The MUSE project developed and validated user-friendly tools that measure women’s sanitation-related empowerment, called the Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-Related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales. Using the ARISE Scales can enable stakeholders to understand and measure women’s empowerment related to sanitation — and what programs, initiatives, and policies may be needed to make change.
Under Review: Mink, T., Patrick, M., Conrad, A., Ahmed, T., Arun, A., Ramanarayanan, V., Chakraborti, N., Reddy, Y.M., Nagarajan, A., Bhan, T., Sinharoy, S.S., and Caruso, B.A. ‘Sanitation-related empowerment resources are associated with women’s well-being, anxiety, and depression: findings from Bangladesh, India, Senegal, and Uganda,’ medRxiv. Pre-print.
Under Review: Sinharoy, S.S, Xia, D., Patrick, M., McManus, S., Chipungu, J., Reddy, Y.M., Ahmed, T., Mink, T., Pan, Y., Bhan, T., Conrad, A., and Caruso, B.A. ‘The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales: Psychometric evaluation across Asia and Africa. Research Square. Pre-print.
Under Review: Shakil, Z., Caruso, B.A., Patrick, M., Mink, T., Bhan, T., Ahmed, T., Reddy, Y.M., Sinharoy, S.S. ‘Heavy menstrual bleeding and association with menstruation-specific resources: A multinational cross-sectional study in low-and middle-income countries.’
Sinclair, E., Hüls, A., Patrick, M., Arun, S., Ramanarayanan, V., Sinharoy, S.S., and Caruso, B.A. 2025. ‘Sanitation-related withholding and suppression among women in urban Uganda and India,’ Nature Water. 3:782-792. [Download PDF]
Stephan, N., Sinharoy, S.S., Waford, R., Patrick, M., Mink, T., Bhan, T., Ahmed, T., Ahmed, A., and Caruso, B.A. 2025. ‘The association between women’s decision-making roles in sanitation and mental well-being in urban Bangladesh,’ Health & Place. 95:103515. [Download PDF]
Charles, I., Patrick, M., Mink, T., Ahmed, T., Reddy, Y.M., Young, M.R., Waford, R., Caruso, B.A., and Sinharoy, S.S. 2025. ‘Association between heavy menstrual bleeding and depression among women in South Asia: a cross-sectional study,’ American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. S0002-9378(25)00393-X. [Download PDF]
Bhan, T., Caruso, B.A., Sinharoy, S.S. 2025. ‘Women’s health and empowerment for sustainable development: Linking sanitation burden and agency in Asia and Africa,’ Sustainable Development. [Download PDF]
Patrick M., Stephan, N., Mink, T., Bhan, T., Aine, B.M., Matanda, N.V., Conrad, A., Sinharoy, S.S., Caruso, B.A. 2025. ‘Knowledge, attitudes, and support of women’s menstrual experiences: A cross-sectional survey of men in Kampala, Uganda,’ Health & Place, 93: 103439. [Download PDF]
Sinharoy, S.S., Chery, L., Patrick, M., Conrad, A., Ramaswamy, A., Stephen, A., Chipungu, J., Reddy, YM, Doma, R., and Pasricha, S-R. 2023. ‘Prevalence of heavy menstrual bleeding and associations with physical health and wellbeing in low-income and middle-income countries: a multinational cross-sectional study’, The Lancet Global Health. [Download PDF]
Doma, R., Patrick, M., Conrad, A., Ramanarayanan, V., Arun, S., Sinharoy, S.S., and Caruso, B.A. 2023. ‘An exploration of sanitation-related decision-making, leadership, collective action, and freedom of movement among women in urban Tiruchirappalli, India’, Frontiers in Water, 5: 1048772. [Download PDF]
Sinharoy, S.S., McManus, S., Conrad, A., Patrick, M., and Caruso, B.A. 2023. ‘The Agency, Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales: Development and validation of measures of women’s empowerment in urban sanitation for low-and middle-income countries’, World Development, 164: 106183. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106183 PMC9918868 [Download PDF]
Sinharoy, S.S., Conrad, A., Patrick, M., McManus, S., and Caruso, B.A. 2022. ‘Protocol for development and validation of instruments to measure women’s empowerment in urban sanitation across countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa: the Agency, Resources and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-related Empowerment (ARISE) scales’, BMJ Open, 12: e053104. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053104 PMC8860033 [Download PDF]
Caruso, B.A., Conrad, A., Patrick, M., Owens, A., Kviten, K., Zarella, O., Rogers, H., and Sinharoy, S.S. 2022. ‘Water, Sanitation, and Women’s Empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis‘, PLOS Water, 1: e0000026. Learn more at Kudos. [Download PDF]
Sinharoy, S.S, McManus, S., Patrick, M., Mink, T., Xia, D., McKinley, N., Cloherty, S., Bhan, T., Caruso, B. A. (2024) The Agency Resources, and Institutional Structures for Sanitation-Related Empowerment (ARISE) Scales: User Guide. 2023.
MUSE data are available via FigShare Collection: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7590713
2018-Present