Strategies for Women's Empowerment

I wrote this as an assignment, and consulted various books. I posted this with the hope that it will help students and other who are looking for quick answer.  So the basic content is broken down into 3 different posts, as a series, and the references are kept with the last post. keep on scrolling :)

1. Introduction: What is women's empowerment?
2. Approaches to/for Women's Empowerment
-A. South Asian Approaches (Batliwala)
-B.  Women Empowerment in Development (WED) or Developmental Approach
-C.  Women in Development (WID)
-D. Women and Development (WAD)
-E. Gender and Development (GAD)
-F. The Welfare Approach
-G. The Equity Approach
-H. The Efficency Approach
-I. Anti-Proverty Approach
-J. The empowered Approach
3. Strategies for Women's Empowerment (include references)
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STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

There are various methods and means for women empowerment although a fool proof strategy is not possible.  Some of popular methods of women empowerment include education, entrepreneurial training, programmes, formation of SHGs, social action, legislation, mass communication and propaganda, etc.  These are individual as well as institutionalized methods for the empowerment of women.

(1)   Gender Sensitization and Awareness Generation:  Planning for women’s empowerment cannot succeed unless supported by an awareness generation programme covering all sections of the population including women.  Women’s empowerment is a strenuous task of rooting out gender bias and implanting positive attitudes in the hearts and minds of men, women, and children so that the family and the society would endorse and participate in the planning process for women’s advancement.  For this purpose, mass media, political parties, development agencies, educational institutions, etc can be employed. 

Women must not merely recognize that they are disempowered, but must also be aware of what they can do legally, peacefully and constructive to overcome their oppression.  Generating awareness includes dissemination information about law, entitlements, accountability and government projects for health, nutrition and sanitation, etc.

(2)     Participatory Learning & Processes: Strategies for empowering women must focus beyond economic restructuring, to include restructuring of social relations, which constraint the freedom of women.  It is powerlessness and not poverty which is the real inhibiting factors even among the poor women.  Empowerment of women must result in specific, workable and sustainable measures that would help create a social order based on gender justice.  Non-conventional model for development are the best strategy for empowerment.  Once the women acquire the ability to think of themselves as rightful claimants to better life motivation to overcome the culture of submission will follow.

(3)   Mass Movement: It is one of the accepted modes of agitation for securing justice and human rights.  An organised mass movement among women would challenge and transforms all existing social evils against women and the violations of their rights.  Such movements are targeted to changes in laws, civil codes, systems of property rights, and the social and legal institutions that underwrite male control and privileges.  These changes in the prevailing social, economic and political systems are essential for the achievement of women’s equality.

(4)   Women Organisation:  These organisations are oriented to developing new structures and culture that reflect women’s needs, interests and behavioural preferences.  Organising women means to bring women together to think through their common problems, to agree on their common issues, to decide on common action and to forge common ideologies.

(5)   Welfare and development approach:   It is all those target oriented and well monitored programmes that can help women overcome the socio-cultural constraints of empowerment.  Conception and delivery of a development programme taking special attention to deal with the gender bias, and directly involving women in the planning and implementation of projects will help in empowering women.

(6)   Intervention at ideological structure: intervening at the society level is required to break the barrier of women empowerment.  For development of positive attitudes it is imperative to infuse family, social, human and spiritual values among the masses through ideologies.   This can be done through value education in the formal and informal education stream.

(7)   Mass Media: The role of civil society in the process of women empowerment is reflected in mass media and literature.  The image of women depicted in literature and media reflects the average expectation of the population.  Communication media as well as visual are the most popular and effective means of reaching out to the masses so they are an very critical to the shaping of the image of women and in their empowerment.

(8)   Education: Education and access to education are the primary requirement for women empowerment.  Education is an important tool which enables the children to develop the necessary confidence, self-esteem, capacity for reasoning and social skills to protect their rights and dignity.  It also empowers them to become productive and fully participating adult members of the society.  When designed and carried out purposefully, education can create and build the commitment of society as a whole to respect the rights and dignity of its children. 

(9)   Religion: Religion is not only a social institution but also a strong voluntary mass movement to shape views, beliefs, outlooks, and ideology.  The role and status of women in the family and in the society are well defined in religious texts, so the sensitive and correct interpretation of religion plays a vital role in maintaining social status quo, the roles of the genders, and the position of women.

(10)           Legal Empowerment: Legal provision alone do not ensure any substantial change in the status of women, however social legislation are the beginning of a desirable social change which are advocated and supported by the social forces.  Thus it’s important that social legislation or legal provision promote social welfare, social security, social justice and gender justice, etc, which also includes the rights of women as equal citizens.

(11)           Social Empowerment: Social empowerment deals with empowerment at the level of family, community and at personal level which includes psychological and physical health of women.  It also includes religion, literature, arts, media, history, legislation, social movements and human rights.

(12)            Economic Empowerment: Financial security and independence is an important indicator of measuring the empowerment of any marginalized groups including women.  It not only improves and individual or group standard of living but also enhances self-image.  Economic empowerment can be brought about by addressing the structural causes of deprivation through changes in economic structures, ensuring equal access (participation) for all women, including those in rural areas, as vital development agents, to productive resources, opportunities and public services.  Some of the simple steps used are promoting self-employment, through credit & training, providing micro-credit, lean season wage and employment, encouraging saving habit among them.

(13)           Political Empowerment: For the realization and full implementation of the hum rights o women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, political empowerment and participation are required. Political participation can be at two level, one is in giving opportunities for equal participation to women in the political process so that woman can have an equal say in the daily running of the government and two, in legislating women right oriented laws and programmes.

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Bibliography/References:

1. Kumar, Hajira; “Women’s Empowerment : Issues, Challenges and Strategies”: Daya Publications at New Delhi; 2004
2. Bisnath, Savitri and Elson, Diane, “Women’s Empowerment Revisited” UNIFEM – Progress of the World’s Women Biennial Report, New York, 2001
3. Batliwala, Srilatha; “Women’s Empowerment in 21^st Century India – Changing Meanings, Contexts and Strategies”, in Shiva Kumar and Rajani Ved (Eds), “The Wellbeing of India’s Population”
4. OECD; "DAC Sourcebook on Concepts and Approaches linked to Gender Equality", Paris, 1998
5. Malhotra, Anju; "Conceptualizing and measuring women's Empowerment as a Variable in International Development"; Paper presented at the World Bank, Washington DC, Feb. 2003
6. Oxaal, Zoe with Sally Baden; Gender and empowerment: definitions, approaches and implications for policy, October 1997 (revised)
7. Batliwala, Srilatha. 1994. “The Meaning of Women’s Empowerment: New Concepts from Action”, in Gita Sen, Adrienne Germain and Lincoln C. Chen eds. Population Policies Reconsidered: Health, Empowerment and Rights. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
8. Beneria, Lourdes with Savitri Bisnath eds. 2001. Gender and Development: Theoretical, Empirical and Practical Approaches Vols. I & II. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics series, Mark Blaug editor. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers.
9. Moser, Caroline. 1989. “Gender Planning in the Third World: Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs”, in World Development, 1989
10. Rowlands, J, 1995, ‘Empowerment examined’, Development in Practice 5 (2), Oxfam, Oxford,
11. 'Male or Female Ethics for Corporations?' People in Corporations: Ethical Responsibilities and Corporate Effectiveness, ed. Enderle, Almond and Argandona, Holland, Kluwer, 1990. 
12. Robbins, Susan P, Edward R Canda, Pratap Chatterjee; Contemporary Human Behavior Theory: A Critical Perspective for Social Work, Allyn & Bacon, London, 1998

Approaches to Women's Empowerment

I wrote this as an assignment, and consulted various books. I posted this with the hope that it will help students and other who are looking for quick answer.  So the basic content is broken down into 3 different posts, as a series, and the references are kept with the last post. keep on scrolling :)

1. Introduction: What is women's empowerment?
2. Approaches to/for Women's Empowerment
-A. South Asian Approaches (Batliwala)
-B.  Women Empowerment in Development (WED) or Developmental Approach
-C.  Women in Development (WID)
-D. Women and Development (WAD)
-E. Gender and Development (GAD)
-F. The Welfare Approach
-G. The Equity Approach
-H. The Efficency Approach
-I. Anti-Proverty Approach
-J. The empowered Approach
3. Strategies for Women's Empowerment (include references)
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APPROACHES TO WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment is “a process by which individuals and groups gain power, access to resources and control over their own lives. In doing so, they gain the ability to achieve their highest personal and collective aspirations and goals” (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 1998).

Women’s empowerment is assumed to be attainable through different points of departure, including political mobilization, consciousness raising and education. In addition, changes where and when necessary, in laws, civil codes, systems of property rights, and the social and legal institutions that underwrite male control and privilege, are assumed to be essential for the achievement of women’s equality.

Successful empowerment approach and strategies require the direct and constant involvement and participation of women in the process because empowerment evolves like a spiral, involving changes in consciousness, the identification of target areas for change, and analyses of actions and outcomes, “which leads in turn to higher levels of consciousness and more finely honed and better executed strategies” (Batliwala, 1994).

A. South Asian Approaches: 

In her study of selected empowerment strategies implemented by specific South Asian NGOs, Batliwala identifies three approaches to women’s empowerment: (i) integrated development; (ii) economic development; and (iii) consciousness raising and organising among women.  She notes that these are not mutually exclusive categories, but argue that they are useful for distinguishing between the various causes of “women’s powerlessness” and among the different interventions thought to lead to empowerment.

(1) The integrated development approach interprets women’s powerlessness to be a result of their “greater poverty and lower access to health care, education, and survival resources”. Batliwala states that strategies deployed under this approach aim to enhance women’s economic status through the provision of services. This approach improves women’s everyday realities by assisting them in meeting their survival and livelihood needs, i.e., their practical needs.

(2)  The economic development approach situates “women’s economic vulnerability at the centre of their powerlessness”, and assumes that economic empowerment positively impacts various aspects of women’s existence. Its strategies are built around strengthening women’s position as workers through organising and providing them with access to support services. Though this approach improves women’s economic position, she notes that it is unclear that this change necessarily empowers them in other dimensions of their lives.

(3) Batliwala argues that the consciousness-raising and organising empowerment approach is based on a complex understanding of gender relations and women’s status. This method ascribes women’s powerlessness to the ideology and practice of patriarchy and socio-economic inequality. Strategies focus on organising women to recognise and challenge gender- and class-based discrimination in all aspects of their lives. However, she posits that though successful in enabling women to address their strategic needs, this approach may not be as effective in assisting them to meet their immediate or practical needs.

Batliwala posits that empowerment strategies must intervene at the level of “women’s condition while also transforming their position”, thus simultaneously addressing both practical and strategic needs. Such analyses facilitates understandings the empowerment process that goes beyond the distribution of resources.

B. Women Empowerment in Development

The term ‘empowerment’ has gained common usage in mainstream development discourse.  In this context, empowerment is often envisaged as individual rather than as collective, and focused on entrepreneurship and individual self-reliance, rather than on co-operation to challenge power structures which subordinate women (or other marginalized groups). 

The development approach arises mainly from the belief that, the status of women (or other marginalized groups) in the third world countries are dependent on the development of the country, and thus must be included in the process of development.  It argues that development assistance has to tackle the problems of ignorance, backwardness, helplessness and resistance to change –not amongst the rural poor but amongst development agencies themselves (Almond, 1990). 

This approach considers that (a) Equal rights for men and women must be acknowledged as a fundamental principal. Legal, economic, political, social, or cultural barriers must be identified and lifted. (b) Human Rights as well as Women’s Rights are universal and indivisible. They cannot be questioned under the cover of respect for cultural diversity. They can have different implementation in different cultural contexts, but the principal of equality and men-women equity applies to all humans, without exception. (c) Women and girls must be the main actor and beneficiaries of aimed changes. There is no human or democratic development without their full participation, and (d) development projects affect men and women differently because of their different position in society. Therefore women and men must participate fully in the decision-making process in order to enjoy equal benefit from developments’ impact.  (Almond, 1990). 

However, the common practice in the field of development where the planners (or other outside agency other than the women themselves) identified women’s needs and interests which are to be integrated and implemented along with the projects or programmes, etc. runs against empowerment objectives which imply that women themselves formulate and decide what their needs and interests are.  Planning (extensively used in the field of development) suggests a top-down approach, whereas the empowerment concept is a bottom-up process, which began from the individual.

There are three broad approaches that seek to integrate women in the developmental process used by various international development bodies and funding agencies.  They are Women in Development, Women and Development and Gender and Development

C. Women in Development (WID):

The WID originated from UN Charter Convention in 1945. Proponents of this approach argue that women are ignored and excluded from the development programmes, believing that development is not obtainable in the absence of women’s integration into development process. The approach seeks the equality of men and women with its roots embedded in liberal feminism and modernization paradigm with a dualistic framework of development and modernization. It focuses on reduction of poverty, restructuring the global economy to focus on human resources and basic human needs with special focus on women. It basic assumption is that increased productivity and income of women would make women partners in development and this in turn would change gender relations.  Most of the strategies of actions of this approach are based on health, education and employment of women.  Its policy and strategy are focused mainly at micro-level like in income generating activities for women

The main criticisms of this approach are that it is considered as a packaged deal disowned by feminist because of its assumption that inequality of women as a result of poverty and backwardness and that equality will come through modernization. Apart from that, it viewed women’s empowerment only as an instrument rather than a goal, for instance educated women still suffer owing to wage discrimination, employment opportunities as well as job mobility. Also, strategies generated by WID perspective had a top-down character and lacked a holistic perspective of women’s subordination.

D. Women and Development (WAD): 

This approach emerged as a critique of modernization theory and WID approach. The focus was that women have always been a part of development process, but in an exploitative way, the problem is that planners hold inaccurate assumptions about women’s specific activities and this led to neglect of women’s real needs and over-exploitation of their labour. It accepted women as an important economic actor in their societies.  Women’s work in the public and private domain is central to the maintenance of their social structure.

Proponents of this approach are mainly activists and theorists from the South and few from the North who saw the limitations of WID and argued that women would never get their equal share of development benefits unless patriarchy and global inequality are addressed.  It offers a more critical view of women’s position than WID. Like WID, WAD’s perspective assumes that women’s position will improve if and when international structures become more equitable. How these could change was not explained clearly.

  

It argues that the dominant development approach lacks women’s perspective (viewpoints) and the perspectives of developing countries.  They see that overcoming poverty and addressing the effects of colonialism are also as important as promoting gender equality in the development process. Out of this grew the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era network (DAWN), based in the South, and which aimed to make the view of developing countries known and influential. According to this perspective, women were not a neglected resource but overburdened and undervalued, so what needed to be done is the re-evaluation of women’s considerable contribution to the development process and a redistribution of the benefits and burdens of development between men and women.

E. Gender and Development (GAD):

This approach came into existence as an alternative to WID approach.  This approach has a holistic approach by looking at all aspects of women’s lives.  It challenges the basis of assigning specific gender roles to different sexes.  It recognizes women’s contribution inside and outside the household non-commodity production.  Women have been seen as agents of change rather than as passive recipients of development assistance. 

It is concerned with gender and gender relations. It is not advocating for WID’s “adding women” into the development process, but about rethinking development concepts and practice as a whole through a gender lens.

This approach stresses the need for women to organize themselves for more effective political voice and recognize the patriarchy operates within and across classes to oppress women and focuses on strengthening women’s legal rights. It sees gender as a cross-cutting issue with relevance for influencing all economic, social and political process.  It aims to identity both the practical gender needs of women such as healthcare, water supply, education labour saving technologies and the strategic gender needs ensuring increase in benefits and help to overcome structural constraints. 

F. The Welfare Approach

The welfare approach is based on the assumptions that (a) women are passive recipients of development, (ii) motherhood is the most important role for women in society, and (iii) child bearing is her significant responsibility.  It has a family centred orientation seeing man for productive role and women only for reproductive role.

Its strategies and implementations are marked by top-down approach like handouts for free goods and services, training like skills appropriate for non working wives and mothers.  The main criticism is that such welfare policy creates dependency rather ran assisting women to become more independent however such policies are politically safe and doesn't question traditionally accepted role of women in the society

G. The Equity approach

The equity approach emerged in the 1970's and was influenced by the work of Esther Boserup and other first-world feminists.  It sees women as active participants in the development process who through both their productive and reproductive role provide a critical contribution to development. This approach aims at reducing inequalities between men and women, and acknowledges that women must be brought into the development process through better access.  It recognize the productive role of women and their practical need to earn an income through small-scale income generating projects to fulfil her triple roles of reproductive, productive and community management.

The approach is based on the principle of shared power, i.e. incorporating the strengths of men and women and seamlessly integrating their concerns at all stages in all development projects by involving women as active participants in the development process, with both a productive role and reproductive role

The main strategies used by this approach are involving women as active participants in the development process, with both a productive role and reproductive role, meeting strategic gender needs in terms of triple role – directly through state top-down intervention, giving political and economic autonomy by reducing inequality with men, etc.  The main limitation of this approach is that top-down approach do not empower women because it requires and relies on government intervention in the form of policy and legislation. Women must bring about the change themselves and not from a top-down approach.

H. The Efficiency approach

The efficiency approach has its roots in WID approach. It was proposed by development agencies assuming that increase in women’s economic participation in development links efficiency and equity together.

The approach was widely criticized for focusing more on development rather than women, and also because it does not necessarily follow that development improves the condition of women.  Apart from that it fails to meet any strategic needs of the gender.

I. Anti-Poverty Approach

The Anti-poverty Approach, better known as the second WID approach, emerged at the end of the 1960's.  It assumes that poverty, rather than subordination, as the source of inequality between women and men, and to reduce inequality between man and women, we must reduce income inequality.  The basic assumption is that the origin of women’s poverty and inequality lies in lack of access to private ownership of land/capital; sexual discrimination in labour force, having no control over decision making, etc.

This approach aims to ensure that poor women increase their productivity and income by increasing employment and income-generating options through better access to productive resources, education and employment programmes, increases women’s economic contribution and reduce fertility, provide more autonomy to women, etc

The main criticism of this approach is that it takes little account of the fact that women are already overburdened with work, and overlooked the low status of women especially in the third world countries which limits their access to land, credit, machinery, markets for their products and control over income.  Apart from that saving is also difficult if women are not in control of the family budget and do not have freedom of movement.  The eradication of poverty cannot be accomplished through anti-poverty programmes alone, but will require democratic participation and changes in economic structures in order to ensure access for all to resources and opportunities

J. The Empowered Approach

The empowered approach can be defined as the process of marginalized groups or communities equipping themselves with the knowledge, skills and resources they need in order to change, influence and improve the quality of their own lives and their community.  Empowerment may come from within or it may be facilitated and supported through external agencies.  It recognizes the fact that women’s subordination lies in the family, emphasizing on the fact that women experience oppression differently according to their race, class and history and position in economic order.  So women have to challenge oppression at different levels simultaneously.

Originating from emergent feminist writings and grassroots organizations' experiences in the third world countries, this approach seeks to empower women through redistribution of power. It views ‘power’ less in terms of dominance but in terms of self reliance and internal strength, and capacity of women to increase their own self reliance and internal strength (power within) the right to determine choices in life and to influence the direction of change. It seeks to empower women through redistribution of power within, as well as between societies.

In this context, gender is essential as a category of analysis in discussions of poverty reduction. The presence of poverty is in part linked to the gendered and unequal access to, and distribution of, resources, a lack of control over productive resources, and limited participation in political and economic institutions. Women, in particular, face institutional obstacles to control land and other productive resources. The gendered dimensions of poverty may be usefully understood in terms of the differential entitlements, capabilities and rights conferred to women and men.  (Beneria and Bisnath, 1999).

The basic strategies used by this approach are it recognize of limitation of top-down legislation, sustained and systematic efforts by women for their rights, grass-roots organizations, political mobilisation, consciousness raising and popular education to bring about changes in law, civil codes, property rights, labour codes, etc

Introduction: What is Women's Empowerment

I wrote this as an assignment, and consulted various books. I posted this with the hope that it will help students and other who are looking for quick answer.  So the basic content is broken down into 3 different posts, as a series, and the references are kept with the last post. keep on scrolling :)

1. Introduction: What is women's empowerment?
2. Approaches to/for Women's Empowerment
- South Asian Approaches (Batliwala)
- Women Empowerment in Development (WED) or Developmental Approach
- Women in Development (WID)
- Women and Development (WAD)
- Gender and Development (GAD)
- The Welfare Approach
- The Equity Approach
- The Efficency Approach
- Anti-Proverty Approach
- The empowered Approach
3. Strategies for Women's Empowerment
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Introduction: What is Women's Empowerment?

The concept of women’s empowerment as understood in the South Asian context defined it as a bottom-up process, and the results/outcomes of that process, of transforming the relations of power between individuals and social groups.  It acknowledge the unequal distribution of power in the society and the challenging of that power relations so that women, as an individual and group, can have equal control over their access to  resources and to participate equally in decision making.

For an individual or group to be empowered, they must have the power to control or equal access to these five broad categories of resources viz. physical, human, intellectual, and financial resources, and the self (Pamei, 2001).  Similarly, they must have the power to control ideology, which means ability to determine beliefs, values, attitudes, and virtually, control over ways of thinking and perceiving situations. This process of gaining control over the self, over ideology and the resources, which determine power, may be termed as ‘empowerment’. (Hajira and Varghese, 2004).

According to Batliwala (1994), empowerment is both a process and a goal. She states that: …the goals of women’s empowerment are to challenge patriarchal ideology (male domination and women’s subordination); transform the structures and institutions that reinforce and perpetuate gender discrimination and social inequality (the family, caste, class, religion, educational processes and institutions, the media, health practices and systems, laws and civil codes, political processes, development models, and government institutions); and enable women to gain access to, and control of, both material and informational resources.

The term ‘women’s empowerment’ is often equated with other terminology like ‘gender equality’, ‘female autonomy’, or ‘women’s emancipation’.  However, they are not the same and can be distinguished by two elements which are present in women’s empowerment. The first is that of process (Kabeer, 2001; Oxaal and Baden, 1997; Rowlands, 1995). None of the other concepts explicitly encompasses a progression from one state (gender inequality) to another (gender equality). The second element is agency—in other words, women themselves must be significant actors in the process of change that is being described or measured. Thus, hypothetically there could be an improvement in gender equality by various measures, but unless the intervening processes involved women as agents of that change rather than merely as its recipients we would not consider it empowerment. (Malhotra, 2003)

The concept of empowerment has several different and inter-related aspects.  It is not only about opening up access to decision making or control over resources or power, but also must include processes that lead people to perceive themselves as able and entitled to occupy that decision-making space (Rowlands, 1995).  Empowerment is sometimes described as being about the ability to make choices, but it must also involve being able to shape what choices are on offer. 

Empowerment is a process of transition from a state of powerlessness to a state of relative control over one’s life, destiny, and environment. This transition can manifest itself in an improvement in the perceived ability to control, as well as in an improvement in the actual ability to control.