Page 44 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.81, # 2, 2024, pp. 30-59

Other variables present deviations that is far less than their average values. These
variables are therefore not too far away from the center of their distributions and are
thus normally distributed. Nonetheless, some of the variables present deviations that
are just slightly greater than their average values.

Reduced Form Estimates of Women Empowerment in Cameroon
To achieve the objective of the determinants of women empowerment in Cameroon,
the Ordinary Least Square regression was conducted to obtain the reduced form
estimates of women empowerment as presented on Table 3. Going by the results, it
can be said that the model specified is reliable. This is indicated by the Prob>chi2,
which show that the explanatory variables are globally significant in determining
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women empowerment, significant at 1% level of significance. However, R reveals
that only 16.37% of variation in women empowerment is being explained by the
independent variables specified in our model. Thus other important variables that
affect women empowerment were omitted though captured in the error term.

Based on the above results, we observe that the cost of medical consultation has an
inverse relationship with women empowerment. A percentage increase in the cost of
medical consultation will lead to a 6.95 decrease in women empowerment. This is
statistically significant at 10% level of significance. Women empowerment entails the
expansion of capabilities which enables them to perform labour so as to produce
economic value. Inability to access health services such as maternal and reproductive
health services due to high consultation cost may thereby inhibits women's well-being
and as such better social outcomes for women. This is in line with many studies such
as Agarwal (1997) that have associated higher levels of empowerment with positive
reproductive health outcomes. This is also in conformity with Sen (1988) which
indicate that women's well-being has been accepted as a necessary pathway to
women's overall development.

Looking at marital status, it is observed that marriage has a negative influence on
women empowerment. Being married will reduce women empowerment by 27% as
opposed to a single woman. This is statistically significant at 1% level of significance.
This finding may be attributed to the fact that most married women become ensnared
with their triple role (reproductive, productive and community roles) aggravating the
problem they face in terms of access to the basic factors of production. The finding
corroborates with Agarwal (1997) who revealed that being married significantly
influences empowerment of rural women negatively at 1%. This result is however
dissimilar to Bahiigwa, (1999) who in the analysis of women empowerment in rural
Nigeria showed that, most of married women are empowered as they involve
themselves in business activities so as to provide for needs to their families.

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