Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41699924›Full record

SynthesisWomen's health (London, England)

Women's empowerment measurements in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic literature review.

Immanuel Shipanga, Opeoluwa Oyedele, Lawrence Kazembe

Abstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Women's health (London, England). The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Immanuel ShipangaDepartment of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, School of Science, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.ORCID 0000-0003-1670-4283
Opeoluwa OyedeleDepartment of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, School of Science, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.
Lawrence KazembeDepartment of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, School of Science, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Quantifying women's empowerment has gained prominence as a research focus globally. We conducted a systematic review of the literature examining the measurement of women's empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The objectives of the study is to describe quantitative measurements of women's empowerment based on individual-level data. We searched PubMed/Medline, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases, along with forward and backward citation tracking, for studies published between 2010 and 2025. The search yielded 1898 records, of which 98 studies met the inclusion criteria. All included studies were peer-reviewed, conducted either across multiple countries or within specific national contexts and analysed data from women of reproductive age. The review revealed considerable variations in the definition of women's empowerment indicators, the conceptualization of dimensions and a general lack of consensus regarding what specific indicators were intending to measure. This review offers a comprehensive synthesis of the existing quantitative evidence on women's empowerment measurement in SSA. Furthermore, the findings underscore that empowerment is inherently multidimensional, encompassing aspects such as women's decision-making, control over resources and autonomy in sexual and reproductive matters. Importantly, the selection of dimensions and indicators is often constrained by the availability of relevant data.

Indexed as

EmpowermentPower, PsychologicalWomen's HealthWomen's RightsAfrica South of the SaharaDecision MakingFemaleHumansPersonal AutonomySub-Saharan African Peopledecision-makingmeasurementsub-Saharan Africawomen’s empowerment

Identifiers

PMID41699924
PMCPMC12924980

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.