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Title

weai -- Computes different versions of the Women's Empowerment in Agricultural Index (WEAI).

Syntax

weai d1(varlist) d2(varlist)
... [w1(numlist) w2(numlist) ...] [if] [in] [weight],
sex(varname)
female(integer)
hhid(varname)
[cutoff(real)
details
save(filename)
graph(filename)
by(varname)]

Description

The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is a standardized, survey-based tool that
has been widely used to track gender equality and measure empowerment, agency, and women's inclusion in
the agricultural sector
(Alkire et al. 2013). Since the WEAI's release
in 2012, an abbreviated version of the WEAI (referred to as A-WEAI) and
project-level version of the WEAI (referred to as pro-WEAI) have been developed
(Malapit et al. 2017;
Malapit et al. 2019).

Depending on the options specified by the user, weai is capable of computing all versions
of the WEAI. weai allows for flexibility in the specification of the binary adequacy indicators,
empowerment cutoff, and indicator weights. weai provides a decomposition by indicator and, when
specified, by sub-groups. Note that because the WEAI requires data from women and men, users
are required to specify a variable (and values) identifying the sex of respondents.

Given a suitable set of adequacy indicators, empowerment cutoff, and gender
variable, weai computes the following output:

Individual-/household-level indicators:

empowered: Empowerment status, a binary indicator that reflects whether a person is empowered. A person
is considered empowered if his/her empowerment score (the share of weighted indicators in which he/she achieves
adequacy) is equal to or greater than the empowerment cutoff (see below for details).

emp_score: Empowerment score, the share of weighted indicators in which a person achieves
adequacy. Higher values indicate higher levels of adequacy (i.e., empowerment).

gender_parity: Gender parity status, a binary indicator that reflects whether a
household achieves gender parity.

hh_ineq: Intrahousehold inequality score, the difference between the empowerment
scores of the male and female respondents within the same household. A positive score
indicates that the man is more empowered than the woman; a negative score indicates that
the woman is more empowered than the man.

Aggregate indices:

5/3DE: Five/Three Domains of Empowerment Index. Based on the Alkire-Foster methodology
(Alkire and Foster 2011), the 5/3DE measures
the prevalence of empowerment and intensity of disempowerment at the individual-level in the sample
population. It is calculated using the formula: 5/3DE = 1 - (H*A).

H: Percentage of individuals not achieving empowerment, or the disempowerment headcount ratio. Reflects the
prevalence of (dis)empowerment among women/men in the sample population. It is the proportion of persons in the
sample considered to be disempowered based on the empowerment cutoff.

A: Mean disempowerment score. Reflects the intensity of (dis)empowerment among women/men in the sample
population. It is the mean share of weighted indicators in which a person does not achieve adequacy, calculated
only for persons considered to be disempowered based on the empowerment cutoff.

GPI: Gender Parity Index. The GPI measures two aspects of empowerment at the household-level in the
sample population: the proportion of households that achieve gender parity and the average empowerment gap
among households that lack gender parity. A household achieves gender parity if either of the following
conditions are true: the woman is considered empowered or the woman's empowerment score is equal to or
greater than the man's empowerment score. It is calculated using the formula: GPI = 1 - (HGPI*IGPI).

HGPI: Percentage of households not achieving gender parity. Reflects the prevalence of gender parity among
households in the sample population. It is the proportion of households in the sample considered
not to have achieved gender parity.

IGPI: Mean empowerment gap. Reflects the average percentage shortfall that women without gender parity
experience relative to men in their households. It is the mean (normalized) difference between the empowerment scores of
the man and woman in a household, calculated among only households that do not achieve gender parity.

WEAI/A-WEAI/pro-WEAI: Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index/Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in
Agriculture Index/Project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index. The WEAI/A-WEAI/pro-WEAI measures
women's empowerment in the sample population. It is the weighted average of the 5/3DE and GPI,
in which the 5/3DE receives 0.9 weight and the GPI receives 0.1 weight.

Main

d1(varlist) ... List of empowerment domains, each domain must be
composed of at least 1 indicator and at least 3 domains must be specified.

sex(varname) Variable identifying the gender of respondents.

female(integer) Value assigned to female respondents.

hhid(varname) Variable uniquely identifying households.

Optional

w1(numlist) ... List of weights to be applied to the list of indicators.

cutoff(real) Empowerment cutoff, a value between 0 and 1, denoting
the share of weighted indicators in which a person must be adequate to be considered
empowered; default value is 0.80 (or 80% of the weighted indicators).

details Displays optional results tables.

save(filename) Saves results tables using filename.

graph(filename) Displays and saves optional figure(s) using filename.

by(varname) Decomposition of all output measures by categories of varname.

save(string)

pweight and fweight are allowed; see weight.

Options

d1(varlist) d2(varlist) d3(varlist) ... : denote the empowerment
domains. At least 1 indicator must be specified for each domain and at least 3 domains must
be specified. The indicators should be binary variables (1 = adequate; 0 = inadequate). Respondents with missing values
for any indicator are excluded from the estimation sample. The tables below show the domains,
indicators, and weights for pro-WEAI, WEAI, and A-WEAI, respectively. Pro-WEAI is comprised of
10 indicators across 3 domains (intrinsic agency, instrumental agency, and collective
agency). WEAI is comprised of 10 indicators across 5 domains (production, resources, income,
leadership, and time). A-WEAI is comprised on 6 indicators across the same 5 domains. Users
must follow these guidelines in order to correctly calculate the indices. Guidance and
background information on the construction of the indicators, as well as Stata .do files,
can be accessed on the WEAI Resource Center.

Pro-WEAI
+
+
| Domain Indicator Weight |
+
+
| Intrinsic Autonomy in income 1/10 |
| agency Self-efficacy 1/10 |
| Attitudes about intimate partner 1/10 |
| violence against women |
+
+
| Instrumental Input in livelihood decisions 1/10 |
| agency Ownership of land and other assets 1/10 |
| Access to and decisions on 1/10 |
| financial services |
| Control over use of income 1/10 |
| Work balance 1/10 |
| Visiting important locations 1/10 |
+
+
| Collective Group membership 1/10 |
| agency |
+
+

WEAI
+
+
| Domain Indicator Weight |
+
+
| Production Input in productive decisions 1/10 |
| Autonomy in production 1/10 |
+
+
| Resources Ownership of assets 1/15* |
| Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets 1/15* |
| Access to and decisions about credit 1/15* |
+
+
| Income Control over use of income 1/5 |
+
+
| Leadership Group membership 1/10 |
| Speaking in public 1/10 |
+
+
| Time Workload 1/10 |
| Leisure 1/10 |
+
+
NOTE: * Weights should be specified as w2(0.06667 0.06666 0.06667).

A-WEAI
+
+
| Domain Indicator Weight |
+
+
| Production Input in productive decisions 1/5 |
+
+
| Resources Ownership of assets 2/15** |
| Access to and decisions about credit 1/15** |
+
+
| Income Control over use of income 1/5 |
+
+
| Leadership Group membership 1/5 |
+
+
| Time Workload 1/5 |
+
+
NOTE: ** Weights should be specified as w2(0.13333 0.06667).

w1(numlist) w2(numlist) w3(numlist) ... : denote
the weights used when summing indicators to calculate the empowerment score.
If indicator weights are unspecified by the user, all indicators receive equal weight if 3 domains are specified (that is, the weighting structure used by pro-WEAI). If indicator weights are unspecified and 5 domains are specified, indicators are weighted equally within each domain.

If weights are specified by the user, the following
requirements apply: (i) weights must be values between
0 and 1 and must sum to 1; (ii) the number of weights
must equal the number of indicators; and (iii) weights and indicators must
be listed in the same order to ensure proper correspondence.

sex(varname) and female(integer) : are required and, respectively,
specify a variable and value that identify female respondents.

hhid(varname) : is required and specifies a variable that uniquely identifies households.

cutoff(real) : denotes the empowerment cutoff, or the minimum empowerment score required for
a person to be considered empowered. The empowerment cutoff should be a value
between 0 and 1. For each person weai computes an empowerment score, i.e., the share of weighted
indicators in which he/she achieves adequacy. A person is considered empowered only if his/her resulting
score is equal to or greater than the specified empowerment cutoff. If unspecified by the
user, a default value of 0.80 (or 80% of the weighted indicators) is used, which reflects the
cutoff used when calculating WEAI, A-WEAI, and pro-WEAI.

A modified version of pro-WEAI may be calculated if at least 8 of 10 indicators,
including at least 1 from each domain, are present in the index. For a modified version
of pro-WEAI calculated with 8 or 9 indicators, the empowerment cutoff should be
set at 0.75.

details : displays additional tables and figures showing: (i) the uncensored
inadequcy headcount ratio, i.e., the proportion of women/men in the sample who
are inadequate in an indicator, regardless of whether they are empowered or disempowered;
(ii) the censored inadequcy headcount ratio, i.e., the proportion of women/men in
the sample who are disempowered and simultaneously inadequate in an indicator; and
(iii) the relative contribution of each indicator to disempowerment, calculated
by multiplying the censored inadequcy headcount ratio by the indicator weight and
dividing by the disempowerment index (1 - 3/5DE).

save(filename) : saves the results tables in Microsoft Word format (.docx) using filename.

graph(filename) : displays a bar graph showing the absolute contribution of each
indicator to disempowerment, calculated by multiplying the censored inadequacy
headcount ratio by the indicator weight. Saves graph in Stata .gph format using filename. To reproduce the color scheme
used in Malapit et al. (2019) use the weai scheme, provided in the
ancillary files of the weai package. Note
that labels for the binary indicator variables should
be no longer than 80 characters to avoid an error.

by(varname) : decomposes all of the output measures by categories of varname. Must
be numeric. Missing values are excluded from the estimation sample.

Examples using "WEAI_examples.dta"

Pro-WEAI with details option:

weai d1(autonomy_inc selfeff never_violence) d2(feelinputdecagr assetownership credit_accdec incomecontrol work_balance mobility)
d3(groupmember), sex(sex) female(2) hhid(hhid) details

Pro-WEAI with 8 indicators and graph option using weai scheme:

set scheme weai

weai d1(autonomy_inc never_violence) d2(feelinputdecagr assetownership credit_accdec incomecontrol work_balance) d3(groupmember),
cutoff(0.75) sex(sex) female(2) hhid(ID) graph

Pro-WEAI, disagreggated by group:

egen project = group(group)

label variable project "Project"

tabulate project

weai d1(autonomy_inc selfeff never_violence) d2(feelinputdecagr assetownership credit_accdec incomecontrol work_balance mobility)
d3(groupmember), sex(sex) female(2) hhid(hhid) by(project)

A-WEAI:

weai d1(feelinputdecagr) d2(assetownership credit_accdec) d3(incomecontrol) d4(work_balance) d5(groupmember)
w1(0.2) w2(0.13333 0.06667) w3(0.2) w4(0.2) w5(0.2), sex(sex) female(2) hhid(hhid)

Stored results

The individual-/household-level indicators (empowered, emp_score,
gender_parity, and hh_ineq) are saved as new variables in the dataset. Aggregate indices
(emp_index, gpi, and weai) reflecting the 5/3DE, GPI, and WEAI/A-WEAI/pro-WEAI,
respectively, are also saved as new variables in the dataset. Additionally, the aggregate
indices and related tables are displayed in table format and optionally saved as a Microsoft Word document
(.docx). Related figures are optionally generated and
saved in Stata .gph format.

References

Alkire, S., & Foster, J. (2011). Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement.
Journal of Public Economics, 95(7–8), 476–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.11.006

Alkire, S., Meinzen-Dick, R., Peterman, A., Quisumbing, A., Seymour, G., & Vaz, A. (2013). The
Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index. World Development, 52,
71–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.06.007

Malapit, H., Quisumbing, A., Meinzen-Dick, R., Seymour, G., Martinez, E., Heckert, J.,
Rubin, D., Vaz, A., & Yount, K. (2019). Development of the project-level Women's Empowerment
in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI). World Development, 122, 675–692.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.06.018

Malapit, H., Pinkstaff, C., Sproule, K., Kovarik, C., Quisumbing, A., & Meinzen-Dick, R.
(2017). The Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI).
IFPRI Discussion Paper, No. 1647. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research
Institute
(IFPRI). https://www.ifpri.org/publication/abbreviated-womens-empowerment-agriculture-index-weai

Authors

Malick Dione, International Food Policy Research Institute

Greg Seymour, United States Census Bureau

Nathaniel Ferguson, International Food Policy Research Institute

Hazel Malapit, International Food Policy Research Institute

For more information visit the WEAI Resource Center

https://weai.ifpri.info/

Contact us

IFPRI-WEAI@cgiar.org