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Impact of exposure to mass media on female empowerment: evidence from India


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate if women’s exposure to mass media, i.e. television, radio, and print media, is a determinant of female empowerment in India. Indicators of empowerment include female autonomy in domestic decision-making, freedom of movement, financial knowledge and independence, attitudes regarding acceptability of violence against women, actual and desired fertility and use and decisions about contraception.


Design/methodology/approach
Data for the analysis come from two rounds of the National Family and Health Survey, a large-scale nationally representative household survey. First, ordinary least squares estimation is used to obtain the parameter estimates. To overcome endogeneity concerns, instrumental variables estimation is also used.


Findings
The results reveal a strong positive effect of exposure to mass media on women’s status in India.


Research limitations/implications
These findings highlight the effectiveness of mass media in influencing women positively.


Originality/value
This paper captures the cumulative effects of three types of media: television, radio and print media. It also takes advantage of the most recent data available together with using instrumental variables estimation to overcome endogeneity concerns.
