Women's Empowerment and Education: linking knowledge to transformative action

Abstract

IntroductionDerided by institutions and governments when it first appeared three decades ago, the concept of women's empowerment has now become highly esteemed, though judging from available literature, it is still much more in use in the women's movement and among international development agencies than in the academic world. Women's empowerment figures explicitly as a fundamental piece of the policies adopted by international development agencies, but in contrast is given weak treatment by educational publications. A review of article titles in three prestigious comparative education journals (Comparative Education Review, Compare, and the European Journal of Education) over the past 10 years identified a total of three articles using 'empowerment' in their title.This article examines empowerment as a theory of social change and addresses the realities of women in both developing and industrialised countries which, though different in degree, present significant commonalities that cut national boundaries and even levels of socioeconomic development. It comprises five parts: the first discusses the concept of empowerment and its theoretical architecture; the second deals with the role of formal education in the empowering of girls; the third examines the contributions of non-formal education to empowering adult women; the fourth considers the role of women-led NGOs as key actors in the promotion of empowerment; and the fifth provides examples of successful instances of the implementation of empowerment through education. The article concludes with an assessment of the possibilities for and challenges to making empowerment a concrete reality.

Is women empowerment a zero sum game? Unintended consequences of microfinance for women’s empowerment in Ghana

“…The theory of gender empowerment is situated in a construct of social interaction (Stromquist, 2015). In recent years, scholars have engaged in debates about how men and women "do gender" and how they contribute to the construction of gender identities by engaging in a process of reciprocal positioning that impacts upon poverty (Darlington and Mulvaney, 2014).…”

Finding feminism, finding voice? Mobilising community education to build women's participation in Myanmar's political transition

“…I employ a theoretical framework which brings together a critical feminist perspective to education and development interventions, particularly focusing on the discourse of empowerment as a desired development goal (Batliwala 2007;Cornwall and Edwards 2014;Stromquist 2015), with a conceptualisation of the nomadic position (defined below) experienced by the women who are leading women's rights-focused civil society organisations and who are responsible for the transmission and transformation of material. This paper builds on research which outlines the distinctive position of non-formal community education as a means of knowledge sharing, particularly in areas affected by conflict and political instability where state education practices are frequently associated with authoritarianism and control (Maber 2014).…”

A relational perspective on women’s empowerment: Intimate partner violence and empowerment among women entrepreneurs in Vietnam

“…Social relationships are imperative for human beings worldwide and define who we are (e.g., van Zomeren, ). Relationships both within and outside the nuclear household are important to people’s sense of self (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, ) and can contribute to people’s feeling of empowerment (e.g., Stromquist, ). People, especially in cultural contexts adhering to an ecology of embedded interdependence, may even prioritize the well‐being of the group over their own well‐being (e.g., Kurtiş, Adams, & Estrada‐Villata, ).…”

“…More precisely, men hold more power than women in terms of strength (e.g., physical and emotional violence, also called intimate partner violence), access to resources (e.g., financial resource control), social obligations (e.g., distribution of household responsibilities), and gender ideology (e.g., gender norms). Women may face different expressions of male domination within their close relationship, for example, through intimate partner violence or time‐consuming household work hindering women’s ability to develop and express feelings of empowerment (e.g., Pratto & Walker, ; Stromquist, ).…”