Women empowerment is an important issue of socioeconomic development of a country. However, in Benin where the situation of women remains worrying, the question of empowerment is very little tackled by research. Accordingly, this paper analyses the empowerment of rural women in the central part of Benin. Based on a random sample of 190 rural women and using empowerment indices, the study shows that only 19% of the women enjoy a decision-making autonomy whereas 41% of them are free of mobility. About the leadership, the most of the women can neither integrate nor leading any rural organisation without the consent of their husband, although they clearly enjoy a financial autonomy. The results also show that there is a significant relationship between decision-making autonomy and freedom of mobility. In the same way, decision-making autonomy is correlated with the marital status of women. Due to the influence of social norms and customs on the current situation of the women in the study area, one can suppose that any boosting of the empowerment process is subject to a major change in these factors.
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