The Study of the Empowerment in Two African Countries Using the Bayesian Networks

Empowerment is a complex and challenging construct to define and measure and, following the Kabber’s approach, it encompasses three interconnected dimensions: resources, agency, and achievements. In essence, women’s empowerment focuses on expanding choices, dismantling barriers, and challenging unequal power dynamics within societies to promote greater agency and decision-making for women. In this study we want to investigate the relationship between three measures of the empowerment (educational level, decision-making mainly in the domestic sphere and attitudes towards violence) and some other characteristic of the socio-economical context in which the target women, that is married women, live. The aim is achieved by using the Bayesian networks (BNs). In the analysis, two different African countries are taken into account, that is Congo Democratic Republic, which is a poor country, underdeveloped in the demographic transition, and Egypt, which is a relatively well-off country, ahead with the demographic transition. The interest is in investigating the form of the relations within the single country and between the two countries and the BNs were found useful for both purposes.