Does monetary poverty reduction through gender empowerment work?

Abstract

Monetary poverty, characterized by the lack of financial resources necessary to meet basic human needs and participate fully in society, continues to be a pressing issue on a global scale. Despite various poverty reduction efforts, this problem persists, especially in many developing countries, including Ghana. Therefore, the current study examines the impact of women’s empowerment on monetary poverty reduction in Ghana. Using a Fixed-effect model (FEM) and dominance analysis (DA) as an estimation technique, this study uses the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey, a coaction between the Economic Growth Center (EGC) at Yale University and the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, Legon. The survey offers regionally representative data for 10 regions of Ghana available for Wave 1 (2010), Wave 2 (2014-15), and Wave 3 (2018-2019). Based on the dataset, the study concludes that women’s social empowerment reduces monetary poverty. across the study sample significantly contribute to poverty reduction in Ghana. The positive impact of women’s social empowerment on poverty reduction goes beyond individual households. Empowered women tend to invest more in their families and communities, leading to improved living standards, better health, and enhanced education opportunities. These effects help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and promote sustainable development. To promote this, governments and policymakers should prioritize measures such as improving women’s access to education, healthcare, and financial services. Additionally, eliminating legal and societal barriers that hinder their participation in decision-making processes is crucial. Again, an inverse relationship was established between marriage age of households, households’ ability to read and monetary poverty. In terms of locality of residence, women of household heads and ecological zones, varied results are produced. This study is anticipated to be valuable in terms of originality since it provides a precise and coherent understanding of the genuine measure on women empowerment that must be placed, from the perspective of Ghanaian dataset, locality and ecological zones to reduce poverty more effectively.