Women’s Access To And Control Of Family Assets And Their Wellbeing

Abstract

The study employed a mixed method to investigate the relationship between women‟s access to and control of family‟s assets and their wellbeing within family negotiations. Data were collected from three communities in the Awutu Senya East municipality to complete the investigation. It was found that most women have access to and control over family assets. These mainly comprised of personal small-scale businesses and household consumables. Two components of wellbeing Women‟s self-interest and perceived contribution to household needs were respectively found to be moderately and weakly related to their control of assets. However, other components of wellbeing such as women‟s ability to access health and their participation in everyday household decision-making were not significantly related to their control of assets. Findings from the qualitative data complemented the quantitative results. Most respondents interviewed claimed to have unlimited access to their family‟s assets and could personally decide whether and how to engage their assets as livelihood strategies. Thus, with respect to the study area, women take most of household decisions and are able to access health regardless of their asset holdings. This is because the National Health Insurance Scheme had ensured access to healthcare irrespective of women‟s ownership and control of assets. Recommendations are that gender interventions consider the transfer of productive assets to women in addition to the welfare approach, and also that the government reinforces the National Health Insurance Scheme to ensure that the rural poor are adequately covered, The study concludes that rural women‟s overall wellbeing is determined by factors other than their control of assets.