Empowerment

About: Empowerment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 42112 publications have been published within this topic receiving 752953 citations.

What is missing in measures of Women's Empowerment?

Abstract: This paper argues that the Gender Empowerment Measure is an incomplete and biased index on women's empowerment, which measures inequality among the most educated and economically advantaged and fails to include important non‐economic dimensions of decision‐making power both at the household level and over women's own bodies and sexuality. After addressing in more depth the relevance and limitations of existent and potential indicators on women's empowerment in the political and economic spheres, this paper identifies and assesses potential indicators in those spheres currently absent in the Gender Empowerment Measure (household and individual dimensions). Finally, the paper stresses that empowerment is not primarily an outcome, but a process; as such, there are elements enabling or limiting it, such as — but not limited to — the legal and regulatory framework. Considering this, the construction of a new aggregated measure on the Gender Empowerment Enabling Environment of countries is suggested. The views ...

Feminism/ Postmodernism/ Development

Abstract: In a world where global restructuring is leading to both integration and fragmentation, the meaning and practice of development are increasingly contested. New voices from the South are challenging Northern control over development. Feminism/Postmodernism/Development is a comprehensive study of this power struggle. It examines new issues, "voices", and dilemmas in development theory and practice. Drawing on the experiences of women from Africa, Latin America, and Asia, as well as women of colour, this collection questions established development practices and suggests the need to incorporate issues such as identity, representation, indigenous knowledge, and political action. Feminism/Postmodernism/Development acknowledges the importance of Third World and minority women's experiences. It acknowledges their importance for development and suggests that postmodernist insights can enhance their quest for empowerment.

Gender mainstreaming and climate change

Abstract: Synopsis Gender mainstreaming refers to the process of incorporating a gender perspective to any action, policy, legislation or action in order to ensure that the concerns of all are addressed and that gender inequalities are not perpetuated through institutional means. However the implementation of gender mainstreaming across the globe has not necessarily resulted in advances for women, as it is usually associated with a winding back of women-focused policies and programs. Emerging research indicates that climate change has significant gendered impacts and yet policies and practices designed to address and shape mitigation and adaptation strategies have failed to incorporate gender mainstreaming. Further the scientific and technological focus of many of these institutional responses has led to a lack of attention to social outcomes more generally. This has resulted in a lack of attention to the vulnerable groups, including women. This paper outlines an argument not only for gender mainstreaming of climate policy but also for policy focused specifically on women's empowerment. Gender mainstreaming is essential in ensuring that not only climate policies and programs are comprehensive, but so too are women-focused policies designed to ensure that women are supported and empowered to take action on their own behalf.

The Ana Sanctuary: Women’s Pro-Anorexia Narratives in Cyberspace

Abstract: In this paper I explore cyberspace as a space where women who are struggling with anorexia can potentially find sanctuary from the surveillance and regulatory mechanisms of control in the public sphere. I explore the narratives of women who create and visit pro-anorexia or pro-ana websites in order to listen to these women's experiences of anorexia and rationale for inhabiting these spaces. (2) Taking seriously the voices of these women can be viewed as a transgressive act, in contrast to hegemonic biomedical and psychiatric discourses of anorexia that portray women with eating disorders as 'irrational' and 'in denial' of their behavior, and pathologize and medicalize their experiences. Through their narratives we see how dominant cultural scripts about their bodies are reproduced, negotiated and/or resisted. We can also observe women's engagement in the interpretation of their own experiences. The transient and fluid nature of pro-ana websites (in response to the backlash they receive) also illustrates the resilience of the women who seek them out and (re)create them. Just as the body is a site of struggle (and resistance), so too there are struggles over where and how women's stories of their body can be told. Background Given that women's bodies and experiences of embodiment are subjected to relentless surveillance and regulatory mechanisms of control in the public sphere (Bray and Colebrook "The Haunted Flesh"), cyberspace can potentially provide a space that is safer for women to meet than traditional public spaces and places in the built environment. (3) Cyberspace can be conceptualized as an alternative space for women with eating and body issues, one that may serve as a sanctuary. (4) Since the public realm is regulated by banishing from sight behaviors that are considered abnormal, repugnant or deviant (Duncan), cyberspace can provide a space to escape the scrutiny of others (though perhaps not self-scrutiny), as well as the opportunity to interact with other women struggling with eating disorders who offer non-judgmental support. This could be helpful since the early stages of anorexia are usually marked by extreme isolation, secrecy, and disconnection. Ironically, cyberspace is a public space. While in contemporary Western culture not interacting within the public spaces of society is considered abnormal and unhealthy, occupying public spaces and revealing one's abnormality or deviance is considered equally if not more unhealthy (Bankey). The backlash these websites have received from the media and professionals in the field, which I will discuss later in this paper, has been extensive. The stigma and shame that come with both diagnostic labeling and society's misunderstanding of eating "disorders" contribute to women's need to find creative ways to connect and find support. "With such labels as 'disorder' we ... unconsciously create barriers to real support, add to personal embarrassment and shame, and foster discrimination and isolation" (42). In contrast to the dominant discourses of anorexia and eating disorders in general, my research is informed by these women's narratives in an attempt to access alternative definitions and understandings that they may have of their own mental states (Parr 183). (5) Narratives may embody, reproduce, and/or alter cultural scripts; they may also push at the boundaries of what is unsayable and untellable in particular contexts (Chase 24). What women struggling with anorexia may not be able (or ready) to say to family, friends or professionals, they may be able to say in the safer and less confronting space of cyberspace. Third Wave Feminism The issue of body image has been named as a central issue in Third Wave Feminism because all women, feminist or not, "offer heartfelt and complex emotions on the topic" (Richards 198). (6) Third wave feminists have directed much of their attention to the impact that popular culture has on their subjective experiences, rather than adopting legal or political strategies (Carter 119), because they see "the media and entertainment industries [are their] most visible 'oppressors'" (Richards 198) and an analysis and critique of popular culture as important to the political struggle towards female empowerment (Heywood and Drake 51). …

Rethinking Empowerment Theory Using a Feminist Lens: The Importance of Process:

Abstract: This article highlights the importance of social, historical, and political context when theorizing empowerment and “maps” empowerment as a cyclical, rather than a linear, process. Synthesizing important perspectives in feminist thought and empowerment theory, it proposes understandings of positionality, conscientization, and social transformation that are meant to inform empowerment-oriented, feminist social work practice.