The Impact Of Women Empowerment On Poverty Reduction In The Rural Area Of Zimbabwe

Women empowerment is one of the most discussing issues in the present world,especially in the developing country.Women’s empowerment has a great influence on health,nutrition,education,and the overall well-being of societies as well as of the children and households.This study investigates the effect of women’s empowerment on poverty reduction and focuses on economic activities,education and health.Primary data was collected from 400 married women from rural areas of Zimbabwe using a well-structured questionnaire and a random sampling technique.Zimbabwe is one of the developing countries with almost 53% women of its total population.In labor force women participation is around 50.63% and facing many kinds of obstacles like they have family burden,social burden,religion burden mostly in rural area.Therefore,women empowerment is a timely important requirement to reduce at least the household poverty among them.This study was conducted to identify the determinants of empowerment of women in rural areas and also roles of them in reduction of poverty.Empowerment can be defined by giving power and authority to take decision in every part of life,including household,economic,education,social,political etc.Women empowerment can be considered as a greatest weapon for alleviating poverty.Since achieving independence,poverty has been dominating in the most rural areas of Zimbabwe.The results indicate that increased women’s access to education,economic opportunities,decision-making,and health programs and have caused a significant decline in income poverty and multidimensional poverty.However,some challenges like corruption and lack of support from the males have caused a considerable decline in per capital income and an increase in income poverty and multidimensional poverty.Overall,it is found that women’s empowerment has a great impact on the reduction of poverty and multidimensional poverty in society.