Expanding women’s capabilities: Analysing gendered pathways to empowerment in the global south

Guide(s)

Swaminathan, Hema

Department

Public Policy

Area

Public Policy

University

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Place

Bangalore

Publication Date

3-31-2026

Year Awarded

March 2026

Year Completed

March 2026

Year Registered

June 2019

Abstract

This thesis investigates gender disparities in education, immovable asset ownership, time use, and the experience of poverty across three countries in the Global South: Bangladesh, Ghana, and India. Through three empirical studies, it reveals how entrenched norms, discriminatory legal frameworks, and flawed measurement practices perpetuate women’s deprivation. The first essay compares house ownership and alienation rights in Karnataka (India) and Ghana, uncovering systemic gender gaps in property control and biases based on reporting status, with Ghana exhibiting relatively more equitable norms. The second essay evaluates India’s District Primary Education Program (DPEP) and finds that while educational access improved, gender-neutral policy design reinforced traditional roles by disproportionately benefiting men and reallocating women’s time to domestic labour. The third essay constructs Bangladesh’s first individual-level Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), revealing that household measures understate poverty for two-thirds of individuals, disproportionately affecting women—particularly older women—due to gaps in education, immovable assetownership, and employment and social protection. Collectively, the studies highlight persistent gender disparities shaped by context-specific legal, cultural, and policy landscapes. They challenge conventional household-level metrics, advocating for sex disaggregated, individual-level data to capture intra-household inequities. The findings underscore the need for gender-sensitive interventions—from legal reforms to address asset equity to complementary policies that address time-use burdens and age-specific vulnerabilities—to disrupt structural barriers and advance women’s multidimensional well-being across diverse Global South contexts.

Pagination

xiv, 249p.

Copyright

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Document Type

Dissertation

DAC Chairperson

Swaminathan, Hema

DAC Members

Sahoo, Soham; Kamath, Rajalaxmi

Type of Degree

Ph.D.

Relation

DIS-IIMB-FPM-P26-05

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