Women and Empowerment: Illustrations from the Third World

by Haleh Afshar (Editor)

This volume widens the debate on empowerment to balance different experiences of empowerment and evaluate the role played by agency, donors, and recipients. The question is, "Who empowers whom?" The term itself has been critically evaluated and its definition in terms of the ability of an individual to maximize her utility has been challenged by the authors. Using case studies from Latin America, South East Asia and the Middle East, the authors note the diversity of political and economic measures that have been introduced in the name of empowerment. They demonstrate that at times too much emphasis has been placed on the individual and her particular circumstances. This in turn has undermined communal activities and goals. Empowered women are not necessarily those women who wish to or can separate their personal and familial needs. At other times the very existence of an international empowerment agenda has proved extremely useful to isolated groups engaged in difficult political negotiations with the state. The volume concludes that it is far too difficult to provide a final evaluation of the impact of the diverse empowerment policies, but what is well worth noting is the unintended as well as the planned outcomes of some of the policies concerned.

214 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 1998