Determinants of Young Women Economic Empowerment: The Case of Daramalo Woreda of Gamo Zone Southren Ethiopia

Young women’s economic status in Daramalo Woreda is highly influenced by the patriarchal culture of African tradition. There were no sufficient studies made in the study area about women's empowerment. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the determinants of economic empowerment of young women in the study area. To achieve the objective of this study, a total of 354 samples of young women were selected from six Kebeles and interviewed through a well-organized structured questionnaire. Primary and secondary data sources were used for this study. A cross-sectional survey design was also employed to achieve the study objective. The researcher employed both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Qualitative datawere collected through Focus group discussion (FGD) and key informants’ interviews (KII) and analyzed descriptively to strengthen quantitative data. Descriptive statistics were used for analyzing the collected data. The overall five domains-based empowerment assessment results showed that 25% of the young women in the study area were empowered. Parameters such as production decision (26.29%) autonomy in production (23.39%), ownership of assets (38.38%), purchase, sale, and transfer of assets (18.97%), speaking in public (26.02%) control over the use of income (22.28%) and workload (30.08%) are many contributing indicators. The improvement of the contribution of each indicator to young women's disempowerment according to theirimportance shall reduce disempowerment and facilitate adequate empowerment in all dimensions. Hence, based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that policymakers are expected to create enabling environment for young women. Since the contribution of women in reducing poverty and hunger is more important, the concerned bodies of the woreda should promote empowering young women's status for deciding on all economic and income-generating activities. It is better to ensure young women access to education, loan provision services, training on decision-making, and good governance access. Moreover, non-farm income and economic empowerment are significant in the current study. Accordingly, the Daramalo Woreda should expand more consistent and regular non-farm/off-farm activities, training the young women of the area about job creation with the respective support and increasing income from that activity. Keywords: Young Women, Economic Empowerment, Daramalo Woreda, Southern region