Do educational inequalities between marital partners influence the empowerment of educated women in ECOWAS?

Abstract

In an environment where the question of women's empowerment is a burning issue and where inequalities against women in education persist even though they are increasingly educated, it made sense to study the effect of educational inequalities between marital partners on women's empowerment. Thus, using the latest rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) women's file from the four major West African economies including Nigeria (2013), Côte d'Ivoire (2011-12), Ghana (2014) and Senegal (2017), and then using the generalized ordered partial proportional odds logit model, we arrived at the result that, inequalities in education between marital partners increase the likelihood of women belonging to the lower empowerment categories. Thus, the policies put in place by States to reduce educational inequalities between men and women must not only make it possible to increase the number of educated women, but above all, these policies must emphasise the achievement of a higher education level by the said women. This is mainly with a view to improving women's ability to participate in decision-making and collective action, allowing them to gain access to sufficiently paid employment to support themselves, and to increasing their ability to experience a violence-free life by having recourse to formal institutions and to confront traditional or social norms that are harmful to them.