Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 7

e) Determinants of women empowerment Results from the OLS, probit and logit models are presented in table 7. The results also include the marginal effect for the probit and logit models. All the three models predicted significant negative relationship between women empowerment and women’s education in years. From the OLS model, any additional year of education will reduce women empowerment by 19.62%. The probit and logit models revealed with any additional year of education the probability of women empowerment reduces by 53.3 percent and 86.6 percent units respectively. This not consistent with theory as one would expect high form of education to improve women’s skills thereby improving their level of empowerment. Obayelu and Chime, (2020), attributed this to traditional African belief when men continue to take major decisions irrespective of the woman’s years of education. Marital status had a positive relationship with women empowerment. From the probit model married women are 82.37 percent more likely to be empowered than the unmarried counterparts. The findings is in contrast with Obayelu and Chime (2020), who found a negative significant relationship between marital status and women empowerment. Women’s age on the other hand had an inverse significant relationship with women empowerment. The marginal effect from the probit and logit models showed that any additional age obtained by a woman is likely to reduce her level of empowerment by 0.0066 units. This implies that younger women are more empowered that the aged. Whiles the result confirms Obayelu and Chime (2020) findings it conflicts with Popoola and Adeoti (2016) who had a positive relationship between age and women empowerment in Nigeria. Table 7: Determinants of women empowerment in rural Zambia Variables OLS Probit dy/dx logit dy/dx Women's education in years -0.1962 (0.0000)*** -0.5333 (0.0000)*** -0.1987 (0.0000)*** -0.8663 (0.0000)*** -0.1993 (0.0000)*** Women's marital status 0.2943 (0.181)* 0.8237 (0.201) 0.3070 (0.201) 1.3727 (0.227) 0.3158 (0.226) Women's age -0.0068 (0.0037)** -0.0177 (0.040)** -0.0066 (0.039)** -0.0290 (0.039)** -0.0066 (0.038)** Wealth index Poorer 0.0083 (0.815) 0.0232 (0.803) 0.0088 (0.803) 0.0398 (0.791) 0.0093 (0.791) Middle -0.0359 (0.362) -0.0913 (0.379) -0.0345 (0.379) -0.1450 (0.387) -0.0339 (0.387) Richer -0.0782 (0.176)* -0.2056 (0.183)* -0.0774 (0.181)* -0.3326 (0.188)* -0.0774 (0.185)* Richest -0.1176 (0.067)** -0.3671 (0.039)** -0.1364 (0.035)** -0.5916 (0.046)** -0.1355 (0.04)** Household size -0.0056 (0.787) -0.0136 (0.806) -0.0050 (0.806) -0.0245 (0.787) -0.0056 (0.787) Husband's years of education -0.0001 (0.926) -0.0004 (0.922) -0.0001 (0.922) -0.0006 (0.927) -0.0001 (0.927) Husband's age 0.0022 (0.418) 0.0057 (0.437) 0.0021 (0.437) 0.0095 (0.424) 0.0022 (0.424) Region copperbelt 0.1927 (0.003)*** 0.5130 (0.003)*** 0.1932 (0.0020*** 0.8392 (0.003)*** 0.1951 (0.002)*** Eastern 0.0433 (0.422) 0.1084 (0.045) 0.0409 (0.449) 0.1835 (0.430) 0.0428 (0.429) Luapula 0.0281 (0.627) 0.0734 (0.633) 0.0276 (0.633) 0.1199 (0.632) 0.0279 (0.632) Lusaka -0.0666 (0.336) -0.2115 (0.271) -0.0772 (0.266) -0.3264 (0.303) -0.0733 (0.296) muchinga 0.0281 (0.623) 0.0717 (0.636) 0.0270 (0.636) 0.1226 (0.617) 0.0285 (0.617) Northern 0.0131 (0.828) 0.0345 (0.829) 0.0129 (0.829) 0.0553 (0.832) 0.0128 (0.832) north western -0.0995 (0.172)* -0.2959 (0.140)* -0.1065 (0.131)* -0.4613 (0.160)* -0.1020 (0.149)* Southern 0.2099 0.5555 0.2086 0.9057 0.2098 © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue VII Version I 13 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 E Assessment of the Key Indicators and Dimensions of Women Empowerment in Rural Zambia