Page 46 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

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

In regards to household size, the findings reveal that an increase in the household size
by one person decreases women empowerment by 3%, statistically significant at 5%
level of significance. This is in line with Budlender (2010) have found a negative
relationship between family size and women empowerment. The bigger the family
size, the more resources are needed to carter for the members. It may be the case
because, a larger household size pose a restrain on the available recourses as well as
time appropriated for profitable labour leading to women’s disempowerment.
However, Novarty (2005) differs in that larger households demands women, most
especially the married to involve themselves in business activities so as to provide for
needs to their families. Similarly, the findings show that a woman living in the urban
area tends to decrease women empowerment by 31%, and is statistically significant at
1% level of significance. This may be attributed to the overcrowding of the
unemployed in the labour markets of urban areas in Cameroon and the associated
difficulty of getting a job in the face of such competition. The results are nonetheless
in conformity with many studies such as Abrha, (2015) which reveal that women
access to economic resources and control of products of their labor has been worsened
by the trends of globalizing economy, where by competing high, requiring quality and
large scale productivity is expected.

Considering agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and the use specialized seeds, the
results demonstrate that a unit increase in the cost of seeds will lead to a 10% decrease
in women empowerment while the a unit increase of fertilizer used leads to an increase
in women’s empowerment by 47%. Both findings are statistically significant at 1%
level of significance. These findings are in conformity with Bahiigwa (1999) who
showed that use of fertilizers not only increases productivity but also indicates an
aspect of empowerment in terms of output management skills. The negative effect of
the cost of seeds on the other hand may be because Women have a low priority in crop
improvement research and little access to the benefits of research and innovation,
especially in the domain of new high yielding seeds. As such as the cost increases
their ability to purchase such seeds reduces which further leads to lower crop yields.
Conversely, formal agricultural training will rather lead to a decrease in women
empowerment, statistically significant at 1% level of significance. Agricultural
training which maybe in the form of internship, on the field training or through
organizations is expected to bring about increase in cognitive ability, capacity
building for women and thus their empowerment. The finding is different from
Agarwal (1997) who revealed that education and training is a positive and significant
determinant of women empowerment.

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