Literature review and theoretical model

Although several definitions of autonomy exist, most refer to people’s resources to make decisions (^{Charrad, 2010}; ^{Howard-Hassmann, 2011}). ^{Hasselberger (2012)} defines autonomy as a set of characteristics that give people the capacity to guide the course of their lives from their own point of view and interests. In this regard, autonomy refers solely to an individual-level disposition necessary for implementing strategies for attaining desired goals (^{Mishra & Tripathi, 2011}). Autonomy brings people abilities to make the most from available opportunities (^{Mishra & Tripathi, 2011}). Some authors consider autonomy to be a more static state than agency because the characteristics that may orient people’s actions are more stable or fixed over time (^{Allendorf, 2012}; ^{Casique, 2004}; ^{Mishra & Tripathi, 2011}).

Several indicators are available to operationalize autonomy in empirical research. ^{Street (2004)}, in a qualitative study, classifies women’s autonomy as a function of their level of participation in the labor market, possession of assets, and other factors such as education that increase female labor force. ^{García (2003)} utilizes different studies to design indicators of autonomy. Although she suggests that autonomy is usually measured through variables such as education level, labor situation, income, age, and age at marriage, she points out that improvements in these variables do not necessarily increase autonomy levels and that additional indicators should be considered to enhance the validity of a measure of autonomy.

Agency, on the other hand, is related to perceptions of possibilities for intensification as well as expansion of power to achieve desired goals and objectives (^{Mishra & Tripathi, 2011}). The concept of agency denotes a process of change where people start becoming aware of their power, possibilities, and influences in different groups and environments. Individuals exercise and develop the use of their autonomy to change existing values and norms (^{Mishra & Tripathi, 2011}). Women’s agency is the transformation of autonomy into intentions. In presence of agency, women “are able to define their self-interest and choice, and consider themselves as not only able, but entitled to make choices” (^{Mishra & Tripathi, 2011}). Agency is a process through which attitudes generate a structure that guides future actions and constitutes people’s identity (^{Hasselberger, 2012}). “An agent is autonomous when her behavior is motivated and guided by attitudes that posses authority” (^{Hasselberger, 2012}). According to ^{Kabeer (1999)}, measuring agency with explicit indicators turns out to be difficult because of its association with multiple social-psychological dimensions including decision-making processes, negotiation, deception, and manipulation.

But the transformation of autonomy into agency is influenced by specific social structural characteristics. Social structures define the extent and quality of women’s agency and outcomes (^{Charrad, 2010}). Women exercise their autonomy within structures that may shape, constrain, or enhance their abilities. In turn, social structures embody power inequalities that influence agency. Many feminists have argued that the main source of power inequalities derives from existing patriarchal configurations in diverse realms such as family, the labor market, state, and religion (^{Charrad, 2010}).

Moreover, process of exercising and developing use of autonomy leads to decision making. Once agency has been achieved, women are able to make decisions. ^{Casique (2004)} presents a scale to measure Mexican married women’s intrahousehold decision-making power through their decisions regarding the number of children they have, how to educate their children, daily expense, to visit their friends and relatives, and when to have sexual relations. Meanwhile, ^{García (2003)} suggests measuring women’s decision-making capacity within household through their level of participation in making decision regarding their children’s education and health care, use of birth control methods, and household expenditures. ^{Bojorquez Chapela, Salgado-de Snyder & Casique (2009)}, assess women’s decision making in terms of their level of participation in decision making with respect to how much household spends on daily expenses, durable goods, and house improvements.

Within household, norms with regard to household division of labor influence the level of women’s decision-making capacity (^{Blair, 2013}). As men actively participate in production of goods and services within household, men are more likely to partner with women improving women’s participation levels in decision-making (^{Acharya, Bell, Simkhada, Van Teijlingen & Regmi, 2010}). Also, as women’s access to resources through labor force participation increases, their decision-making capacity is likely to increase (^{Fernández, 2010}).

In sum, proposed correlates of women’s decisionmaking capacity are likely to include autonomy, agency, labor force participation, and amount of household chores (^{Soni-Sinha, 2011}; ^{Rajasingham-Senanayake, 2004}) (figure 1). Both autonomy and agency affect women’s decision-making capacity. Women’s participation in labor market and spouses’ involvement in domestic work may shape women’s self conception and attitudes toward their role within as well outside household.

Source: Author’s own elaboration.

Figure 1 Hypothesized models of women’s decision-making capacity Vol. 26 No. 5 Septiembre-Octubre 2016 73 

Data

For this study, we use secondary data. Data for this study comes from the Survey for the Diagnosis of Families in Nuevo Leon, a state-level representative survey conducted by the School of Social Work and Human Development from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) in 2010. The purpose of the survey was to obtain information regarding family dynamic. Survey consists of 2681 cases from 51 municipalities in Nuevo Leon. Sampling was based on results from the Second National Count of Population and Housing conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico. Stratified random sampling method was used to collect state-level representative data. Participants were comprised of male and female household heads older than 15 years old in any marital status (for more information see ^{Ribeiro, 2011}). In this study we use a sub-set of 1462 households with both partners present at the time of this study. A number of variables suffer from missing data. For variables with more than ten cases missing, we addressed the problem with mean imputation.

Operationalization of variables

Table 1 presents and describes operationalization of variables used to measure each of constructs in proposed model of women’s decision-making capacity. Previous studies suggest that decisions related to children’s education and health, household expenditures, women’s mobility, and sexual rights appear to indicate household decision-making capacity within Mexican context (^{Bojorquez-Chapela et al., 2009}; ^{Casique, 2004}; ^{García, 2003}). In this study women’s decision-making capacity is measured through level of participation in making decision with regard to children’s education, number of children, location to live, expenses, and time allocation for recreational activities and to spend with friends and relatives.

Table 1 Description of variables and constructs. 

Source: Survey for the Diagnosis of Families in Nuevo Leon, 2010.

Several indicators are available to operationalize autonomy in empirical research (^{Bojorquez-Chapela et al., 2009}; ^{García, 2003}). To measure autonomy we utilize variables such as number of children, years of current marital status, years of education, age at first marriage. Agency is indicated by women’s opinion about their roles at the intrahousehold as well as extra-household level. Indicators include relationships of women to men.

Women’s participation in labor market is indicated by the number of hours that they work outside home. Regarding domestic tasks, women’s burden inside household may restrict their choices and opportunities to undertake activities in other spheres (^{Blair, 2013}). We measure household chores using indicators that reflect women’s partner involvement in domestic work, such as how frequently couple do dishes, cook, or do laundry.

Analysis and Results

In average, women in our sample have 3.14 children, 9.07 years of education, and their first union was at 21 years old (appendix 1). Percentage of decisions that only women make within household ranges from 8.1% to 29.2%. The lowest percentage of decisions that only women make refers to living location and the highest participation of women in intra-household decisionmaking is related to children’s education. Regarding partners’ involvement in household chores, in most cases they never participate in domestic tasks.

Table 2 presents estimates from CFA models of four latent factors. Although squared multiple correlation value for a few indicators is less than 0.250, goodness of fit index (GFI) for the respective constructs suggests a high level of theoretical validity for each of the four constructs with all respective factor loadings significant at the 0.01 level.

Table 2 Loading factors, squared multiple correlation value and goodness of fit of the measurement model. 

Note: All estimates are significant at the 0.01 level. Source: Own estimates with information from the Survey for the Diagnosis of Families in Nuevo Leon 2010.

Table 3 presents results from estimation of structural equation model for both models. Significant chisquare statistics indicates that reproduced covariance matrix differ from sample covariance matrix. However, given sensitivity of chi-square statistics to sample size and data that are nonnormally distributed, decisions on adequacy of a model should consider alternative indices of fit. The GFI, adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), and confirmatory fit index (CFI) values are close to 1 and Root Mean Square Error of Aproximation (RMSEA) is lower than 0.10, which suggest a good model fit. When incorporating agency as a mediator between autonomy and decision-making capacity the direct effect of autonomy on decision-making capacity decreases from 0.254 to 0.118. Increases in women’s agency lead to higher levels of their decision-making capacity. Furthermore, gains in agency have more impact on women’s decision-making capacity than increases in autonomy. This reveals importance of agency in the model as a relevant component in women’s decision-making capacity and as a process of change where women start becoming aware of their power, possibilities, and influence. Also, in model 2 the effect of autonomy on women’s agency is positive. As women’s autonomy increases by one unit, we find approximately 13.6 per unit increase in women’s agency level. Thus improvements in autonomy play a significant and effective role in promoting women’s agency. In presence of both autonomy and agency women are more likely to participate in decision-making actively.

Table 3 Coefficients and goodness of fit of the Structural Equation Model. 

Note: All estimates are significant at the 0.01 level. Source: Own estimates with information from the Survey for the Diagnosis of Families in Nuevo Leon 2010.

As expected correlations among labor force participation, household chores, and autonomy are both positive and significant. Our results also suggest that women’s participation in labor market and men’s involvement in housework positively influence agency. Structural aspects have potential to either enhance or constrain autonomy and agency depending upon existing value structures. Our expectation that higher levels of women’s participation in the labor force and greater sharing of domestic tasks result in higher levels of women’s agency was supported. Both labor force participation and autonomy have a significant and positive indirect effect on women's decision-making capacity. The effect of autonomy on agency measured in terms of path coefficient is about nine times the path coefficient between labor force participation and agency. Subsequently, indirect effect of autonomy on decision-making capacity is both significant and stronger than indirect effect of labor force participation on decision-making capacity. Although all constructs in our model positively influence women’s decision-making capacity, results suggest that improvements in agency and autonomy levels contribute the most.