Abstract Background Despite the obvious violation of women’s rights in Pakistan and the vital necessity for women empowerment, a unified country-specific index measuring women empowerment is not yet available. This study cross-validated a survey-based women empowerment index from Afghanistan to be used in Pakistan. Methods The data for married Pakistani women aged 15–49 in the 2017–18 Pakistan demographic health survey was used to construct the final model using the explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses. The...