Wives in households with other co-wives are slightly more likely to be involved in decisions directly than wives who live with their in-laws. But when they are not directly involved in the decision, these wives are less likely to have effective power, particularly in terms of water decisions. In these households, when one of the wives is not directly involved in these decisions, the male head of household is making the decision. In either case, wives who are not directly involved in decision-making have little influence in the decision made.

Young unmarried adults living with their parents are the least likely to be involved in decisions directly (Table 5). Few individuals in the younger age bracket make decisions in all seven activities. On average, young men and women make between two and three decisions directly, with young women making fewer decisions directly than young men across the decision-making activities. When not directly involved in the decisions, young men and women have similar levels of effective power with the exception of expenditures. Young men have more effective power in household expenditure decisions than young women. Correspondingly, the qualitative data suggests younger men often have some involvement in expenditure decisions if they are earning income.

In terms of water activities, our qualitative data shows that while both young men and women are involved in collecting water, they have little direct involvement in the water decisions. The quantitative data confirms that young men and women are directly engaged in less than one decision on average of the three water activities, and that they have similar levels of effective power when not involved in the decision (Table 5).

**Table 5.** Average share of activities young women and men who are not yet married and living with parents are directly engaged in the decision and share of those not directly involved but with effective

||Average sh<br>activities in<br>particip|p<br>are of deci<br>which wo<br>ate in the d|ower<br>sion making<br>men and men<br>ecision|<br>Average<br>activities in<br>not participat|share of decis<br>which men a<br>e directly in t|ion making<br>nd women do<br>he decision but|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Unmarried women and men**||||hav|e effective po|wer|
|**living with their parents**|Women|Men|Diff|Women|Men|Diff|
|All decisions|0.33|0.40|0.07**|0.14|0.18|0.03|
||(0.26)|(0.27)|(0.03)|(0.20)|(0.22)|(0.02)|
|Water decisions|0.24|0.23|-0.01|0.17|0.21|0.04|
||(0.32)|(0.32)|(0.03)|(0.29)|(0.30)|(0.03)|
|Expenditure decisions|0.08|0.26|0.18***|0.07|0.11|0.04*|
||(0.24)|(0.40)|(0.04)|(0.19)|(0.23)|(0.02)|
|Personal individual decisions|0.51|0.64|0.12***|0.16|0.20|0.04|
||(0.36)|(0.34)|(0.04)|(0.34)|(0.37)|(0.04)|
|Observations|153|249|402|151|242|393|

_Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1. Sample comprises never married men and women who live with one or both parents. Water decisions include water source for drinking, water expenditures, and water allocation. Expenditure decisions include water expenditures and large household purchases. Personal decisions include health care, visit family, and use of own income. All estimations are computed using survey weights to address sampling._

# **7. Conclusion and implications for further research**

The exercise of agency allows for multiple ways of pursuing your goals. Our conceptualization of effective power explicitly recognizes there are other methods beyond direct decision-making to obtain one’s goals. Measures of effective power when not participating in decision-making directly are, thus, essential to fully 14