Socio-economic and Demographic Determinants of Women’s Household Decision Making Autonomy in Bangladesh: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Women’s autonomy is an important element of the economic and reproductive health developments in a country. The aim of this study was to find out the potential factors associated with women’s decision-making autonomy in Bangladesh. To fulfill this purpose, the cross-sectional data obtained from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS), 2014 was used. The generalized linear mixed model approach has been applied to calculate the adjusted effects of the covariates by taking into account the correlation among subjects within clusters. The study reveals that women with age at marriage ≥ 18 years, having family size ≤ 4, having at least one child, exposed to media, belonging to NGO, living in urban areas and working outside home have greater influence on autonomy in household decision making.