Empowering Women: Four Theories Tested on Four Different Aspects of Gender Equality

Multiple literatures suggest that the following factors may figure prominently in explanations of women's increasing empowerment: (1) socioeconomic development; (2) rising gender-egalitarian attitudes that transform economic development into a cultural process of human development; (3) historical legacies stemming from a society's cultural and political traditions; and (4) institutional design factors. This study is the first to compare the influence of these factors across four aspects of gender equality, equality gains in basic living conditions, participation in civic actions, positional empowerment and political representation. Our measure of cultural modernity is the single most important explanation across all aspects of gender equality with socioeconomic factors and institutional design factors exerting influence on one or two aspects. Historical legacy factors fail to show up as important explanatory factors for any aspect of gender equality.