Abstract
Background
Understanding gender roles and women’s empowerment is crucial to improve nutrition and health. The aim of this analysis is to compare women’s and men’s perception of the relational facilitators, including expectations, roles, and group dynamics, of women’s empowerment at the family level in rural Ghana.
Methods
We enrolled 16 women and 14 male partners from one community to participate in four focus groups discussions (FGDs) (two with women and two with men). The FGD probed into the domains of empowerment to gain a local understanding of perceived facilitators and barriers. The translated transcripts were transcribed and coded inductively and deductively, using in the qualitative analysis software MAXQDA.
Results
Women identified family members as important supporters in farm and domestic work, and providers of financial and resource assistance (e.g., farm inputs, land). Family members were a source of advice and support of skill-building. Men also identified family’s contributions under the same themes as women and their role in supporting farm-related work. However, they disregarded their role in providing financial support for the household, believing that empowered women should take on that responsibility. Moreover, men mentioned a woman obeying her husband as an important contributor to women’s empowerment.
Conclusion
Discrepancies in the perceptions of relational factors within the household may present as a barrier to women’s empowerment and need to be addressed in future interventions
