Defining Empowerment in Desired Changes

  • Objective: To understand women’s views toward empowerment through the identification of key domains for change.
  • Materials/Preparation: Idea cards, pens.
  • Participants: Focus groups of gender-segregated women and men across different categories (by their length of marriage, well-being category, ethnicity, clan, etc.). CARE Bangladesh recommended 8-15 participants per group for this exercise.

Steps

Through in-depth interviews, research teams ask women from different well-being, occupational or age categories about their views of empowerment. Responses are noted on separate idea cards. As a guide, researchers used the following questions:

  • What changes in yourself would make it possible to build the kind of life you want?
  • What changes in relationships with other people (or new relationships) would make it possible or easier for you to build the kind of life you want?
  • What changes in the world would make it possible or easier for you to build the kind of life you want?

Prompt for:

  • Changes in laws.
  • Changes in social norms and attitudes.
  • Services provided by government (or the way services are provided).
  • Assistance from NGOs.
  • Changes in the health care system.
  • Which of those forms of empowerment are most important to you?
  • In which areas do you already feel empowered?
  • How did that happen? (How did you become empowered?).
    • Did any CARE activities affect your sense of empowerment? In what way?
    • Activities of other NGOs?

Variation

Following introductions and discussion of the objective, the facilitator asks participants to draw a picture of what they see people would be doing within a specific community in 10 years, particularly in light of project initiatives there.

Participants work together in small groups. As groups work, the facilitation team checks that teams are drawing indications of what empowerment looks like.

Once groups finish, drawings are presented – through gallery walk or presentations – where clarification questions may be asked on the illustrations.

The facilitator then asks what empowerment means based on the pictures. The group discusses common depictions of empowerment from the pictures, as well as differences or unique points across.

Example: The Oxfam Gender Training Manual highlights four broad categories of empowerment indicators from their experience with the exercise, which included:

  • Material improvements
  • Political Changes
  • Changed relationships between women and men
  • Changes within participants as well as within the organization.

Related Tools

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Resources

  • CARE Bangladesh (2008). Strategic Impact Inquiry: Empowerment Approaches and HIV Risk Reduction Overview of Research Design.
  • CARE and ICRW (2007). PLA Field Guide: Western Balkans Gender-Based Violence Initiative. Exploring Dimensions of Masculinity and Violence with Young Men: Skills Building Workshop at Investing in Young People’s Health and Development: Research that Improves Policies and Programs.
  • S Williams, J Seed and A Mwau (1994). The Oxfam Gender Training Manual. Oxfam UK and Ireland.