Intersectionality matters: An analysis of women’s empowerment among livestock holders in Nepal, Senegal and Uganda

• While research on gender in livestock settings is growing, greater attention should be devoted to intersectionality. • An intersectional analysis of WELI data in three countries unveiled inequities beyond gender differences. • In Nepal, caste differences in empowerment among livestock owners are more consequential than those defined by gender. • Gender differences in empowerment scores are significant in Uganda and Senegal, but the magnitude varies by ethnicity. Many tools have been deployed to measure women’s empowerment in development contexts, but few have explicitly adopted an intersectional lens when studying livestock holders. This paper uses an intersectional approach to analyze qualitative (Focus Group Discussions, FGDs) and quantitative data (using the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index, WELI) for livestock-holding communities in Nepal, Senegal, and Uganda. Our analysis focuses on the intersection between gender and caste in Nepal, and gender and ethnicity in Senegal and Uganda. Findings from 71 FGDs reveal important differences in the gender distribution of livestock-related roles by caste or ethnic groups and in conceptualizations of women’s empowerment. Multivariate regressions for individual empowerment scores derived from the WELI (821 men and women interviewed separately) show that, in Senegal and Uganda, differences in empowerment indicators by gender are statistically significant even when ethnicity is considered, but further comparisons between ethnic groups reveal deeper insights. Conversely, in Nepal, the most pronounced differences in empowerment are between women (and men) from different castes, while gender differences within each caste are more limited. Qualitative findings help shed further light on these findings by unveiling dimensions of empowerment that are locally deemed important but are not captured by WELI indicators. We also compare the contribution of intrinsic, instrumental, and collective agency indicators to the disempowerment of different gender and intersectional groups and discuss possible reasons for all these differences, aided by the findings from FGDs. We provide recommendations for improving future intersectional analyses employing WELI and mixed-method approaches.