Playing With Empowerment

Abstract

This study analyzes how the Half the Sky Movement uses the concept of women’s empowerment to engage female social gamers in a neoliberal development project that turns leisure time into development labor. While the Facebook game has successfully garnered global attention from mainstream media, celebrity endorsements, and impressive public participation, this study argues that it problematically reinforces a dominant approach to development at odds with a feminist understanding of gender and empowerment. Through active design choices, the organization has worked to create a gendered, social media game space that prioritizes individual financial empowerment and monetary aid.