DO SCHOOLING AND WORK EMPOWER WOMEN IN DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES - GENDER AND DOMESTIC DECISIONS IN SRI-LANKA

Our work challenges and points our the limitations of the theoretical presumptions underlying the relationship between empowerment, educatio n, and employment that have been emphasized in both the exiting litera ture and the current rhetoric to ''empower'' women in developing count ries. We use survey, life history, and focus group data to empirically examine the relationship between schooling, paid work, and power in d omestic-decision making for young married women in Sri Lanka. We argue that the relationship between education work, and women's control of household decisions is conditioned by the larger social context and as such, it is likely to reflect the extent to which the division of lab or and access to information and economic resources are the bases of d omestic power in the society under consideration. Our results make a s trong case for the need to move away from broad-based conceptualizatio ns of women's empowerment to a consideration of the specific arenas an d dimensions along which women cart have power In focusing on the dome stic arena alone, we find that there are important differences in both the nature and determinants of the financial as opposed to the social and organizational dimension of power in Sri Lankan households. Women who control one of these aspects of family decisions do not necessari ly control the other and while education and employment play an import ant role in determining women's input in financial decisions, they are largely immaterial in determining household decisions related to soci al and organizational matters. Our results also demonstrate the import ance of going beyong simplistic and limited measures of schooling and work to consider more fundamental structural factors involving family, social and economic organization.