Development and validation of the instrument for measuring psychological empowerment in women

Abstract

Female empowerment has been described as a process that involves the acquisition of power over resources, decisions, and actions taken by women. It involves a series of variables that academic literature has associated with its functioning, such as emancipation, participation, autonomy, among others. However, measuring empowerment as a process entails serious practical problems. Therefore, for evaluation purposes, it is more appropriate to treat it as a construct; thus, psychological empowerment becomes more appropriate given that various studies have emphasized the relevance of empowerment in cognitive terms. Its measurement can be useful for understanding the effectiveness of educational or training programs aimed at promoting empowerment. The objective of this study is to develop and validate a scale for measuring psychological empowerment in Mexican women. A preliminary questionnaire with 56 items was developed and administered to a sample of 296 adult women. Following factor analysis (principal components extraction and Varimax rotation) and calculation of Cronbach alpha for the resulting total scale (with 37 items) and each of the final subscales, 7 factors were reported that explained 49.722% of the total variance of the instrument. These factors are: influence of traditional gender stereotypes, self-confidence, participatory communication, social influence, self-esteem, perception of importance to others, activity outside the home environment. The internal consistency coefficient was .915.