Measuring Urban Sanitation and Empowerment (MUSE)

About

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.  

publications

 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]

ARISE Guidance Document

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

MUSE data are available via FigShare Collection: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7590713

Time span

2018-Present

Locations (so far)

  • Saidpur and Meherpur, Bangladesh 
  • Narsapur, Tiruchirappalli, and Warangal, India 
  • Dakar, Senegal 
  • Kampala, Uganda 
  • Lusaka, Zambia