Authors: Greg Seymour (g.seymour@cgiar.org), Cheryl Doss, Paswel Marenya, Ruth Meinzen- Dick, and Simone Passarelli
ABSTRACT
Despite recent evidence that decisions about technology adoption often involve input from both men and women, the literature on technology adoption rarely considers gender and intrahousehold issues. In this paper, we use survey data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to investigate the influence of women’s empowerment on the adoption of improved maize varieties (IMVs). While our results are mixed as to whether or not women’s empowerment is positively correlated with higher rates of adoption, we find overwhelmingly that women’s empowerment is positively correlated with greater participation by women in decisions about the adoption of IMVs, the acquisition of credit for the purchase of IMVs, and the acquisition of extension services related to IMVs.
Copyright 2016 by Greg Seymour, Cheryl Doss, Paswel Marenya, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and
Simone Passarelli. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for
non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such
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