Women’s Decision Making Power and Human Development : Evidence from Pakistan

When deciding who should receive welfare
benefits with the aim to increase household well-being, it
is necessary to understand the effects of the distribution
of power within the households at which the aid is directed.
Two primary household models have been used to study
intra-household bargaining and decision making: the unitary
model and the collective model. The unitary model seems to
fit Pakistan's context because the prevailing
traditional culture positions the male head as the household
decision maker. However, using a set of direct measures of
decision-making power from the Pakistan Social and Living
Standard Measurement Survey, this study finds that even in a
country where men seem to have more power than women, the
collective household bargaining model applies. This study
also finds that, in Pakistan, when women have more
decision-making power at home, households tend to spend more
on women's preferred goods (such as clothing and
education), family members eat more non-grain food items,
and children, particularly girls, are more likely to be
enrolled in school.