Consequences of Women's Empowerment: A Review of the Literature

Consequences of Women's Empowerment: A Review of the Literature
Zohreh Shahhosseini,¹ Zeinab Hamzehgardashi,² Marziye Goli ,^3,*
1. Department of Reproductive Health and Midwifery, Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Sari, Iran.
2. Department of Reproductive Health and Midwifery, Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Sari, Iran.
3. Student of Midwifery counseling, Student Research committee. Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Sari, Iran
Introduction: Women's empowerment is one of the topics that has received more attention in advanced societies because half of the population is women. Studies show that women's empowerment has many consequences on family health. As women’s role in family health and empowerment is one of the essential aspects, the present study was conducted with the aim of reviewing the consequences of women's empowerment.
Methods: The present study is a review study. In this study, the researcher conducted a comprehensive search of databases in Google Scholar, SID, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane library and up to date, employing English keywords combination of Empowerment, Women’s Empowerment, Family Health, Education Empowerment, Social Empowerment, Economic Empowerment, Policy Empowerment, Culture Empowerment, Psychological Empowerment and their Persian equivalent. Overall, 170 articles were obtained from 2000 to 2020. Then, 84 of these articles due to duplication, 26 articles due to irrelevance, 13 articles in the abstract screening stage, and 4 articles in the full-text review stage were deleted. Finally, 43 articles were used for writing.
Results: The present study’s findings are reviewing the consequences of women's empowerment were divided into five general categories: Psychological consequences category including (feeling of worth, intellectual independence, self-efficacy, positivity, sense of power, self-esteem, and self-efficacy), Social consequences includes (increased participation in social affairs, increased social support, increased education), Economic consequences included (employment and increased access to resources and financial support), Cultural consequences included (change of traditional beliefs), Reproductive health category included (improving fertility behaviors, increasing the power to decide on the number of children, the age-differences between children, methods of contraception, and reducing domestic violence).
Conclusion: Considering the critical role of women in family health and the importance of women's empowerment and since women's empowerment is associated with many consequences on women and consequently on family health, it is recommended to plan, train and implement effective interventions by providing healthcare providers have taken an important step towards promoting women's empowerment, family and community health.
Keywords: empowerment, women's empowerment, family health