Impact of Women’s Empowerment on Infant Mortality in Indonesia
Abstract: Women’s autonomy and
empowerment has generally been recognized as one of most important factors of
development. A lack of autonomy and empowerment may lead to negative outcomes
on child health and mortality. Yet no study to-date has analyzed links between
women’s empowerment and infant mortality in Indonesia. This study tried to fill
this gap to investigate the effect of women’s empowerment on infant mortality
in Indonesia. Sample of 9,754 women aged 15-49 years who had their last
childbirth in period 2007-2012 were drawn from 2012 Indonesia Demographic and
Health Survey. Composite index was considered to measure women’s empowerment.
Eight indicators were considered to measure three dimensions of women’s
empowerment, namely participation in economic decision-making, participation in
health decision-making, and autonomy in mobility. Furthermore, the binary
logistic model had been specified and estimated to investigate the effect of
women’s empowerment on infant mortality. Results showed that women who were
more empowered were significantly less likely to experience infant mortality.
This highlights the importance of women’s empowerment in efforts to reduce
infant mortality.
Keywords: Demographic health
survey; infant mortality; women’s empowerment
Author: Hanik Stiyaningsih,
Febri Wicaksono
Journal Code: jpkesmasgg170009
