The Effectiveness of Group Identification on Women Economic Empowerment: A Case of the Project to Empower Women through Savings and Loan Associations (PEWOSA)
Ikisiri
The purpose of the study was to investigate whether identification with a women's group had helped women achieve economic empowerment. The study was underpinned by the social identity and economic empowerment theories and adopted a mixed methods approach. The quantitative data was collected using 360 questionnaires that were given to women while qualitative data was collected from 21 key informants and 20 focus groups. The quantitative data analysis involved descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling using SMART PLS Version 4 while qualitative data was analysed using NVIVO software. The study findings supported the tenets of social identity theory. In this, the constructs of group identity, that is, group centrality, in-group affect and in-group ties did positively influence economic empowerment. However, the association between centrality and financial autonomy, centrality and economic security, in-group ties and decision-making were not supported. It is recommended that Promoters of these groups promote transparent and fair leadership, group leaders adhere to principles of transparency, fairness, and inclusivity. Any form of perceived favouritism be managed in time to foster trust and positive emotional attachment within the group
Upakuaji
Marejeleo
Addai, B. (2017). Women empowerment through microfinance: Empirical evidence from Ghana. Journal of finance and accounting, 5(1), 1-11.
Alshebami, A. S., &Khandare, D. M. (2015). The role of microfinance for empowerment of poor women in Yemen. International Journal of Social Work, 2(1), 36-44.
Alsop, R., Bertelsen, M. F., & Holland, J. (2006). Empowerment in practice: From analysis to implementation. World Bank Publications.
Amaning, K., & Paul, S. M. (2019). The impact of savings groups on female agency: insights from village savings and loans associations in Northern Ghana. Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 9(2), 133-146.
Baguma, J. M. K., Kamukama, N., & Nsambu, F. K. (2020). Credit management systems and
Baporikar, N., & Akino, S. (2020). Financial literacy imperative for success of women entrepreneurship. International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy (IJIDE), 11(3), 1-21.
Barnes, C., & Li, Y. (2013). Women's economic empowerment: A review of evidence on enablers and barriers in South Asia. ODI Report.
Benish, I., &Saima, A. (2020). Women Economic Empowerment and Employment Discrimination (Quality education a factor to boost women’s economic empowerment and to reduce employment discrimination). Pakistan Review of Social Sciences Vol. 1, No. 2, 2020 ISSN: 2708-0951
Bloomfield, J., & Fisher, M. J. (2019). Quantitative research design. Journal of the Australasian Rehabilitation Nurses Association, 22(2), 27-30.
Bongomin, G. O. C., Woldie, A., & Wakibi, A. (2020), "Microfinance accessibility, social cohesion and survival of women MSMEs in post-war communities in sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Northern Uganda", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 749-774. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-12-2018-0383. Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited
Butāne, L., Spilva-Ekerte, L., Skride, A., & Šmite, D. (2022). Individually tailored remote physiotherapy program improves participation and autonomy in activities of everyday life along with exercise capacity, self-efficacy, and low-moderate physical activity in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: A randomized controlled study. Medicina, 58(5), 662.
Buvinic, M., & O’Donnell, M. (2016). Revisiting What Works: Women, Economic Empowerment and Smart Design. Center for Global Development.
Buvinic, M., & O’Donnell, M. (2019). Gender matters in economic empowerment interventions: A research review. The World Bank Research Observer, 34(2), 309–346.
Central Broadcasting Services (CBS). (2019). PEWOSA Annual Report 2019.
Cornman-Levy, D., Estremera, G. C., Guman, E., & Stevenson, T. (2020). Advancing the Economic Security of Women Through Equitable Community Engagement Practices. Social Innovations Journal, 2(2). Retrieved from https://socialinnovationsjournal.com/ index.php/sij/article/ view/262
Creswell J.W & Creswell, J. D (2018). Research design; Qualitative, quantitative &mixed methods approaches, Los Angeles sage Publications. Inc.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design – Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches (3rd edn.). London. Sage Publications. Inc.
Dapilah, F., Nielsen, J. Ø., & Friis, C. (2020). The role of social networks in building adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change: A case study from northern Ghana. Climate and Development, 12(1), 42-56.
DeVellis, R. F. (2016). Scale Development: Theory and Applications (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Dolma, S. (2010). The central role of the unit of analysis concept in research design. Istanbul University Journal of the School of Business Administration Cilt/Vol:39, Sayı/No:1, 2010, 169-174 ISSN: 1303-1732 – www.ifdergisi.org © 2010
Government of Uganda (GoU). (1991). Uganda Cooperative Societies Act
Government of Uganda (GoU). (2014). Uganda national local economic development (LED) policy
Government of Uganda (GoU). (1992). Uganda Cooperative Societies Regulations 1992.
Grootaert, C., Narayan, D., Jones, V. N., & Woolcock, M. (2004). Measuring social capital: An integrated questionnaire. World Bank Publications.
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2019). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.
Hilary, C., Walls, H., Ndirangu, R., Ogbureke, N., Osman, M. B., Kargbo, T., Dimoh, M., & Ranganathan, M. (2021). Women’s economic empowerment and health related decision-making in rural Sierra Leone, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 23:1, 19- 36, DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2019.1683229
Jannati, S., Kumar, A., Niessen-Ruenzi, A., & Wolfers, J. (2023). In-group bias in financial markets. Available at SSRN 2884218.
Johnson, J. L., Adkins, D., & Chauvin, S. (2020). A review of the quality indicators of rigor in qualitative research. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 84(1).
Kabeer, N. (1999). Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women's empowerment. Development and Change, 30(3), 435-464.
Kabeer, N. (2001). Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal
Kabeer, N. (2015). Gender equality, economic growth, and women's agency: The "endless variety" and "monotonous similarity" of patriarchal constraints. Feminist Economics, 21(3), 1-28.
Kabeer, N. (2019). Can the SDGs provide a pathway to feminist economic transformation? Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 35(2), 128-144.
Kabeer, N. (2020). The power to choose: Bangladeshi women and labour market decisions in London and Dhaka. Development and Change, 51(3), 731-757.
Kaitlyn, W., Chong, C., & Kyle, B. (2019). Conflict, Peace, and the Evolution of Women’s Empowerment
Kandpal, E., Baylis, K., & Arends-Kuenning, M. (2012). Empowering women through education and influence: An evaluation of the Indian MahilaSamakhya program.
Kate, A., Kelly, J., & Michael, O. (2020). Facilitating women’s access to an economic empowerment initiative: Evidence from Uganda. World Development, Volume 138,2021,105224, ISSN 0305-750X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105224. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/ pii/S0305750X2030351X)
Kato & Kratzer, (2013). Empowering women through microfinance; evidence from Tanzania, ACRN journal of entrepreneurship perspectives.
Konovalova, E., & Le Mens, G. (2020). An information sampling explanation for the in-group heterogeneity effect. Psychological Review, 127(1), 47.
Kouzou, O., Kazumi, S., Masahiro, K., & Hiroshi, M. (2018). "Critical Node Identification Based on Articulation Point Detection for Network with Uncertain Connectivity", Computing and Networking (CANDAR) 2018 Sixth International Symposium on, pp. 146-152, 2018.
Krejcie, R.V. and Morgan, D.W. (1970) Determining Sample Size for Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607-610.
Kristy, S., & Bryce, L. (2019). Quit Like a Millionaire, published by Penguin Random House, ISBN 978-0525538691
Kyegombe, N., Namakula, J., Mulumba, D., Lwanyaaga, J., Naker, D., & Heise, L. (2019). Exploring the association between social cohesion and economic security: a qualitative study of women in Uganda's savings groups. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-11.
Leach, C. W., Ellemers, N., & Barreto, M. (2007). Group identity and self‐conception: On the dialectics of belonging. In The psychology of group identity and the social self (pp. 71-96). Psychology Press.
Leach, C. W., van Zomeren, M., Zebel, S., Vliek, M. L., Pennekamp, S. F., Doosje, B., ... & Spears, R. (2008). Group-level self-definition and self-investment: A hierarchical (multicomponent) model of in-group identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 144-165. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.144
Lefebvre, C., Glanville, J., Briscoe, S., Littlewood, A., Marshall, C., Metzendorf, M. I., ... & Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group. (2019). Searching for and selecting studies. Cochrane Handbook for systematic reviews of interventions, 67-107.
Liu, S., Wang, B., & Liu, J. (2020). Group decision making under social influences based on information entropy. Granular Computing, 5, 303-308.
Loha, W. (2018). Community-led Development: Perspectives and approaches of four member organizations
Masson, T., & Barth, M. (2019). Solving the paradox–(further) evidence for a quadratic relationship between in‐group centrality and group‐based guilt. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58(4), 917-937.
Mayoux, L. (2001). Microfinance and the empowerment of women: A review of the key issues. Social finance unit, DFID.
McDavid, J. C., Huse, I. & Hawthorn, L. R. L. (2013). Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement. An Introduction to Practice (1st ed.). Canada, SAGE Publications.
Mosse, D. (2004). Is good policy unimplementable? Reflections on the ethnography of aid policy and practice. Development and Change, 35(4), 639-671.
Mukorera, S. Z. (2020). Is entrepreneurship the solution for female empowerment in South Africa. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship. Vol. 25, No. 1 (2020) 2050003 (14 pages). World Scientific Publishing Co. doi: 10.1142/S108494672050003X.
Mukras, M., & Bachewe, F. (2018). The Impact of Social Capital on the Performance of Voluntary Savings and Credit Associations (VSLAs) in Ethiopia. Journal of African Development, 20(1), 93-102
Nanyonjo, G., & Nchanji, E. (2023). Seed credit model in Uganda”: Participation and empowerment dynamics among smallholder women and men farmers. Global Food Security, 39, 100720.
Njau, B., Kannady, K., Mtenga, S., Mwanguhya, F., & Klepp, K. I. (2018). Group centrality and economic security among women in Tanzania's informal economy: a cross-sectional Study. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 1-9
Obermaier, M., Schmuck, D., & Saleem, M. (2023). I’ll be there for you? Effects of Islamophobic online hate speech and counter speech on Muslim in-group bystanders’ intention to intervene. New Media & Society, 25(9), 2339-2358.
Ohara, K., Saito, K., Kimura, M., & Motoda, H. (2017). "Maximizing Network Performance Based on Group Centrality by Creating Most Effective k-Links," 2017 IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA), 2017, pp. 561-570, doi: 10.1109/DSAA.2017.44.
Parfitt, C., & Barnes, T. (2020). Rethinking economic security in a precarious world. Critical Sociology, 46(4-5), 487-494.
Poort, I., Jansen, E., & Hofman, A. (2022). Does the group matter? Effects of trust, cultural diversity, and group formation on engagement in group work in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 41(2), 511-526.
Rankin, M. (2019). 20 years of search in microfinance; An information management approach, International Journal of Information Management, Vol.2
Raskovic, M., & Takacs-Haynes, K. (2021). (Re) Discovering social identity theory: an agenda for multinational enterprise internalization theory. Multinational Business Review, 29(2), 145-165.
Reshi, I. A., & Sudha, D. T. (2023). An analysis of investing habits among working women. International Journal of Social Science, Educational, Economics, Agriculture Research and Technology, 2(3), 1300-1304.
Rottenberg, C. (2019). Women who work: The limits of the neoliberal feminist paradigm. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(8), 1073-1082.
Scelza, B. A., Prall, S. P., Blumenfield, T., Crittenden, A. N., Gurven, M., Kline, M., ... & McElreath, R. (2020). Patterns of paternal investment predict cross-cultural variation in jealous response. Nature human behaviour, 4(1), 20-26.
Schuler, S. R., & Nazneen, S. (2018). “Does Intimate Partner Violence Decline as Women’s Empowerment Becomes Normative? Perspectives of Bangladeshi Women.” World Development 101: 284– 292. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.09.005
Simon, B. L. (1994). The Empowerment Tradition in American Social Work: A History. New York: Columbia University Press
Spector, P. E. (2019). Do not cross me: Optimizing the use of cross-sectional designs. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(2), 125-137.
Stromme Foundation. (2017). Project to empower women through savings and loans associations: Annual Report 2017. Stromme Foundation.
Stromme Foundation. (2018). Project to empower women through savings and loans associations: Annual Report 2018. Stromme Foundation.
Stromme Foundation. (2019). Project to empower women through savings and loans associations: Annual Report 2019. Stromme Foundation.
Tajfel, H., & Turner JC. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In The
Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, ed. WG Austin, SWorchel.
Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole
Tandon, T. (2016). Women Empowerment: Perspectives and Views Person of the Month: Alfred Adler (1870-1937), International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 3, ISSN:2349-3429 (p) Volume 3, Issue 3, DIP: 18.01.001/20160303, ISBN: 978-1-365-12176-0 http://www.ijip.in | April - June, 2016
Tran, D. H. (2020). Optimizing time–cost in generalized construction projects using multiple-objective social group optimization and multi-criteria decision-making methods. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 27(9), 2287-2313.
UNDP (2005). Human Development Report, Educating Women for Development Uganda Bureau Statistics Report (2005), Population dynamics
Urena, R., Kou, G., Dong, Y., Chiclana, F., & Herrera-Viedma, E. (2019). A review on trust propagation and opinion dynamics in social networks and group decision making frameworks. Information Sciences, 478, 461-475.
Vukovic, D. B., Petrovic, M., Maiti, M., & Vujko, A. (2021). Tourism development, entrepreneurship and women's empowerment–Focus on Serbian countryside. Journal of Tourism Futures.
Wan, Q., Xu, X., Zhuang, J., & Pan, B. (2021). A sentiment analysis-based expert weight determination method for large-scale group decision-making driven by social media data. Expert Systems with Applications, 185, 115629.
Wang, X., & Cheng, Z. (2020). Cross-sectional studies: strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations. Chest, 158(1), S65-S71.
Wanjiku, E., & Njiru, A. (2016). Influence of microfinance services on economic empowerment of women in Olkalou constituency, Kenya. International Journal of Research in Business Management, 4(4), 67-78
World Bank. (2016). Gender Equality Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/publication/gender-equality-strategy-2016-2023
World Bank. (2018). Women, Business and the Law 2018. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30455
Yalcin, E., & Bilge, A. (2021). Investigating and counteracting popularity bias in group recommendations. Information Processing & Management, 58(5), 102608.
Yount, K.M., Amber, P., & Yuk, F. C. (2018). Measuring women's empowerment: a need for context and caution. THE LANCET Global Health. volume 6, Issue 1, E29, January 01, 2018. Published: January, 2018DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30459-X
Zimmerman, M. A. (2000). Empowerment theory: Psychological, organizational, and community levels of analysis. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community psychology (pp. 43–63). Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4193-6_2
Copyright (c) 2024 Nakimuli Leticia, Joseph Ntayi, PhD, Florence Bakibinga Sajjabi, PhD, James Kizza, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
