Antecedents of economic empowerment: an empirical study of working women in Delhi-NCR
ISSN: 1754-2413
Article publication date: 13 April 2023
Issue publication date: 21 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has emerged as a key component at national and international policy-making agendas. The purpose of this paper is to examine and validate the antecedents of WEE for urban working women.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a descriptive and exploratory research design. A total of 286 responses from women working in the formal sector of Delhi-NCR were collected through self-administered questionnaires on a five-point Likert scale using non-probability quota sampling technique. The sample was controlled for the employment sector, that is, healthcare, education and information technology. Exploratory factor analysis has been performed in the first step to test the data’s dimensionality with the goal of producing a set of items that reflect the meaning of the relative construct. Thereafter, confirmatory factor analysis has been used for data analysis.
Findings
Digital banking usage (DBU) has been identified as the most significant contributor to WEE.
Practical implications
Besides digital banking, government support has also emerged as a key indicator of WEE, necessitating a government policy review to improve WEE. Research findings indicate that, if WEE initiatives are to reach their full potential, they must individually address the extracted factors. This study offers a new framework for understanding and enhancing WEE for urban working women in India.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to use factor analysis to explore the multi-dimensionality of WEE using the novel dimensions of DBU, women’s agency and government support, in addition to the established variables of financial literacy, social norms and workplace human resource policies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: No financial/research assistance ship was provided.
Disclosure statement: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.
Citation
Rohatgi, S., Gera, N. and Dana, L.-P. (2023), "Antecedents of economic empowerment: an empirical study of working women in Delhi-NCR", Gender in Management, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 784-803. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-04-2022-0129
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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