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Women's Empowerment: a journey not a destination
8 March 2010 - Andrea Cornwall
On International Women's Day, we call for much more attention to be paid to changing representations and narratives that portray women as victims to be rescued or heroines who will single-handedly uplift their countries and communities. Neither help achieve the kind of change that is needed to address the wrongs of discrimination and its devastating effects on generations of women around the world.
The RPC programme, Pathways of Women's Empowerment, has sought to make the point that there is no single path to women's empowerment. What our research has shown us is that empowerment is a journey, not a destination and the latest IDS Bulletin looks at various aspects of these journeys, particularly in the context Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, and Palestine.
Voice or women's political engagement
Quota systems and other positive discrimination measures have only been partially successful in increasing the numbers of women in political office, but less successful in changing the cultures of politics so as to enable women to fully participate in and influence political decision-making. Stronger sanctions and incentives to make quota systems work are needed alongside stronger support for women's political engagement at every level. Studies show the vital role that women's movements and organisations play in women's political empowerment - whether through pressure on political parties, alliances, or innovative ‘feminist schools' that train women politicians as well as equip women from the grassroots to take up pathways into politics.
Work or how the value of material resources varies according to context
While material resources are important for women to achieve valued goals, which resources matter varies with context. For example, in Ghana, where most women are, and are expected to be, economically active, it is paid work backed by ownership of economic assets, such as land and housing, which makes a difference to women's lives. In contexts like Bangladesh, where women have traditionally been denied access to paid work, just earning an income makes a difference. Women working outside the home, especially in formal or semi-formal jobs, appear to exercise the greatest degree of agency in their personal lives and relationships as well as in the political sphere.
Body or changing narratives of sexuality
However, empowerment in one sphere does not always translate into other spheres. Women may enjoy decision-making and economic power without experiencing empowerment in relation to their sexual or intimate relationships. Shifting the focus from misery to pleasure offers new ways of thinking about how to bring about positive change in women's lives. There is much to learn from innovative projects that recognise the power of sexual pleasure in creating the conditions for safer, less abusive, sexual relationships, such as a Tanzanian initiative aimed at enhancing women's wellbeing that gave women vibrators rather than chickens.
Pathways to a Fairer World
Much still needs to be done to change the structural conditions that perpetuate inequity, and our research suggests that helping women change the contexts within which they operate is as important as supporting them to navigate them. What women are doing to make change happen can reveal hidden pathways which development agencies neither anticipate nor currently do much to support, which is why they need to get better at learning from the ways in which women themselves negotiate and articulate their own empowerment. It is by doing this that the promise of women's empowerment and gender equality can be put to work to bring about a fairer world.
Andrea Cornwall is Director of the Women's Empowerment RPC
Image credit: Andrea Cornwall/University of Sussex
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Related Projects
- Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium - International research and communications programme finding out what works to enhance women’s empowerment (Ongoing)
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