Empowered Mother, Healthy Child: The Role of Women Economic Empowermentin the Achievement of Better Child HealthOutcomes in the Philippines

Abstract

This study contributes to the emerging literature that supports the link between women’s economic empowerment and better child health outcomes. Utilizing secondary data from the 2017 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey, the status of women empowerment as represented by women’s education, employment, and intrahousehold bargaining power and the status of child health outcomes in terms of antenatal care, childhood immunization, and under-5 mortality were analyzed in this research. The findings can be connected with the current health crisis being experienced in the Philippines. The recent Pertussis outbreak showed that there is a need for urgent action to improve the health service delivery and utilization in the country, especially in the area of childhood immunization. This is consistent with the findings of this study which showed that out of the three child health outcomes considered, only childhood immunization showed unfavorable results with only 26.30% of the children considered as fully immunized. One possible channel through which child health outcomes could be improved is through women’s economic empowerment. In the Philippines, the performance of the country in the areas of education and intrahousehold bargaining power yielded favorable results. Among the women interviewed, 1.65% and 2.6% have no formal education and have low empowerment, respectively. Improvements in these areas, however, should be translated to better access to economic opportunities and improved participation of women in the labor force as this highlights and recognizes the need to optimally develop and utilize women’s productive capacities.