20-30)

Outline of Research

Empowerment Profile of Participants

• High incidence of female infanticide 92 women per 100 men (Puri)

• Low female literacy rate compared to men 39% vs. 70% (Balangir)

• Women often marry before entering (legal) adulthood 50% (Balangir)

• High incidence of dowry-related violence against women (e.g. dowry homicide and torture)

• 54% of women agree that “men are entitled to command their women”

• 51% indicates not to be able to visit a doctor without male permission

• 30% believes that women who are being beaten by their husbands have themselves to blame

• Game consists of three stages: – Stage I: participants play an ‘investment’-type game (3x), where level of

‘investment’ of each player is determined by random device → no ‘agency’

– Stage II: participants play same game (3x), but level of ‘investment’ determined by participants according to own discretion → sense of ‘agency’

• Freedom to choose investment level allows for tacit coordination on Nash-equilibrium → doubles group pay-off compared to first stage

– Stage III: participants cast anonymous vote to play one extra round as in stage II or two extra rounds as in stage I

• Voting preferences serve as proxy for intrinsic value that participants attach to exercising ‘agency’ (assuming equal payoffs)

Empowerment Game

Elicitation of expected payoff in Stage II

Elicitation of level of satisfaction with actual payoff in Stage II

Results (I): Expectation gap

31%

23%46%

Gap = ((expected payoff – actual payoff) / actual payoff)

Results (II): Impact on empowerment

% “very satisfied” with payoff in Stage II

Wide gap: 26%

Moderate gap: 43%

• Expectation levels reflect aspiration levels (McBride, 2007)– Aspiration = subjectively established goal for achievement (Karlsson et al., 2004)

– Aspiration level forms crucial reference point for degree of satisfaction with actual achievement

• Individuals experiencing a wide expectation gap (as well as those with a negative gap) may suffer from ‘aspiration failure’ (Ray, 2006)

– Wide gap: aspiration level is too ambitious → task of attaining goal appears too daunting after observing initial achievement → ‘curse of frustrated aspirations’

– Negative gap: aspiration level is not sufficiently challenging → weak incentive to stick with ‘agency’

• Group experiencing moderate expectation shortfall has strongest incentive to remain with ‘agency’, since goal is within reach → additional emotional reward from closing the gap

Interpretation of Results

• Key result: While slightly overstretched expectations/aspirations strengthen future commitment to exercising agency, as expectation/aspiration gaps grow wider, feelings of disappointment cause one to devalue agency

• Hence, stylized experimental game suggests that SWB may indeed interfere with the process of empowerment → need for corroboration in more realistic settings

• While promoting capabilities, we should not only acknowledge the risk of a possible loss of happiness, but also the risk that this loss impacts negatively on the capability-building process itself

• Due attention should be paid to the role of expectations and aspirations as a potentially important channel through which SWB affects the success of development interventions

Conclusions