Positive Side Effects: The Interaction between Conditional Cash Transfer Programs and Women’s Empowerment

Abstract

This paper evaluates whether Familias en Acción, which provides poor mothers in Colombia nutrition grants for their children, has any effect on women’s empowerment. I measure women’s empowerment in terms of economic and sexual empowerment, based on how much agency women have in choosing how to spend their money, and whether or not they use birth control, respectively. I find that participation in the program is significantly correlated with women’s empowerment, although more so for sexual empowerment than economic empowerment. I further investigate whether any increased empowerment levels have positive outcomes for their children, and whether this effect is separate from the intended benefits of the cash transfer program. I find that women’s economic empowerment is not significantly correlated with child outcomes when enrolled in the program, although it does have a significant positive correlation with child outcomes in rural areas where the program has not been implemented. The use of birth control (i.e., sexual empowerment) is positively and significantly correlated with child outcomes in rural areas, both in control and treatment groups. Alongside statistical evidence, I provide possible explanations for my results based on characteristics of the program, previous research, and characteristics of rural and urban Colombian society.