Assessment of Women's Reproductive Empowerment in Rural and Urban Areas: A Comparitive Study

Background: Empowering women is a key factor for better social and economic development of
different countries because women empowerment enables much more working force and improves
performance of organizations. Aim: This study aimed to assess women's reproductive
empowerment in rural and urban areas. Design: A cross sectional descriptive research design was
used. Setting: This study was carried out at Maternal and Child Health Care Center at Talkha and
Salamoon health facility, Delta, Egypt. Study subjects: A non-probability purposive sample of 334
women who were fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Tools A structured interview schedule to cover the
data related to general characteristics and women’s reproductive empowerment questionnaire to
assess women’s reproductive empowerment. Results: There were highly statistical significant
differences regarding cultural, individual family, social and family planning domain scores among
rural and urban women with more empowerment in urban women (p < 0.001). Also, the highest of
women’s reproductive empowerment among urban and rural residents were found in cultural
domain with Mean ±SD 20.3 ±4.5 and 18.1 ±5.8 respectively and the lowest scores among rural and
urban women were found in family planning domain with Mean ±SD 17.7 ±3.1 and 14.9 ±4.7
respectively. Else, women’s reproductive empowerment among the studied group was significantly
associated with their occupation, educational level and their husband's educational level (p >0.05).
Conclusion: The current study question was answered where urban women were more
empowered regarding cultural, individual family, social and family planning domains than rural
women. Women occupation, educational level and husband's educational level had an
effective role in reproductive empowerment. Recommendations: The current study
recommended more involvement of woman in membership in rural institutions and access to
social networks, also increase awareness of rural woman about their right, legal
empowerment and decision-making.