%0 Journal Article
%T Women Empowerment in Oman: A study based on Women Empowerment Index
%A Dr.Thresiamma Varghese
%J Far East Journal of Psychology and Business
%D 2011
%I 
%X Women's empowerment is ¡°a process whereby women become able to organize themselves to increase their own self-reliance, to assert their independent right to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination" (Keller and Mbwewe, 1991).Empowering women is one of the most crucial concerns of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. One of the national priorities and goals of the Human Resource Development Strategic Plan outlined by the Social Sector of the Ministry of Economic Development in Sultanate of Oman includes the vision of the development of women, upgrading the status of women and facilitating their integration into the total social development. The key objective of this research article is to measure the women empowerment in Oman by identifying the household decision making ability of women, to assess the economic decision making capability of women and evaluate the freedom of mobility of women for giving recommendation and suggestions to boost women empowerment in Oman. We have taken a sample of 150 women in Sohar region, Sultanate of Oman, with a structured questionnaire. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) is the main tool for data analysis and we used regression model and frequency tables. For quantitative analysis, we have taken by selecting five main variables as independent variables and total women empowerment as dependent variable. We have done a hypothesis testing by taking five hypotheses out of that four have accepted and one rejected. In qualitative analysis we have framed total women empowerment index that shows that women in Sohar are good decision makers. Another finding is that women in Oman are better in household decision making and economic decision making than social empowerment. We have also taken perception analysis via addressed different issues in legal and political side. The result shows that majority of women in Sohar region are aware about their rights and duties. Finally the study has given certain recommendations to further improve the empowerment of women in Sohar region.
%K Women empowerment
%K Economic development
%K Human development
%K Women empowerment Indices
%K Gender issues.
%U http://www.fareastjournals.com/files/V2N2P3.pdf