Empowered yet unequal: exploring the knowledge and attitudes of working women towards economic independence and gender equality

Abstract

This study describes the women worker’s socio-economic profile (SEP), such as age, education, occupation, type of family, marital status, number of children, total family income, and the total number of family members and gender equity. A mixed-method research design was adopted. In the first stage, the quantitative method—the questionnaire method—was used with a pre-prepared sequence of questions to collect the required information from adolescent working women. Second stage, the qualitative method, focus group discussions (FGD), was adopted to collect elaborate responses from the respondents. Likert-type five-point scales have been used for this study. The statistical measures used are mean, standard deviation (SD), analysis of variance (ANOVA), factor analysis, and correlation. Tests of significance have been conducted with the level of significance fixed at 0.05. The correlation results show that educational qualification, marital status, and the number of family members have a significant positive relationship with the knowledge of economic independence. The correlation bivariate analysis shows that adolescent women workers’ knowledge of economic independence has a significant positive relationship with attitude towards economic independence, knowledge of gender equality, and attitude towards gender equality. Knowledge and attitude on economic independence have a significant positive relationship with knowledge and attitude towards gender equality.