ABSTRACT. Women empowerment entails access to both productive and non-productive resources with the motive of improving the value of individuals’ orientation towards making decisions that affect both the individual and other related entities. This study used a nationally representative survey from the 2012–2013 World Bank’s General Household Survey for Nigeria to examine the relationship between empowerment and dietary diversity. Empowerment measure was computed based on a modification of the Alkire et al. (2013) empowerment index. Accounting for potential endogeneity of empowerment, as well as using both the non-parametric regression and the traditional least square regression, we find that increases in empowerment are positively associated with household dietary diversity. In addition, a household that is female biased (in terms of share of female within the household and households that favor female leadership) tend to have higher significant improvement in their dietary intake with empowerment. On the contrary, empowerment generates a small proportion of male dietary diversity.

Keywords: agriculture; food diversity; food security; gender; household; Nigeria; rural development

How to cite: Tanankem Voufo, Belmondo, Efobi Uchenna, and Scholastica Ngozi Atata (2017). “Women Empowerment and Intra-Household Dietary Diversity in Nigeria,” Journal of Research in Gender Studies 7(2): 39–66.

Received 20 February 2017 • Received in revised form 17 June 2017
Accepted 19 July 2017 • Available online 15 August 2017

doi:10.22381/JRGS7220173