Women's Empowerment and the Intention to Continue the Practice of Female Genital Cutting in Egypt

Background: The study aimed to (dis)prove the association of the level of women's empowerment with their future intention to perpetuate female genital cutting for their daughters. Methods: In a national representative community-based sample of 14,393 currently-married women in Egypt, the level of empowerment, intention to continue the practice, and other socio-demographic variables were collected in the 2000 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey. Secondary in-depth analysis was conducted on data downloaded from MEASURE Demographic Health Surveys (MEASURE DHS) website. Results: About 14% of the women intended to discontinue the practice. Twenty-six percent of the women were empowered in all household decisions. Levels of women's empowerment adjusted for age, residence, education, interaction between empowerment and education, work status, and female genital cutting status of currently-married women were entered in six logistic regression models in a sequential way. Conclusion: In the last model, those of high levels of empowerment and education were 8.06 times more likely not intending to perpetuate female genital cutting for their daughters than low-empowered low-educated women.