Page 41 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Mbu Daniel Tambi, Mah-Soh Glennice Fosah: Econometric Modelling of Women
Empowerment and Agricultural Production in Cameroon

With regards to the endogenous variable (women empowerment), the mean value of
the indicator is 0.098 with a standard deviation of 0.97 demonstrating that only about
9% of the women included in the sample are empowered. This shows the level of
disempowerment faced by women farmers in terms of education, absence of capital,
information and access to markets which prevents them from producing enough to
fulfil their basic necessities. The scarcity of knowledge related to women’s rights also
exposes them to land grabbing and the loss of their heritage with one of the hindrances
being the tradition of passing farms from father to son, while daughters were denied
farm ownership (Alston, 2003). Consequently, as the contribution of women in the
agricultural sector is vital, there is a need to clarify which such forms of
disempowerment which stand as obstacles to their efficiency.

Given healthy women are more able to actively participate in society, the endogenous
instrument (cluster mean cost of medical consultation) which affects the woman’s
ability to demand and consume health services and thus her empowerment presents
an average value of 6.72 with a deviation from the mean of 0.96. In regards to the
instruments used to construct women empowerment, the descriptive statistics shows
that on the average only 5% of women have received formal education as opposed to
a mean of 7% for the males indicating an inequality in terms of education. Education
is believed to stimulate human capital by increasing the stock of competencies,
knowledge and personality attributes embodied in the ability to perform labour so as
to produce economic value. Thus education not only stimulates output growth but
empowers the woman in terms of her productive capabilities, and thus her wellbeing.
In the same line, only 31% of the women in the sample have received professional
training as opposed to an average of 50% for the men. Other than receiving assistance
from friends, family, religious group, and solidarity organisations, the men sample
present average values larger than that that of the women.

Considering some exogenous characteristics, the descriptive statistics shows that
about 57% of the population involved in agricultural production are married, with an
average of about 21% and 70% for the women and men sub sample respectively being
married. Marital status has been used as an important factor that may influence
women’s participation in income generating activities to support their husbands.

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