Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Policy
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol

Home-cooked energy transitions: Women empowerment and biogas-based

cooking technology in Pakistan
Nazia Yasmin a, b, c, *, Philipp Grundmann a, b
a
Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Division of Resource Economics, Humboldt-Universit€
at zu Berlin,
Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany
b
Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469, Potsdam, Germany
c
Government College University Faisalabad, Punjab 38000, Pakistan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Male-dominated societies often tend to neglect having a consideration for women in the choice of appropriate
Women agency cooking fuel technology. Traditional cooking technologies have adverse effects particularly on women. These
Cooking fuels technologies require the use of solid biomass such as wood or biogenic residues, and this practice leads to
Decision making
harmful consequences for individual’s health and involves drudgery and hardships especially for women. Even
Technology transition
though women can gain immense benefits in switching to a cleaner fuel, their influence over the relevant
household energy choice decision is still not well understood. In this study, we use individual-level household
survey data from Pakistan to investigate the influence of women empowerment on the decision to adopt and
continue using biogas-based cooking technology. To do this, our study analyses the resource and agency profile
of women by applying a multivariate analysis using both direct and proxy indicators of women’s status. The
results show that older, educated, financially empowered women with greater agency and control over resource
have a strong influence on the decision to adopt biogas technology. The paper concludes by recommending
policies to enhance women’s status that could help in fostering the process of transitioning toward clean cooking
fuel technology.

1. Introduction
Cooking using tradition technologies often over open fire is a haz­
ardous activity for women in the developing world where a population
of 2.5 billion is still using solid biomass for cooking, despite its severe
negative health consequences (IEA, 2006). According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), compared to developed countries, popu­
lation in developing countries suffer more from pollution caused by
traditional cooking technologies which cause the death of 1.3 million
children and women each year World Health Organization, 2009. Poor
families in developing countries are usually disproportionately affected
by the negative effects of the smoke generated from the burning of solid
biomass. Women and children are more vulnerable to the risk because
they perform most of the cooking activities and therefore have a greater
exposure to the smoke.
Despite the fact that energy scarcity affects different groups globally,
reports have shown that women are the major victims among all groups
in society (Cecelski, E, 2005; Demetriades and Esplen, 2009; Reddy
et al., 2010). In rural areas, the responsibilities of women are not only
confined to performing household duties, but they are also responsible
for the collection and management of the cooking fuel (e.g., animal
dung, fuelwood, and crop residues) (Jagadish and Dwivedi, 2018).
Using these traditional and rudimentary tools of cooking with solid
biomass often requires longer working hours. In Kenya, women’s
working time in agricultural activities is 50% more than men, and
women generally spend two to 5 h daily in fuel collection. This added
time burden hinders women from participating in income-generating
activities. In addition, the physical burden is also an important aspect;
it was reported that women carry 20 kg fuelwood on average daily in
sub-Saharan Africa (Blackden and Wodon, 2006). Moreover, young girls
in rural areas are also left deprived of education as they are required to
remain at home in order to help their mothers with fuel collection and
storage (Johnson et al., 2019; Rehfuess, E., 2006). Above all, the most
severe consequence is the decline in health for women due to the smoke
caused by direct burning of solid biomass, and the smoke leads to many
respiratory and lung diseases in women and small children at home

* Corresponding author. Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, Potsdam, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany.
E-mail addresses: nyasmin@atb-potsdam.de (N. Yasmin), pgrundmann@atb-potsdam.de (P. Grundmann).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111074
Received 9 April 2019; Received in revised form 17 September 2019; Accepted 27 October 2019
Available online 9 November 2019
0301-4215/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
(Kodgule and Salvi, 2012; Po et al., 2011).
It is possible to reduce this indoor air pollution by switching to
cleaner cooking fuels, such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, or
biogas (Parikh, 2011). Reducing the air pollution would mean that
women and children could experience less of the harmful health con­
sequences that come with traditional cooking technologies. The use of
these alternatives can lower the morbidity and mortality rate, and it
could also reduce the pressure on the environment by decreasing the
unsustainable use of wood. However, the substitution of traditional
cooking for cleaner cooking technologies has been slow, and there needs
to be effective methods to implement these technologies in the places
that need them most.
Along this line, two of the most provocative questions in sustainable
energy literature involve how this transition speed could be increased
and what factors explain this transition. Literature has mentioned many
factors that are responsible for shifts in household biomass fuel use; such
factors include financial constraints, availability and accessibility of
inputs, and complementary infrastructure (Ma et al., 2019; Mailu et al.,
2018; Wahyudi, 2017; Yasmin and Grundmann, 2019). Given the
exposure and affectedness of woman, it is justified to also consider the
role of women empowerment as a factor, but its role has not been
explored sufficiently to date. For this reason, this study takes women
empowerment as the research focus in the context of technology tran­
sition, given that there is a knowledge gap at present. For this research,
the term women empowerment refers to how women’s status in the
household determines the decision-making process. Specifically, this
study investigates whether there are any links between women’s status
and their role in making a decision toward the shift in cooking fuel.
Unlike the single individual, households undergo a decision-making
process that is rather complex, given that multiple individuals have
heterogeneous preferences and degrees of empowerment. A general
theoretical assumption is that the power of decision to adopt any tech­
nology or resource use depends on endowment and control over re­
sources. The greater the control an individual has over resources, the
more power he or she will have in making the decision on the use of that
resource or technology. Generally, women have less control over
financial resources, which leads them to have less power and a lower
status in decisions making (Rothenberg, 2004). The involvement of
women in decision making is influenced not only by the control over
resources and power but also by social-cultural norms and traditions.
For example, in many cases, cultural boundaries restrict women to only
make household-related decisions that involve little or no expenditures,
while decisions related to capital expenditures, sale, and purchase of
property are considered as tasks in the male domain (Jejeebhoy and
Sathar, 2001). Therefore, due to limited research, there are two areas
currently needing investigation, namely the role of women in decisions
related to alternative fuel adoption and the factors that are responsible
in empowering women to take part in household decisions, especially
those related to fuel choice.
Along with resource control, preferences also play a crucial role in
decision making. Women are seen to have a greater willingness than
men to adopt such technologies for increasing household welfare. In
addition, women tend to spend more income on education, health, and
nutrition, while men appear to have more spending on leisure (Doepke
and Tertilt, 2014; Fingleton-Smith, 2018; Kenney, 2006). When assess­
ing energy technologies especially for cooking, women are more prone
to look into the technologies that can have fewer health hazardous ef­
fects and can reduce their labor time and drudgery; conversely, men may
be inclined toward technologies that are cost-effective and user-friendly
(Mahat, 2004). This preference heterogeneity also leads to the explo­
ration of women’s role in deciding on adopting clean fuel technologies,
which typically has more benefits for women than for men.
In considering the effectiveness and the impact of biogas technology
on individuals, it is generally agreed that due to the smoke-free property
of biogas, its use can bring about an improvement to the health of the
individuals who currently use traditional technologies. Moreover,
2
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
compared to fuelwood, less effort and time is required for cooking using
biogas technology. Women often need to manage fuelwood and using
biogas technology can save time for them; consequently, they could
spend more time for other productive activities. Overall, in comparing
this health, time saving and monetary benefits, it can be said that
women who are directly involved in cooking and fuel management ac­
tivities can experience the greatest benefits when switching to clean fuel
technologies. This technology also benefits men, in that its usage re­
duces the overall expenditures at the household level (Yasmin and
Grundmann, 2019). Most importantly, biogas technology improves the
cleanliness and sanitation condition in the house, and this would benefit
the entire household. However, the management and operation of
biogas facilities also requires effort from both men and women. In some
cultural settings such as in Pakistan, men who are responsible for out­
door activities need to make arrangements for the construction of the
plant. For the houses where plants are installed within the boundary
wall of the houses, women can manage the plant by operating it; this
involves filling the plant daily with an equal ratio of dung and water. In
other cases where the biogas facilities are installed outside the bound­
aries of the house, men have to perform this task. In these cases, the
efforts required form male members may also be one of the hindering
factors for households in shifting from traditional cooking fuel tech­
nologies, which are mostly managed by women like collection of fuel­
wood and animal dung. This suggests a wide range of considerations
associated with the change from traditional to biogas cooking technol­
ogy, including how it affects cooking, what is required for manure
collection and cleaning, or who would likely take on those tasks. Even
these questions are not central to our research—they show that the
decision to adopt biogas technology is complex and highly context
dependent.
Literature on technology adoption often suggests considering men
and women separately in the decision-making process instead of using a
household as a single unit (Anderson et al., 2017; Lambrecht et al., 2016;
Marenya et al., 2016). To meet this purpose, gender is more often treated
as a proxy of male or female, and alternatively in some studies, the
characteristics of male and female-headed households are used to
explore the gender dynamics in decision making regarding technology
(Adesina et al., 2000; Doss and Morris, 2000; Marenya and Barrett,
2007; Peterman et al., 2014). However, these approaches cannot fully
capture the involvement and extent of the contribution of women in this
decision-making process at a household level, especially in the cases
where the sole decision maker is the male household head. These are
also not completely justifiable in determining the whole intra-household
dynamics of the decision-making process of technologies with divergent
outcomes for different individuals, such as in the case of biogas
technology.
Given the complexity of the concept of women’s status, this study
aims to assess all these major dimensions and their relationship with
women’s decision-making power using the case of biogas technology
adoption. In doing so, this research contributes to the current body of
literature by investigating the role of women empowerment in Pakistan
and by providing a comparison of the drivers. This comparison is
important for policymaking; if women have a high degree of empow­
erment or disempowerment in technology adoption decision making
due to economic factors, the adoption of innovative technologies could
be facilitated by introducing policies to enhance the women’s economic
status, for example, through education or by providing employment and
credit facilities. However, if women have low agency due to cultural
norms, there is then the need to engage in a long-term process that can
lead to a change in the society’s perception towards women for
improving the current situation of technology adoption.
The overall objective of this research is to investigate the de­
terminants of women’s status in Pakistan, as a high status could
empower them to have more agency in the decision to adopt biogas-
based cooking technology. To do this, we firstly investigate the role of
social, economic, and human resources as proxies of women’s status
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
along with the areas of women’s direct agency, which allows women to
participate in this decision-making process. Subsequently, through the
path analysis we explore whether women feel more empowered due to
having more resources or whether there is some role of control and
power to use these resources in determining their agency to adopt
biogas-based cooking technology. We expect that the findings in this
analysis will provide insights into formulating suitable policies that in­
crease the adoption of the technology.
To carry out this research, the paper is structured as follows. Section
2 offers a brief description of women empowerment and its role in
technology adoption with empirical evidence. Section 3 comprises a
description of the theoretical background, followed by Section 4 in
which a detailed explanation of the methodology is given. Results and
discussion are detailed in Section 5, and a conclusion of the study is
presented in Section 6.
2. The context
2.1. Current scenario in Pakistan
Pakistan is an energy deficient country where the per capita energy
consumption is much lower than most of other developing countries. A
huge gap exists between the demand and supply of energy where de­
mand far exceeds the supply. To meet its energy requirements, Pakistan
spends approximately 60% of its foreign exchange to import fossil fuels
(Rehman et al., 2017). This in turn creates a high dependence on
external sources of energy, and this also places burden on the economy
as a whole as it raises the costs of energy. Pakistan’s competitive location
and natural resources endowment creates a favorable environment for
generating renewable energy at a relatively low cost; however, the share
of renewable energy in the total energy mix is only 2.45% (Malik et al.,
2018), and biomass only fulfills 1.5% of the country’s energy re­
quirements. Much of the population that uses biomass as the main
source of energy lives in rural areas where 62% of biomass users collect
woods and shrubs; 24% of biomass users purchase fuelwood to meet
their energy requirements. While the country also has other
non-renewable alternatives such as LPG and natural gas, households
generally prefer to use fuelwood and other more accessible solid biomass
like animal dung due to both their availability without cash payment
and the high cost of fossil fuels.
Pakistan is a country with a rural economy that largely relies on
revenues from livestock and agricultural activities. As such, it has huge
potential to produce biogas from residues of agriculture and livestock
production, such as animal manure. The country is estimated to produce
1,140 million kg dung from domestic animals, which can be utilized as
feedstock for biogas digesters(Uddin et al., 2016). Studies have found
that 20 kg of cattle dung is sufficient to produce 1m3/day of biogas,
which could generate 2.5 kwh electricity; with a 10 m3 sized biogas
digester, households can save up to 800 USD annually (Kamran, 2018;
Uddin et al., 2016). This could contribute to solving energy scarcity and
also increasing the liquidity of households in rural areas by saving ex­
penditures on energy.
However, the rate of adoption of biogas technology has been rela­
tively low in Pakistan. Among other social-economic barriers (Yasmin
and Grundmann, 2019), intra-household decision making could also be
a factor for this low adoption rate. Given that Pakistan is a traditionally
male dominant society, especially in rural areas, men make most of the
decisions related to large investment, while women only perform
household duties with little input in the overall decision-making pro­
cess. Especially in rural areas in Pakistan, the condition of women is
assessed as unsatisfactory; it is reported that 55% of the women are
illiterate and are dependent on their male guardians for accessing in­
formation and resources (Khalafzai and Nirupama, 2011). Women are
considered to be among the most deprived in the traditional household
structure of the rural areas of Pakistan (Zakar et al., 2014). In addition,
due to a poor communication and transport system, women in rural
3
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
areas often do not have access to appropriate information, especially
with regard to issues such as alternate fuel technologies, which have
fewer hazardous properties. This may result in the persistent use of
traditional methods, which also means continually having women
exposed to environments with high smoke loads. Even if women have
the information and awareness regarding negative consequences of the
use of traditional fuel sources, they are still highly dependent on male
household heads for making any choice of fuel shift. Since biogas
technology has differing consequences on the lives of male and female
household members, it is possible that the full benefits of this technology
are underestimated by the male household head as the primary decision
maker). Having an in-depth understanding of intra-household dynamics
and the role of women’s status in making choices could ultimately help
to formulate policies that can contribute to the design and choice of the
most beneficial technologies for the most affected women and other
household members, and the society as a whole.
2.2. Concept of women empowerment
Various studies have defined empowerment in different ways. The
idea of empowerment is often linked with the notion of power relations,
which specifically refers to gaining either more or less power between
actors (Rowlands, 1995; Sen, 1998). However, women empowerment is
considered to be different from the empowerment of other disadvan­
taged groups due to the involvement of familial and intra-household
dynamics (Doepke and Tertilt, 2014; Malhotra and Schuler, 2005).
The terms of women’s status, autonomy, empowerment, and gender
equality are widely used in the literature, and these all focus on women’s
power and control in making life choices. Some studies have used these
terms interchangeably, as it is believed that there is no clear demarca­
tion between these concepts (Jejeebhoy and Sathar, 2001; Mason and
Smith, 2000). However, all definitions of women empowerment make
some reference to women’s ability in certain areas, specifically in con­
trolling their own lives, having the freedom to make decisions, and
having input on changing life choices (Malhotra and Schuler, 2005).
Women empowerment is typically conflated with the status that
women have, which is often represented through an acquisition of and
control over resources (Mosedale, 2005). In other words, literature often
describes women empowerment through certain proxies in the form of
resource endowment. Unlike the reading in conventional economics,
these resources do not only include material and financial resources but
also the social and human resources that can increase a woman’s ability
in exercising her choices (Kabeer, 1999). Examples of such resources
include age, education, employment, social capital, networks and
ownership of property. With the above in view, researchers have argued
that indirect proxies may not actually provide adequate information on
women’s actual autonomy (Samman and Santos, 2009). These proxies
can at best be facilitators for women in gaining more power, but they do
not ensure that empowerment can be ultimately achieved.
In looking at empowerment, some studies considered agency to be
more important than resource endowment, where agency refers to
women’s ability (power) to achieve a specific goal using the available
resources (Heckert and Fabic, 2013; Yount et al., 2016). The multidi­
mensional concept of agency includes three domains, namely the
decision-making authority, the control over finances, and the freedom of
movement. Having authority in making decisions and in using money
tends to describe women’s power more precisely and tangibly. More­
over, mobility without restriction is also of particular importance for
women who live in distant areas in more traditional societies and who
face more restrictions in moving freely (Mahmud et al., 2012). This in­
dicates that, agency can vary depending on societal norms and cultural
settings.
In considering the aforementioned definitions and arguments for
measuring women empowerment, there is no single direct agency
measure or proxy that can explain this complex phenomenon. In other
words, different aspects of women’s agency affect the technology
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
adoption decision differently with different magnitude and effect (Balk,
1994).
2.3. Associated evidences for women empowerment and cooking
technology transition
The interplay between gender and household cooking fuel choice has
received attention in international development policy. In looking at the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for maternal morality and child
mortality, the importance of the gender component can be clearly noted
(CRGGE, 2006). In general, women suffer more from smoke, indoor air
pollution, and drudgery due to the nature of their duties (i.e., cooking
food and managing fuel). Even though women are the ones who could
benefit most from a transition toward clean cooking technologies, pol­
icies and societies often neglect their preference in the choice of fuel and
cooking technology (Makan, 1995). However, it can be assumed that
women would opt for more sophisticated and less hazardous cooking
fuel technologies if given the choice to make a decision. Based on the
above assumption, those households are more likely to prefer and use
clean cooking fuel technologies in which women share the high
decision-making power.
Literature indicates a high correlation between women empower­
ment and biogas technology along with other clean cooking fuel tech­
nologies facilitating women. A study done in Ivory Coast found a
positive association between the allocation of a greater budget toward
clean cooking fuel and a wife’s share in income (Hoddinott and Haddad,
1995). According to the literature, the adoption rate of biogas technol­
ogy is higher among female-headed households compared to
male-headed households (Kabir et al., 2013). A similar study done in
Indonesia with 351 farm households also found that the probability of
biogas technology adoption is increased with the involvement of the
spouse in decision making (Ahmad Romadhoni Surya Putra et al., 2017).
In rural areas of India, women were excluded from education and
training facilities due to their low status, and as a result they need to rely
on second-hand information about biogas technology from their male
household member (Raha et al., 2014). The same phenomenon was
observed in Uganda where low income and education level were re­
ported as the main reasons for the little or inexistent participation of
women in biogas technology adoption decision, as the decision is mainly
or solely taken by male members who control resources and their allo­
cation (Walekhwa et al., 2009). An increase in women’s status in terms
of employment is also linked with the adoption of those technologies
that are beneficial to them. In a study of fuel choice in urban Bolivia, a
study found that women who earned income were less inclined to use
firewood for cooking (Israel, 2002). In another survey of 2,200 house­
holds in rural Orissa, observations showed that the likelihood for
adopting a clean stove was higher for the women who were associated
with some monetary saving groups and who were free to use those
savings (Duflo et al., 2008). Furthermore, using cleaner cooking tech­
nologies is not only a matter of having resources or income; in general,
women have stronger preferences for clean technologies compared to
men due to their beneficial effects particularly on women’s lives (Puz­
zolo et al., 2016). An experiment in Bangladesh using improved stoves
examined how liquidity influences decision making (Miller and
Mobarak, 2011). The study showed that women strongly prefer these
stoves when they were offered for free; however, when the women were
later told that the stoves needed to be purchased instead, they changed
their decisions. The authors of the study related this change of decision
behavior to liquidity constraints, which suggests that women in the
study experience severe constraints when making decisions that involve
substantial investment. In a study using nationally representative data
from rural India, it was found that women’s intra-household influence
significantly increases a household’s adoption of modern cooking
technologies (Mohapatra and Simon, 2017).
In light of the evidence that women’s limited access to clean cooking
fuel technologies is an important factor affecting women’s living
4
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
conditions, the use of clean cooking technologies can help women­
—particularly those in rural areas—to increase productivity, achieve
better health, and use less time and energy, as well as fewer wood re­
sources (Doss and Morris, 2000).
3. Theoretical framework
Over the years, several practitioners and scholars have criticized
explanatory approaches based on the common viewpoint and assuming
that households are single decision-making units (Agarwal, 1997; Kab­
eer, 1994; Lundberg and Pollak, 2008; Ward-Batts, 2008). In particular,
they have questioned the plausibility of these unitary models for
neglecting the role of power imbalances in resource distribution, het­
erogeneity in preferences, and the autonomy in control of resources.
Feminist scholars criticize the unitary models for not justifying
discriminatory power and resource distribution within the household
(Katz, 1997; Moore and Viscusi, 1988; Pearse and Connell, 2016). They
argued that the presumption of the household as a unified unit obscures
asymmetry in intra-household relations. The studies are further criti­
cized for disregarding the intricacy of household relationships, as these
relationships make household decision making highly complex and
more difficult to understand than what the existing models propose
(Agarwal, 1997; Kabeer, 1997; Sen, 1990).
If household members have conflicting preferences, this disparity
would result in a different household behavior than the kind that is
advanced by unitary models. The behavior would most likely be guided
by the idea of “who controls household resources” (Cecelski, 2004).
Several empirical studies from various contexts have shown that the
different ways in which household income is controlled can result in
diverse expenditure patterns (Skutsch, 1998). The non-unitary
perspective recognizes both the individuality of household members
and the possible differences in preferences and utility functions (Cecel­
ski, 2004; Schneebaum and Mader, 2013). Economists and sociologists
recognized this phenomenon by developing different theories; in this
regard, both resource theory and bargaining models have been developed
to explain intra-household relations (Blood Jr. and Wolfe, 1960; McEl­
roy, 1990; McElroy and Horney, 1981). Resource theory provides a
direct link between the resources owned by actors and their power;
bargaining models address the same phenomenon and assume that
fewer resources can lead to a decrease in an individual’s bargaining
power in exercising power. However, some scholars criticized the initial
bargaining models due to their tendency toward generalization and their
lack in cultural components. Consequently, scholars have extended the
bargaining models by the addition of agency, which involves exercising
power along with the possession of resources. Sen (1999) capability
approach represents this idea as it focuses on converting the abilities of
individuals into desirable outcomes and not merely relying on having
resources (Sen, 1999).
Kabeer’s empowerment framework is an important addition in the
literature as it incorporates both dimensions of empowerment (i.e., re­
sources and agency) in achieving outcomes Fig. 1. In Kabeer’s frame­
work, empowerment is described as the combination of interrelated
components, including resources, agency, and “achievements as the
outcome resulting from the exercise of agency,” where resources are
defined as the enabling factors or “pre-conditions [that] enhance the
ability to exercise choice” and agency is the “ability to define one’s goals
and act upon them” (Kabeer, 1999). Kabeer’s empowerment framework
not only includes resources that depict the individual’s status, but it also
points out that improvement in individual’s status do not necessarily
empower the individual to achieve a desired outcome in specific social
settings. These social structures come with power imbalances which in
turn impede or enhance the agency of certain actors, such as in the case
of women. This agency may consequently enable women to make de­
cisions. In this present study, we adopt Kabeer’s framework and oper­
ationalize the covariates based on resource theory and the previous
literature.
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
Fig. 1. Empowerment framework adopted from Kabeer (1999).
The framework in this present study includes social, human, finan­
cial, and informational resources as proxies for measuring women’s
status. In the current study setting, we consider several important factors
in explaining women’s status in a household; these factors are namely
women’s age, their educational attainment, their ownership of capital,
their involvement in income-generating activities, and their exposure to
media. Our study assumes that all these indicators increase the bargai­
ning power of women and thus enable them to contribute to decisions
that are important for their well-being. These socio-economic variables
were previously used in literature as proxies for women’s status. (Balk,
1994; Fraune, 2015). However, it is important to note that these
socio-economic indicators alone are not sufficient in explaining
women’s bargaining power in traditional societies such as in Pakistan,
where certain gender norms exist for power and rights and where men
dominate overall household decisions. For instance, women having
more economic or human resources does not necessarily mean they
would be more empowered; likewise, having a high educational
attainment or their own earned income does not guarantee the power to
make decisions at home for women. In our case, socio-economic in­
dicators are not sufficient to capture the bargaining power of women at a
household level (Kantor, 2003). Therefore, we also include indicators
that explain women’s overall agency in the form of their power and
freedom to make other household decisions, and in doing so we explore
women’s ability to participate in technology adoption decisions (Bloom
et al., 2001; Jejeebhoy and Sathar, 2001; Mahmud et al., 2012; Malhotra
and Schuler, 2005).
4. Methodology
4.1. Study area and sampling frame
The study is based on a survey conducted between June and August
2017 with 330 household members across three districts in Punjab. A
multi-stage sampling technique was used for choosing the households to
be surveyed. At first stage, three districts were selected using purposive
sampling. The chosen districts were Faisalabad, Sargodha and Jhang
(see Fig. 2). These districts were selected because a large number of
biogas digesters exist in this area. Afterwards, stratified random sam­
pling was used to select households for the survey from these districts.
Each district comprises of several tehsils.1 Therefore, we made strata of
rural and urban administered areas with 50% participation to avoid the
misrepresentation of any of the area before selecting households
through random sampling.
Households were selected according to two criteria. The first was
that the households are either using biogas technology solely or they are
using biogas digesters along with traditional fuels. For the second
1
1 It is an area of land with a city that serves as its administrative center,
with possible additional towns and villages.
5
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
criterion, the survey was restricted to married couples. Due to unre­
sponsive entries, a total of 312 observations were retained for the
analysis.
This study used a questionnaire to gather information on socio-
economic status, decision-making structure, roles and processes, as
well as duties in cooking activities and other demographic indicators.
While surveying was mainly conducted with female household mem­
bers, both male and female members participated in the six focus group
discussions that were held in these districts before data collection; these
took place with the males and females separately, which was expedient
for the formulation of the questionnaire.
4.2. Outcome variable
The outcome variable in the study is “women’s agency to adopt
biogas-based cooking technology,” which is represented by their share
in the process of technology adoption. Respondents were asked about
their share in the decision to adopt biogas technology with their male
partner. Given that the sole decision maker is typically the male
household head, the study firstly asked the female respondents whether
they themselves were involved in the decision-making process. Based on
their answers, we created an index for this variable which comprises
four items, namely (a) women’ share in the decision to adopt biogas
technology, (b) their share in the selection of the site for the plant, (c)
their share in the purchase of raw material, and (d) their share in the
construction of the plant. These items contain information about the
involvement and degree of input shared by women at each stage. Re­
spondents were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 5 (very high
agency) to 1 (no agency).
4.3. Variables associated with women’s agency to adopt biogas-based
cooking technology
The study divided the covariates used for investigating women’s
agency in the decision to adopt biogas-based cooking technology into
two categories, namely proxy indicators and agency variables.
The first category includes as proxy indicators and important de­
terminants of women’s status in the household the respondent’s age,
level of education, ownership of resources (i.e., land and house), their
participation in wage-earning activities (i.e., occasional, seasonal, full-
time), and media exposure (i.e., print and electronic). Instead of using
the income or economic status of the households or other similar factors
(e.g., the husband’s education or income), we gave preference to the
variables that are directly related to women and would explain their
status.
For the purpose of statistical modeling, recoding was done for several
variables. For instance, the media exposure variable was recoded into
two categories; one category was named no exposure, and the other
category comprises the frequency of exposure including responses of
daily, at least once a week, and occasionally. Moreover, we combined the
effect of both print and electronic media, and we used age and education
as continuous variables. The “asset ownership” variable was also reco­
ded into two categories where we assigned a value of 1 if women have
alone or joint ownership of land or/and dwelling, otherwise a value of
0 was given if women did not own any of the resources, as this represents
their low status in the household. Furthermore, we coded the employ­
ment status as 0 if unemployed, and we assigned the value of 1 if they
worked either full-time, seasonally, or occasionally.
The second category consists of three agency variables, namely
decision-making authority, freedom of movement, and control over fi­
nances. These indicators are commonly used in literature to measure the
direct agency of women in households. The indicators are indexed as
follows: the decision-making index is composed of three items: (a)
women’s participation in the decisions related to day-to-day life, namely
whether they are permitted and whether they actually make these de­
cisions; (b) major household-related decisions, such as the schooling of
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
Fig. 2. Map of study area in Pakistan.
their children; and (c) the need to obtain permission before leaving the
house for any reason. The control over finances index consists of two
items, namely whether women have unrestricted access to money (i.e.,
all forms of money including own earned wages, and money, gifts, or
support from family) and whether she could spend this money without
consulting anyone. The third variable is the freedom of movement index,
which comprises four items. These items show her ability to move from
home to another place alone, specifically to the market, to the doctor for
her own health care, to the doctor for her child’s illness, and to visit her
natal kin when she wishes. To check the internal reliability of the
indices, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used, where a value of over
0.70 was considered good for the reliability (Bland and Altman, 1997;
Shemwell et al., 2015).
4.4. Data analysis
Prior to the analysis, the study checked the data for outliers and
missing values. After cleaning and weighing for missing values, we
retained 312 observations from the sample for statistical analysis. From
these, we described the nature of the sample respondents using
descriptive statistics, and we employed a multivariate regression anal­
ysis to explore the factors responsible for women’s participation in the
decision to adopt biogas technology. Furthermore, we used Preacher
6
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
and Hayes’s (Preacher and Hayes, 2004) model to check the direct and
indirect effects of women’s agency and resource endowment; we also
compared the explanatory power of both specifications through path
analysis. This path analysis allowed us to simultaneously explore the
explanatory power of our set of covariates and mediators. All the sta­
tistical analysis was done using the software package SPSS 22 with the
PROCESS macros extension.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Survey demographics
Table 1 shows the demographic and socio-economic characteristics
of women in the study area. Over 50% of the sample consists of middle-
aged women with ages from 31 to 50 years. Respondents are also varied
in terms of educational attainment; 35.6% of the sampled women have
not received any formal education and 24.7% receives education only up
to primary level. We also analyzed the socio-economic status of women
with respect to their resource ownership and their participation in
income-generating activities, and we found that very few women are
sole owners of either houses or land resources (i.e., agricultural and non-
agricultural). Even in combining the responses of women who were the
sole owner (i.e., owner of their house, their land, or both) or who have
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074

Table 1 they have the freedom to go to the market, as well as the freedom to go
Socio-economic and demographic characteristics of women in the study sample to the doctor for their own health and for their child’s illness. However,
(n ¼ 312). for the item of movement to natal kin, the response is only 44.6%. This
Characteristics Number of Sample item is different from the other three items, since visiting natal kin often
Women Percentage involves an absence period that is normally longer compared to going
Age out for a few hours. For measuring women’s overall agency, we used
18-30 50 16.0% another scale to represent their freedom to control and use money;
31-40 97 31.1% around two-thirds of the women reported to have unrestricted and un­
41-50 85 27.2%
questioned access to money. A description of indices of the overall
<50 80 25.6%
Education agency used in the analysis is given in Table 2.
No education 111 35.6% The results regarding women’s share in deciding to adopt biogas
Primary (1–5) 77 24.7% technology are reported in Fig. 3. Only 10% of the women reported to
Secondary (6–12) 114 36.5% have a major share in making this decision, while 23% women reported
Higher 10 3.2%
Asset ownership
that they were not asked in this process. In some cases, women
Alone/joint ownership of house or 103 33.0% persuaded their male members to construct the digester by visiting the
land plants operated in the neighborhood themselves (Yasmin and Grund­
No ownership 206 67.0% mann, 2019). Women were mostly asked to select the site for the
Employment status
digester, but regarding the decision and construction of the digester,
Not working 172 55.1%
Occasional/seasonal 76 24.4% their involvement is a lot lower in the study area.
All year 64 20.5%
Media exposure
5.3. Factors associated with women’s agency to adopt biogas-based
Exposure to print and electronic 230 73.7%
media cooking technology
No exposure 82 26.3%
Table 3 reports the findings of a multiple linear regression analysis
on exploring the factors that either impede or enhance women’s agency
joint ownership with their husbands, only 33% of the women reported to
in the decision making for biogas technology adoption. As described in
have ownership of these resources.
the theoretical framework section, both the proxy and direct indicators
Due to having less education, 55% of the women in the sample do not
of women’s status are determinants of her agency to adopt biogas-based
perform any kind of paid work, while only 20% of the respondents in the
cooking technology at a household level. Women’s age, education, asset
sample are employed full-time. The reason behind this low employment
ownership, employment status, and media exposure are used as proxy
rate was reported in the interviews and focus group discussions—it was
variables to represent their status in the house. Along with these proxy
found that the male household head is normally considered the bread­
indicators, women’s decision-making authority, freedom of movement,
winner, and women are supposed to perform household activities.
and their control to use financial resources are used as indicators of their
However, some women were reported to do work in their own fields to
agency in making decisions. The underlying hypothesis in this model is
help their male members without monetary reward, while a small per­
to identify the factors that enable women to take part in the decision
centage of women from low income families work in agriculture
making of fuel choice and also to identify the magnitude of these factors.
seasonally to support their families financially.
The results of the model enabled us to recommend policy changes to the
The importance of media exposure can be seen from the way it
authorities in order to accelerate the adoption rate in the study area. The
provides the information, awareness, and knowledge that exist outside
results of this study show interesting variations in terms of the effect and
the school’s curriculum and other formal educational institutions.
magnitude of different variables on women’s agency in the study area.
However, in relation to women empowerment, the effect of media
exposure is somewhat mixed in different societies and cultures (Gupta
Table 2
and Yesudian, 2006; Mahmud et al., 2012). In our study sample, women
Percentage of women with affirmative answers to the agency indices.
are found to have more exposure to electronic media than print media;
around 73.7% of the sample population has at least some access to Agency indices items Number of Percentage of Reliability score
respondents respondents (Cronbach’s Alpha)
electronic or print media. However, there are still 21.5% of the wom­
en—especially those from lower income groups—who reported to have Decision-making 0.75
power
no access to any type of media.
Participate in small 212 67.9%
decisions
5.2. Women’s agency indices Make major 106 34.0%
decisions
Leave home 194 62.2%
In male dominant societies, women are seen to not exercise their
without seeking
rights fully in household decision making (Sohail, 2014). Often, they can permission
only participate in small day-to-day decisions. Our results show that Control over finances 0.91
67.9% of sample women could take part in decision making for small Have unrestricted 225 72.1%
matters involving everyday life. However, they are found rather limited access to money
Use money without 232 74.4%
in making major decisions, such as the purchase or sale of property, needing permission
vehicle, or other great investments. These investment-related decisions Freedom of 0.83
are usually made by the male household head, and these account for movement
34% of the decisions in our study sample. The decision-making scale also Visit the market 227 72.8%
alone
included the decision on leaving the house without seeking permission.
Bring child to the 225 72.1%
Our study identified the women’s perception in exercising this right, and doctor alone
62.2% of the women reported to have the view that women could leave Visit the doctor 237 76.0%
home without seeking permission from their husbands or from other alone
elders. The actual ability to move freely is found under the freedom of Visit natal kin when 139 44.6%
desired
movement index, and two-thirds of the sampled respondents indicated

7
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074

indicators show noticeably high coefficients. In this model, the freedom

of movement has the largest impact, followed by the indicators of con­
trol over finances and of decision-making authority respectively. Inter­
estingly, the exposure to media turns out to be insignificant. This is
related to the fact that the literacy level has a low average in rural areas,
and media consumption is not directed toward the diffusion of innova­
tive technologies.
Overall, results of the model highlight the importance of social,
human, and financial capital in determining women’s status at home,
and this capital helps to increase their agency in the decision to adopt
biogas-based cooking technology with the male decision maker. Along
with socio-economic resources, we found that the bargaining power in
Fig. 3. Women’s agency in the decision for biogas-based cooking technol­ having authority to make other decisions in the household as well as
ogy adoption. having greater independence in using financial and physical resources
are important determinants of women’s status at a household level. It
can be said that these specific determinants allow women to enhancing
Table 3
Factors affecting women’s agency in the decision to adopt biogas-based cooking
their agency in influencing the household decision on adopting biogas-
technology. based cooking technology.
In short, our findings show that earning income is the greatest factor
Variables Estimated Std. Standardized
coefficients Error coefficients
in decision making. Women who earn income also have a greater ability
to invest, which is important due to the relatively high investment
Resource endowment
needed for biogas-based cooking technology, and women still need to
Age of the 0.007b 0.002 0.127
respondent have credit in order to finance the building and operation. For the
Education 0.019 b
0.006 0.133 women who work at regular jobs with a significant share in household
Asset ownership 0.128a 0.058 0.099 income, they can greatly influence the decision to switch from tradi­
Media exposure 0.038 0.066 0.026 tional cooking fuel technologies (Mohapatra and Simon, 2017). Our
Employment status 0.184b 0.023 0.354
Agency indicators
results indicate that women having spent more years in the educational
Decision-making 0.301b 0.082 0.180 system have a greater bargaining power. Moreover, the ownership of
authority either a dwelling or land also contributes to increasing the bargaining
b
Freedom of 0.452 0.090 0.258 power of females (Anderson et al., 2017). Having fewer resources and
movement
also having a lack of control over financial resources are both linked
Control over finances 0.329b 0.077 0.216
Adjusted R2 0.44 with lower bargaining power (Bloom et al., 2001; Fraune, 2015; Kabeer,
F-statistics 31.410b 1997). Similar to the results from previous studies, households that have
a women with a high level of bargaining power are more likely to switch
Significant at 5%.
b
Significant at 1%.
to a cleaner fuel (Miller and Mobarak, 2011; Winther et al., 2018). On
the whole, the overall findings highlight the importance of women
empowerment in the biogas-based cooking technology adoption.
We also reported standardized coefficients to compare the magnitude of
the effects of different variables. Unlike unstandardized coefficients,
5.4. Path analysis of women’s agency to adopt biogas-based cooking
standardized coefficients are used when independent variables have
technology
different measurement units, and it uses standard deviation as a mea­
surement unit for all variables. In comparing the significant coefficients
In this section, we explore whether women feel more empowered due
by order of importance, employment status (β ¼ 0.354, p < 0.01) stands
to having more resources or whether there is some role of control and
out as the first variable to have a significant positive impact on women’s
power to use these resources in the determination of their agency to
agency in the decision of technology choice. The coefficient shows that
adopt biogas-based cooking technology. This path analysis helps with
one standard deviation increases in employment status increases
understanding the importance of different individual agency de­
women’s chances to be involved in decision making by 0.35 standard
terminants by disaggregating their magnitude. A detailed description of
deviation. Labor force participation not only makes women financially
the results is given in Fig. A1 to A5 in the Appendix.
independent, but it also provides an opportunity to expose them to the
In Table 4, the direct effect shows the impact of women’s resource
outside world, thereby helping them raise their own awareness level
endowment (i.e., age, education, asset ownership, employment status,
(Sunikka-Blank et al., 2019). Moreover, women with their own income
and media exposure) on the decision to adopt biogas technology inde­
have a higher status in their household, and they also have a higher
pendent of agency indicators. The total effect is incorporated through
share in decision making regarding choosing appropriate technology.
the mediation effect of women’s agency in order to explain the role of
Since high costs are involved in installing a biogas digester in the study
area (Yasmin and Grundmann, 2019), an increased household income
due to women’s financial contribution enables the household to invest in Table 4
biogas-based cooking technology. Direct and total effect of covariates on women’s role in biogas adoption decision.
The study also found age (β ¼ 0.127, p < 0.01) to be an important Independent variables (IV) Direct effect (IV →DV) Total effect (IV→M→DV)
contributor in women’s status to have a higher agency in choosing Age 0.007b
0.011b
biogas-based cooking technology. This means one standard deviation Education 0.019b 0.014a
increase in the age of women leads to 0.127 standard deviation increase Assert ownership 0.128a 0.014
Employment status 0.184b 0.210b
in their participation level in the biogas adoption decision. Cultural
Media exposure 0.038 0.060
norms in Pakistan allow older women to have more bargaining power
(Akram, 2018). In addition, education (β ¼ 0.133, p < 0.01) and asset M ¼ Agency (i.e., decision-making authority, freedom of movement, and control
ownership (β ¼ 0.09, p < 0.05) are positive and significant determinants over finances); DV ¼ agency in biogas adoption decision making.
a
Significant at 5%.
of women’s status (Sell and Minot, 2018). In Table 3, women’s agency b
Significant at 1%.

8
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
cultural domain. After exploring the important factors for the women’s
role in decision making in Section 5.3, we conducted a path analysis. The
purpose for this analysis is to test whether the women’s status in the
house independently empowers them to have a say in the adoption de­
cision or whether their agency plays a mediating role in enhancing their
power to make decisions in the house along with the ownership of socio-
economic resources. The path analysis helps to identify whether there is
a need to change the status of the women in terms of material and
human resources or that another focus is required to consider the
changes in societal norms. The age of the respondent still contributes
positively to enhancing women’s bargaining power and to women
having a high share in technology adoption. The total effect of an in­
crease in women’s age is 36% higher when the indirect effects through
her agency are taken into account. In other words, older women with a
higher agency increase the probability of women to have high degree of
involvement in fuel choice decision. The other important variable is
employment status, which also contributes positively to the decision,
and 14% of the positive total effect of being employed comes from
considering the fact that women is employed and have high agency.
However, education has a strong role directly regardless of the fact that
women have more agency in other aspects of life. Therefore, with the
control for the indirect effect of agency, the total effect showed a
decrease of 35%. The same results were found in the case of asset
ownership, which has a direct significant effect on women’s agency in
participating in biogas-based cooking fuel technology in the study area.
Overall, results show that to a large degree, most of the variables
used as proxies to capture the women’s status independently do
contribute to increasing women’s agency in the decision on biogas-
based cooking technology adoption (Kishore and Spears, 2014; Miller
and Mobarak, 2011; Mohapatra and Simon, 2017; S.M. Verhoog, 2010).
However, we cannot ignore the effect of norms, which shape the
household composition by allowing female members to gain more bar­
gaining power in having a higher share in the decision-making process.
This analysis illustrates the need to focus on the overall household
composition along with the conventional determinants of women’s
agency.
6. Conclusion and policy implications
The consideration of women’s affectedness and their role in decision
making is becoming increasingly important, as insight into this area can
help create incentives for the choice of alternative energy technologies
in households. The choice of rudimentary technologies using solid
biomass as fuel for cooking in developing countries is an example for an
energy technology that has severely detrimental effects on the health of
women and children, given that women spend most of their time in the
kitchen. However, in the choice of alternative cooking fuels, women’s
role is often neglected at the household level. Therefore, this paper
explored the role of women’s agency in making the decision toward
biogas-based cooking technology, specifically in Pakistan. The agency of
women in decision making is linked with their status, which cannot be
fully explained by one single measure. Therefore, we included both
women’s resource endowment as proxies for their status as well as their
agency to utilize those resources as direct indicators of their exercise of
the power to choose an appropriate fuel technology. Our findings
broadly suggest that women’s education, age, and employment have a
strong positive impact on their ability to participate in the fuel selection
decision. The above factors are even more important if the agency of
women is strongly developed in certain social settings. Our results
indicate that female ownership of assets in the form of agricultural land
or dwelling can independently trigger their power to bargain and in­
crease their involvement without other mediating factors.
This research suggests that the decision made on adopting biogas
technology by households is not a decision merely governed by costs,
availability of technical infrastructure, or other economic factors.
Women’s ability to influence this decision may also play a significant
9
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
role. In the efforts to increase the uptake of biogas-based cooking
technology, policymakers should also view women as active participants
and not only as beneficiaries. As most of the determinants of women’s
agency that were examined in this research are likely to change, much
effort could be spent at present in improving the empowerment of
women by promoting female education, as well as offering them
employment opportunities and credit schemes. Some credit and loan
programs are already in place in Pakistan with successful outcomes on
changing women social status (Schuler and Hashemi, 1994), but further
research is needed to gain a better understanding of the gender-specific
factors for the uptake of clean fuel technologies, among other barriers.
Acknowledgements
We are highly indebted to the Higher Education Commission (HEC)
of Pakistan and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for their
support and we acknowledged Mr. Atteeq-ur-Rahman and his team for
their assistance in the data collection process. We would also like to
thank all the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and
Ms. Elaine Leung for the constructive and accurate proofreading of this
article.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111074.
References
Adesina, A.A., Mbila, D., Nkamleu, G.B., Endamana, D., 2000. Econometric analysis of
the determinants of adoption of alley farming by farmers in the forest zone of
southwest Cameroon. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 80, 255–265. https://doi.org/
10.1016/S0167-8809(00)00152-3.
Agarwal, B., 1997. “‘Bargaining’” and gender relations: within and beyond the
household. Fem. Econ. 3, 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/135457097338799.
Ahmad Romadhoni Surya Putra, R., Liu, Z., Lund, M., 2017. The impact of biogas
technology adoption for farm households – empirical evidence from mixed crop and
livestock farming systems in Indonesia. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 74, 1371–1378.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.164.
Akram, N., 2018. Women’s empowerment in Pakistan: its dimensions and determinants.
Soc. Indic. Res. 140, 755–775. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1793-z.
Anderson, C.L., Reynolds, T.W., Gugerty, M.K., 2017. Husband and wife perspectives on
farm household decision-making authority and evidence on intra-household accord
in rural Tanzania. World Dev. 90, 169–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
worlddev.2016.09.005.
Balk, D., 1994. Individual and community aspects of women’s status and fertility in rural
Bangladesh. Popul. Stud. 48, 21–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/
0032472031000147456.
Blackden, C.M., Wodon, Q., 2006. Gender, Time Use, and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The World Bank.
Bland, J.M., Altman, D.G., 1997. Statistics notes: Cronbach’s alpha. BMJ 314. https://
doi.org/10.1136/bmj.314.7080.572, 572–572.
Blood Jr., R.O., Wolfe, D.M., 1960. Husbands and Wives: the Dynamics of Family living.,
Husbands and Wives: the Dynamics of Family Living. Free Press Glencoe, Oxford,
England.
Bloom, S.S., Wypij, D., das Gupta, M., 2001. Dimensions of women’s autonomy and the
influence on maternal health care utilization in a North Indian city. Demography 38,
67. https://doi.org/10.2307/3088289.
Cecelski, E., 2004. Re-thinking Gender and Energy: Old and New Directions. ENERGIA/
EASE Discussion Paper. Leusden. ENERGIA, The Netherlands.
Cecelski, E., 2005. Gender, Energy & the MDGs: towards Gender Sensitive Energy Policy
Research and Practice.
CRGGE, 2006. Collaborative Research Group on Gender and Energy (CRGGE).
ENERGIA/DfID, p. 151.
Demetriades, J., Esplen, E., 2009. The gender dimensions of poverty and climate change
adaptation. IDS Bull. 39, 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2008.
tb00473.x.
Doepke, M., Tertilt, M., 2014. Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic
Development? (No. w19888. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge,
MA.
Doss, C.R., Morris, M.L., 2000. How does gender affect the adoption of agricultural
innovations?: the case of improved maize technology in Ghana. Agric. Econ. 25,
27–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2001.tb00233.x.
Duflo, E., Greenstone, M., Hanna, R., 2008. Indoor air pollution, health and economic
well-being. SAPIENS 1, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.5194/sapiens-1-1-2008.
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
Fingleton-Smith, E., 2018. The lights are on but no (men) are home. The effect of
traditional gender roles on perceptions of energy in Kenya. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 40,
211–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.01.006.
Fraune, C., 2015. Gender matters: women, renewable energy, and citizen participation in
Germany. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 7, 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
erss.2015.02.005.
Gupta, K., Yesudian, P.P., 2006. Evidence of women’s empowerment in India: a study of
socio-spatial disparities. Geojournal 65, 365–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-
006-7556-z.
Heckert, J., Fabic, M.S., 2013. Improving data concerning women’s empowerment in
Sub-Saharan Africa. Stud. Fam. Plan. 44, 319–344. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-
4465.2013.00360.x.
Hoddinott, J., Haddad, L., 1995. Does female income share influence household
expenditures? Evidence from c^ ote D’IVOIRE. Oxf. Bull. Econ. Stat. 57, 77–96.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1995.tb00028.x.
IEA, 2006. Energy for cooking in developing countries [online] Paris: Available at: http
s://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/cooking.pdf. (Accessed
30 October 2018). n.d).
Israel, D., 2002. Fuel choice in developing countries:evidence from Bolivia. Econ. Dev.
Cult. Change 50, 865–890. https://doi.org/10.1086/342846.
Jagadish, A., Dwivedi, P., 2018. In the hearth, on the mind: cultural consensus on
fuelwood and cookstoves in the middle Himalayas of India. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 37,
44–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.09.017.
Jejeebhoy, S.J., Sathar, Z.A., 2001. Women’s autonomy in India and Pakistan: the
influence of religion and region. Popul. Dev. Rev. 27, 687–712. https://doi.org/
10.1111/j.1728-4457.2001.00687.x.
Johnson, O.W., Gerber, V., Muhoza, C., 2019. Gender, culture and energy transitions in
rural Africa. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 49, 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
erss.2018.11.004.
Kabeer, N., 1994. Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought.
Verso.
Kabeer, N., 1997. Women, wages and intra-household power relations in urban
Bangladesh. Dev. Change 28, 261–302.
Kabeer, N., 1999. Resources, agency, achievements: reflections on the measurement of
women’s empowerment. Dev. Change 30, 435–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-
7660.00125.
Kabir, H., Yegbemey, R.N., Bauer, S., 2013. Factors determinant of biogas adoption in
Bangladesh. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 28, 881–889.
Kamran, M., 2018. Current status and future success of renewable energy in Pakistan.
Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 82, 609–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
rser.2017.09.049.
Kantor, P., 2003. Women’s empowerment through home-based work: evidence from
India. Dev. Change 34, 425–445. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00313.
Katz, E., 1997. The intra-household economics of voice and exit. Fem. Econ. 3, 25–46.
https://doi.org/10.1080/135457097338645.
Kenney, C.T., 2006. The power of the purse: allocative systems and inequality in couple
households. Gend. Soc. 20, 354–381. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206286742.
Khalafzai, A.K., Nirupama, N., 2011. Building resilient communities through
empowering women with information and communication technologies: a Pakistan
case study. Sustainability 3, 82–96. https://doi.org/10.3390/su3010082.
Kishore, A., Spears, D., 2014. Having a son promotes clean cooking fuel use in urban
India: women’s status and son preference. Econ. Dev. Cult. Change 62, 673–699.
https://doi.org/10.1086/676330.
Kodgule, R., Salvi, S., 2012. Exposure to biomass smoke as a cause for airway disease in
women and children. Curr. Opin. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 12, 82–90. https://doi.org/
10.1097/ACI.0b013e32834ecb65.
Lambrecht, I., Vanlauwe, B., Maertens, M., 2016. Agricultural extension in Eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo: does gender matter? Eur. Rev. Agric. Econ. 43,
841–874. https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbv039.
Lundberg, S., Pollak, R.A., 2008. Family decision making. In: Macmillan, Palgrave (Ed.),
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London,
pp. 1–8.
Ma, W., Zhou, X., Renwick, A., 2019. Impact of off-farm income on household energy
expenditures in China: implications for rural energy transition. Energy Policy 127,
248–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.016.
Mahat, I., 2004. Implementation of alternative energy technologies in Nepal: towards the
achievement of sustainable livelihoods. Energy. Sustain. Dev. 8, 9–16. https://doi.
org/10.1016/S0973-0826(08)60455-X.
Mahmud, S., Shah, N.M., Becker, S., 2012. Measurement of women’s empowerment in
rural Bangladesh. World Dev. 40, 610–619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
worlddev.2011.08.003.
Mailu, S., Kinusu, K., Muhammad, L., 2018. Subsidies and biogas plant installations in
Kenya: a case study of the ABPP. SSRN Electron. J. https://doi.org/10.2139/
ssrn.3149957.
Makan, A., 1995. Power for women and men: towards a gendered approach to domestic
energy policy and planning in South Africa. Third World Plan. Rev. 17, 183. https://
doi.org/10.3828/twpr.17.2.y951502074p2w545.
Malhotra, A., Schuler, S.R., 2005. Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International
Development.
Malik, S., Qasim, M., Saeed, H., 2018. Green finance in Pakistan: barriers and solutions.
In: ADBI Working Paper Series.
Marenya, P.P., Barrett, C.B., 2007. Household-level determinants of adoption of
improved natural resources management practices among smallholder farmers in
western Kenya. Food Policy 32, 515–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
foodpol.2006.10.002.
10
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
Marenya, P., Kassie, M., Tostao, E., 2016. Fertilizer Use on Individually and Jointly
Managed Crop Plots in Mozambique. Fertilizer Use on Individually and Jointly
Managed Crop Plots in Mozambique.
Mason, K.O., Smith, H.L., 2000. Husbands’ versus wives’ fertility goals and use of
contraception: the influence of gender context in five Asian countries. Demography
37, 299–311.
McElroy, M.B., 1990. The empirical content of nash-bargained household behavior.
J. Hum. Resour. 25, 559–583.
McElroy, M.B., Horney, M.J., 1981. Nash-bargained household decisions: toward a
generalization of the theory of demand. Int. Econ. Rev. 22, 333–349.
Miller, G., Mobarak, A.M., 2011. Intra-household Externalities and Low Demand for a
New Technology: Experimental Evidence on Improved Cookstoves (Unpublished
manuscript).
Mohapatra, S., Simon, L., 2017. Intra-household bargaining over household technology
adoption. Rev. Econ. Househ. 15, 1263–1290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-015-
9318-5.
Moore, M.J., Viscusi, W.K., 1988. The quantity-adjusted value OF life. Econ. Inq. 26,
369–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1988.tb01502.x.
Mosedale, S., 2005. Assessing women’s empowerment: towards a conceptual framework.
J. Int. Dev. 17, 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1212.
Parikh, J., 2011. Hardships and health impacts on women due to traditional cooking
fuels: a case study of Himachal Pradesh, India. Energy Policy 39, 7587–7594.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.05.055.
Pearse, R., Connell, R., 2016. Gender norms and the economy: insights from social
research. Fem. Econ. 22, 30–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2015.1078485.
Peterman, A., Behrman, J.A., Quisumbing, A.R., 2014. A review of empirical evidence on
gender differences in Nonland agricultural inputs, technology, and services in
developing countries. In: Quisumbing, A.R., Meinzen-Dick, R., Raney, T.L.,
Croppenstedt, A., Behrman, J.A., Peterman, A. (Eds.), Gender in Agriculture.
Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 145–186.
Po, J.Y.T., FitzGerald, J.M., Carlsten, C., 2011. Respiratory disease associated with solid
biomass fuel exposure in rural women and children: systematic review and meta-
analysis. Thorax 66, 232–239. https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.2010.147884.
Preacher, K.J., Hayes, A.F., 2004. SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects
in simple mediation models. Behav. Res. Methods Instrum. Comput. 36, 717–731.
https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206553.
Puzzolo, E., Pope, D., Stanistreet, D., Rehfuess, E.A., Bruce, N.G., 2016. Clean fuels for
resource-poor settings: a systematic review of barriers and enablers to adoption and
sustained use. Environ. Res. 146, 218–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
envres.2016.01.002.
Raha, D., Mahanta, P., Clarke, M.L., 2014. The implementation of decentralised biogas
plants in Assam, NE India: the impact and effectiveness of the National Biogas and
Manure Management Programme. Energy Policy 68, 80–91. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.enpol.2013.12.048.
Reddy, Nk, Vranda, M., Ahmed, A., Nirmala, B., Siddaramu, B., 2010. Work-life balance
among married women employees. Indian J. Psychol. Med. 32, 112. https://doi.org/
10.4103/0253-7176.78508.
Rehfuess, E., 2006. Fuel for Life: Household Energy and Health. World Health
Organization, Geneva.
Rehman, S., Cai, Y., Mirjat, N., Walasai, G., Shah, I., Ali, S., 2017. The future of
sustainable energy production in Pakistan: a system dynamics-based approach for
estimating Hubbert Peaks. Energies 10, 1858. https://doi.org/10.3390/
en10111858.
Rothenberg, P.S., 2004. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: an Integrated
Study. Macmillan.
Rowlands, J., 1995. Empowerment examined. Dev. Pract. 5, 101–107. https://doi.org/
10.1080/0961452951000157074.
Samman, E., Santos, M.E., 2009. Agency and Empowerment: A Review of Concepts,
Indicators and Empirical Evidenceξ.
Schneebaum, A., Mader, K., 2013. The Gendered Nature of Intra-household Decision
Making in and across Europe.
Schuler, S.R., Hashemi, S.M., 1994. Credit programs, women’s empowerment, and
contraceptive use in rural Bangladesh. Stud. Fam. Plan. 25, 65–76.
Sell, M., Minot, N., 2018. What factors explain women’s empowerment? Decision-
making among small-scale farmers in Uganda. Women’s Stud. Int. Forum 71, 46–55.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2018.09.005.
Sen, A., 1990. More than 100 Million Women Are Missing, pp. 61–66. New York.
Sen, G., 1998. Empowerment as an Approach to Poverty.
Sen, A., 1999. Development as Freedom. Alfred Knopf, New York.
Shemwell, J.T., Chase, C.C., Schwartz, D.L., 2015. Seeking the general explanation: a test
of inductive activities for learning and transfer: inductive activities for learning and
transfer. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 52, 58–83. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21185.
Skutsch, M.M., 1998. The gender issue in energy project planning Welfare,
empowerment or efficiency? Energy Policy 26, 945–955. https://doi.org/10.1016/
S0301-4215(98)00037-8.
Sohail, M., 2014. Women empowerment and economic development-an exploratory
study in Pakistan. J. Bus. Stud. Q. 5, 210.
Sunikka-Blank, M., Bardhan, R., Haque, A.N., 2019. Gender, domestic energy and design
of inclusive low-income habitats: a case of slum rehabilitation housing in Mumbai,
India. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 49, 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.020.
Uddin, W., Khan, B., Shaukat, N., Majid, M., Mujtaba, G., Mehmood, A., Ali, S.M.,
Younas, U., Anwar, M., Almeshal, A.M., 2016. Biogas potential for electric power
generation in Pakistan: a survey. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 54, 25–33. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.09.083.
N. Yasmin and P. Grundmann
Verhoog, S.M., 2010. Biofuels and Women’s Empowerment - A Comparative Theoretical
Analysis of 8 Biofuel Projects in Rural India and Sub-Saharan Africa (Revised
Version: December 2014).
Wahyudi, J., 2017. The determinants factors of biogas technology adoption in cattle
farming: evidences from Pati, Indonesia. Int. J. Renew. Energy Dev. 6, 235. https://
doi.org/10.14710/ijred.6.3.235-240.
Walekhwa, P.N., Mugisha, J., Drake, L., 2009. Biogas energy from family-sized digesters
in Uganda: critical factors and policy implications. Energy Policy 37, 2754–2762.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.03.018.
Ward-Batts, J., 2008. Out of the wallet and into the purse: using micro data to test
income pooling. J. Hum. Resour. 43, 325–351. https://doi.org/10.3368/
jhr.43.2.325.
11
Energy Policy 137 (2020) 111074
Winther, T., Ulsrud, K., Saini, A., 2018. Solar powered electricity access: implications for
women’s empowerment in rural Kenya. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 44, 61–74. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.04.017.
World Health Organization, 2009. Global Health Risks : Mortality and Burden of Disease
Attributable to Selected Major Risks. World Health Organization, Geneva .
Yasmin, N., Grundmann, P., 2019. Adoption and diffusion of renewable energy – the case
of biogas as alternative fuel for cooking in Pakistan. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.
101, 255–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.10.011.
Yount, K.M., VanderEnde, K.E., Dodell, S., Cheong, Y.F., 2016. Measurement of women’s
agency in Egypt: a national validation study. Soc. Indic. Res. 128, 1171–1192.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1074-7.
Zakar, R., Zakar, M.Z., Qureshi, S., Fischer, F., 2014. Harnessing information technology
to improve women’s health information: evidence from Pakistan. BMC Women’s
Health 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6874-14-105.