Search

The Akshara Deepam (The Light of Letters) project, a collaborative endeavour between Choornikkara Panchayat Library, Kerala State Literacy Mission and Kudumbashree Mission, represents a pioneering model for community literacy and empowerment, with a strong focus on women's participation and empowerment. Initiated in May 2023, this innovative initiative aims to integrate literacy applications into daily life by delivering curated book kits to 720 households through 60 Kudumbashree Neighbourhood Groups, empowering women volunteers to combat poverty through literacy. Recognising its transformative potential, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (RCSS) plans to integrate academic expertise into the project through a forthcoming MOU with Choornikkara Panchayat. Post-MOU, RCSS envisions a comprehensive approach, drawing from successful experiences, to integrate academic expertise into community engagement initiatives, particularly emphasising enhancing women's empowerment through literacy. To maximise impact, the Akshara Deepam project incorporates perception-level surveys, literacy practices and contributions from various RCSS departments. It provides diverse book collections tailored to the evolving needs of digital library usage. As an opportune intervention in changing literacy paradigms, RCSS intends to assess its efficacy and feasibility for rural replication in light of its initial results. This approach blends theory, community actions and academic involvement, empowering women and enriching communities globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Rwanda stands out in East Africa with the lowest infant mortality ratio at 29 per 1000 live births. It also leads in gender equality on the African continent, ranking sixth globally according to the 2022 Global Gender Gap Report. This makes Rwanda an ideal case for studying the link between women's empowerment and infant mortality. Method: This study aims to assess the impact of women's empowerment on infant mortality using data obtained from the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2005, 2010, and 2015. A three-category women's empowerment index was created using the principal component analysis method. The statistical analysis employed in this study is multivariate binary logistic regression. Results: Results demonstrate a significant impact of women's empowerment on reducing infant mortality, considering regional and residential inequalities, bio-demographic factors, and healthcare variables. Conclusion: The findings contribute to existing literature and highlight the importance of empowering women to improve maternal and child health outcomes. Such empowerment not only enhances health but also supports sustainable development and social progress. Policymakers, healthcare providers, and organizations should prioritize investing in women's empowerment to achieve maternal and child health goals, as empowered women play a pivotal role in driving positive change for a healthier and more equitable society. Significance: This study highlights the critical importance of women's empowerment in improving infant survival rates and promoting population health in Rwanda. The study is significant due to the country's low infant mortality rate and leading position in gender equality in Africa. By demonstrating the strong association between women's empowerment and infant mortality, the findings highlight the need for ongoing efforts to empower women and ensure equitable access to healthcare services for all. This research provides valuable insights that can inform policies and programs aimed at reducing infant mortality and enhancing the well-being of both women and children in Rwanda and similar contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being an agrarian economy, food insecurity is pervasive in Pakistan. This study examines the impact of multiple dimensions of household vulnerability and socio-economic resilience on food insecurity. The results of ordinary least squares and Logistic regression based on data from Pakistan Standard and Living Measurement Survey (2018–2019) and Food Insecurity Experience Scale showed that vulnerabilities like age and employment dependency, household size, and gender composition play a significant role in food insecurity. The key policy interventions that can prevent households from experiencing food insecurity would be investments in human capital, empowering women, and reduction in rural–urban disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to assess the possible contribution of formalizing small-scale women entrepreneurs' food processing enterprises in northern Ethiopia to their empowerment or disempowerment. The rationale for evaluating this contribution to (dis)empowerment is to provide updated and policy-relevant knowledge on the issue, including assessing if the critiques of the formalization agenda are still valid or whether the situation may have changed. The main finding suggests that formalization offers limited opportunities for empowering small-scale, resource-poor women entrepreneurs in northern Ethiopia. The contribution of formalization to women's (dis)empowerment varies among the various categories of participants in different ways and forms. Some better-off women entrepreneurs benefitted from formalization in some dimensions; however, this is not the case for most of the women entrepreneurs included in the study. Instead, for the poorer women entrepreneurs, formalization rather led to disempowerment. In conclusion, if formalization in Ethiopia harms or disempowers poor women entrepreneurs rather than benefits them, this paper suggests a need for a major change in policies and practices related to the formalization and women empowerment agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how the post-Cold War geopolitical context penetrated through the struggles and empowerment of North Korean female defector entrepreneurs in South Korea. Reconceptualizing the notion of intersectionality, the study focuses on a grey area of informality and the resilience of these women. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observations, the findings indicate that these women leveraged geopolitical limits to develop their entrepreneurial assets. Informality developed through their involvement in Jangmadang and cross-border mobilities via informal brokerage. Through human-trafficked marriages, they stayed in China, learning the Chinese language and working in South Korean companies. The disadvantages of the job market and gender roles motivated them to start their businesses. The research emphasizes the complex ways in which agency, mobility, and geopolitics intersect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based conservation has been increasingly recognized as critical to achieve both conservation and socio-economic development goals worldwide. However, the long-term sustainability of community-based conservation programs is dependent on a broadly shared perception among community members that management actions are achieving their stated goals. Thus, understanding the underlying factors driving differences in perceptions of management effectiveness can help managers prioritize the processes and outcomes most valued by resource users and thereby promote sustained support for conservation efforts. Here, we utilize large-scale interview survey data and machine learning to identify the factors most strongly associated with differences in perceived management effectiveness between resource users engaged in marine community-based conservation programs in Kenya and Tanzania. Perceptions of management effectiveness were generally favorable in both countries, and the most important predictors of positive perceptions were associated with community and individual empowerment in resource management and use, but within disparate focal domains. Improved perceptions of management effectiveness in Kenya were closely related to increases in women's empowerment in community-based conservation programs, while inclusionary and transparent governance structures were the most important factors driving improved perceptions in Tanzania. Additionally, the strongest predictors of differences between individuals in both countries often interacted synergistically to produce even higher rates of perceived effectiveness. These findings can help future initiatives in the region tailor management to match community-level priorities and emphasize the need for community-based conservation programs to understand local context to ensure that metrics of "success" are aligned with the needs and desires of local resource users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the experiences of self-disclosure of women's support workers within domestic abuse support organizations in England. This research considers the voice of women support workers from a feminist epistemological perspective using thematic analysis , and invites the consideration of who decides readiness to work in the sector, and the appropriateness of organizations making this decision for women who wish to work in the milieu of domestic abuse support work. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were held with twelve women support workers who identified their lived experience of surviving domestic abuse. Three key themes were generated through thematic analysis (ibid.): women's choice in making a disclosure regarding lived experience, the impact of non-disclosure policies of women's organizations on practitioners and the sense of hope emanating from practitioners with lived experience of domestic abuse. The findings from this study make a useful contribution to an under-researched and overlooked area within research on violence against women, that of the women who undertake such vital work in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's empowerment is essential in improving maternal health. We analyse the geographical variability of women's empowerment using data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Eight indicators of empowerment were created using latent scores derived from factor analysis and used to assign the women into one of low, moderate or high category of empowerment. A geoadditive ordinal model was used to quantify the effects of demographic and geographical factors. The findings indicate that a determinant can have different effects on women's empowerment indicator and women from majority of the northern states are less empowered based on all the indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural and rural development policy seeks to facilitate the transition towards environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral agricultural practices, with a focus on human capital, knowledge, and innovation. Gender equality can play a significant role in promoting environmentally sustainable practices in the agricultural sector, particularly through the adoption and implementation of agri-environment-climate schemes (AECS) in the context of farm, agricultural, and rural development. We examine the presence of gender bias in the adoption intensity of AECS by utilising farm-level data from Slovenia. We find that women on Slovenian farms engage in the adoption of AECS and receive subsidies, despite the presence of a gender gap in various agricultural factor endowment variables that typically favour men. The results of this study provide evidence in favour of promoting greater involvement and empowerment of women in the fields of green technology applications and green entrepreneurship, particularly with AECS practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physical conquest of European powers on the rest of the world for the imposition of an accumulation of wealth monopoly and the destruction of native societies remains the foundation of the current global economy. Despite concepts of human flourishing, a term connected to empowerment that acts as an architectural structure within the development and sustainability discourse, the destruction of our planet and collective human wellbeing is not at the forefront of international political agendas. Scholars argue that the development agenda is maldevelopment due to the unrequested interventions delivered to communities, mainly in the Global South. Thus, despite the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the implementation of inner dimensions that facilitate empowerment and are an integral part of development is missing from these sophisticated global frameworks. This research article repositions empowerment and compassion at the centre of the sustainable development discourse by drawing on the Inner Development Framework, particularly goal one—Being—'Relationship to Self' and goal three—Relating—'Caring for others and the World' and the Capabilities Theory as a guiding theoretical underpinning. On this basis, this article presents a qualitative interpretative study that examines the lived experience of women and their journeys to empowerment. The key findings indicate an intricate relationship between wellbeing and empowerment and the realisation of inner development as a tool to re-imagine alternative futures. In addition, industries are profiteering from a sustainability and development agenda that is failing to address the disablement of communities by a paternalistic approach to empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Stakeholder engagement is increasingly recognized as a key component of ethical research in leading ethics guidelines. Ethics commentators have also argued that engagement has several beneficial outcomes for the field. Aim: This paper reports on the beneficial outcomes of stakeholder engagement in HIV prevention trials as perceived by stakeholders in the field. Method: We conducted 28 interviews between 2019 and 2021 with interviewees from various stakeholder groups in 12 countries and used thematic analysis to analyze the transcripts. Findings: We found three major themes - namely emPowerment where engagement is perceived to empower stakeholders, Partnerships where engagement is perceived to build equitable relationships and Protections where engagement is perceived to strengthen protections for participants and community stakeholders and to improve science. Conclusions: These findings map closely onto beneficial outcomes envisaged by ethics guidelines, however, the relationship between outcomes seen as beneficial deserves further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-driven development (CDD) programs compel communities to adopt egalitarian decision-making processes for the duration of the project. However, dominant groups use their power to orchestrate a public performance of social domination and subordinated groups combat social domination via subtle acts of resistance. Rather than conceptualizing social transformation from a holistic perspective that includes subtle acts of resistance and incremental forms of self-empowerment, CDD implementation and monitoring focusses on women's public performance in community meetings, and this approach generally fails to produce social transformation. We conducted an ethnography of an unconditional direct transfer to a village in Western Mali. We used Bourdieu's approach to investigate how rural Malian women resist domination and empower themselves in this unfettered CDD project. We observed the women strategically submit to patriarchal forms of domination during the public decision-making processes but resist male domination over their labour. Our results suggest that CDD can better achieve enduring forms of social change when it builds off local women's self-directed forms of resistance. To better capture women's resistance and self-empowerment, CDD should adopt a more holistic and open impact assessment approach, such as the Most Significant Change technique and Culturally Responsive Evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women in Mozambique are often disempowered when it comes to making decisions concerning their lives, including their bodies and reproductive options. This study aimed to explore the views of women in Mozambique about key elements of empowerment for reproductive decisions and the meanings they attach to these elements. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interviews were undertaken with 64 women of reproductive age (18–49 years) in two provinces in Mozambique. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling. Data collection took place between February and March 2020 in Maputo city and Province, and during August 2020 in Nampula Province. A thematic analysis was performed. Results: Women described crucial elements of how power is exerted for reproductive choices. These choices include the ability to plan the number and timing of pregnancies and the ability either to negotiate with sexual partners by voicing choice and influencing decisions, or to exercise their right to make decisions independently. They considered that women with empowerment had characteristics such as independence, active participation and being free. These characteristics are recognized key enablers for the process of women's empowerment. Conclusions: This study's findings contribute to an expanded conceptualization and operationalization of women's sexual and reproductive empowerment by unveiling key elements that need to be considered in future research and approaches to women's empowerment. Furthermore, it gave women the central role and voice in the research of empowerment's conceptualization and measurement where women's views and meanings are seldom considered. Plain language summary: Women who are empowered seem to make better health decisions for themselves. Nevertheless, women's views about and understanding of empowerment are seldom considered in the study of empowerment and its definitions. In this study we explore how women in Mozambique view, understand and experience empowerment, i.e., gaining power and control in the household, and specifically around decision-making processes concerning their reproductive lives. A total of 64 adult women were interviewed in rural and urban areas within two provinces of Mozambique. Through the data analysis, we identified key characteristics of the empowerment process that Mozambican women perceived to be of relevance in their context. Women who have power were perceived as financially and socially independent, free to choose their own pathway, and be active participants in the household decision-making process. In reproductive decisions, women show power through the ability to negotiate with their partner, or by making sole decisions and by planning the number of pregnancies and the size of the family. The elements identified provide important information for improving the definition and the measurement of empowerment in Mozambique, as well as for the support of women in their pathways to empowerment within this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many aspects of state-diaspora relations have been explored, the role that youth play in state-led diaspora outreach remains under-researched in the literature. Democratic and non-democratic states alike, however, actively target diaspora youth for a variety of reasons. In this article, we explore how and why a non-democratic state like Turkey engages with its perceived diaspora youth by focusing on the AKP regimes' recent engagement within its European diasporas as a case study. We argue that the AKP regime has proactively bolstered transnational youth engagement policies over the last decade with the goal of creating a loyal diaspora that will serve the regime in the long run. We show that selected diaspora youth are not only empowered, but also co-opted and mobilized by the regime to ensure continued influence in the diaspora—ultimately to incorporate them into authoritarian consolidation efforts back home and to turn them into assets that lobby host country governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's empowerment and contraceptive use are critical to achieving gender equality. The positive association between more empowered women and higher rates of contraceptive use has been well‐established by cross‐sectional research. However, there remains a gap in understanding the longitudinal relationship between contraceptive adoption and changes to women's empowerment. This study represents a novel approach to understanding the relationship between contraceptive adoption and women's empowerment longitudinally, at the individual level. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to measure the relationship between contraceptive adoption and women's empowerment using more than one wave of panel data. We leverage the longitudinal design of the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative data to code empowerment items by change over time (e.g., more empowered, no change, less empowered). We use sparse principal component analysis to establish empowerment change domains and calculate individual scores standardized by country‐level averages. We estimate mixed effects models on these change domains, to investigate the link between contraceptive adoption and empowerment. We find common themes in empowerment across contexts—but contraceptive adoption has both positive and negative effects on those domains, and this varies across context. We discuss the need for cohort studies to examine this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work documents how instructors can make fitness empowering or disempowering for women; it has not addressed instructors of Zumba, advertised to be distinct from other group fitness and of which women report more positive experiences. Drawing on feminist engagements with Bourdieu, this study assesses how Zumba instructor strategies produce a positive experience and whether they constitute a challenge to the social structure that motivates participation in fitness. We find that the strategies, which deviate substantially from those of traditional group fitness instructors, address the perceived shortcomings of group exercise, making for a more positive experience of the activity and reducing certain leisure constraints. However, the strategies do not prompt participants to critically analyze or challenge dominant ideals or the social imperative to exercise. Future research can explore whether these strategies diffuse to other group fitness and impact on dominant gender, body, and fitness ideals and the fitness industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering intersectional feminism as a reference, the aim of this paper is to examine the discursive powers of the movie Aquarius for the representation of women. The emphasis is on Clara who is the protagonist of the plot. The study here seeks to understand how the cinematographic language represents Clara and how it interferes in the construction of this character. The methodology of this qualitative research consisted of both a bibliographic study and a movie analysis. The results show that the representation of the movie's main character does not resort to stereotypes commonly associated with women, nor with elderly women. From the perspective of intersectional feminism, the main character defines her place of speech as an empowered woman who is committed to progressive ideals. Despite being represented this way, the protagonist also succumbs to issues of hierarchy and power in her relationship with her maid, Ladjane. The discriminations and oppressions that permeate the experiences of these women mainly have to do with issues of gender, social class, and race. This shows the permanence of historical problems which intertwine in the representation of women in the movie Aquarius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to determine the peculiarities of personal growth resources among the adult population following the first months of the war in Ukraine. The study, which included 1257 respondents (32.3% male and 67.7% female, aged 18–61+ years), used the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory—Expanded, the Brief Resilience Scale, the Professional Hardiness Questionnaire and the General Self‐Efficacy Scale. We found the following descending sequence of expression of the components of personal growth: appreciation of life, spiritual and existential changes, relations to others, new possibilities and personal strengths. Personal resources included resilience, professional commitment, professional control, professional challenge acceptance and self‐efficacy, of which the last two were the most important. All indicators of personal growth were significantly higher in women but were more closely related to personal resources in men. Our findings suggest directions interventions should take to promote the Ukrainian adult population's personal growth and prevent negative mental health consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines gender-based helping behavior from a social dominance perspective. We focused on the interplay between the gender of a prospective donor and the gender of the recipient in shaping donation decisions in contexts that either empower recipients or not. In two studies (N = 866), male (but not female) donors chose to donate less often (Study 2) and to give lower amounts (Studies 1–2) to women in need than to men when donations were made in a potentially empowering context – a business context (e.g., donating to a person whose shop burned down), than in a nonempowering context – a domestic context (e.g., donating to a person whose house burned down). Lack of empathy for the female recipient among men partially mediated this gender–donation bias effect (Study 2). These findings suggest that men are less likely to help women in situations that empower women and challenge the existing gender hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that social connections are good for female empowerment in developing countries. However, growing evidence suggests that empowered women may face backlash from their spouse. In this paper, we analyze how the number of friends that wives have in their village affects the wives' involvement in household decisions about their own health and their children's health. To do so, we use data from 700 couples in 30 villages in rural Tanzania. We estimate the effect of the number of friends on the wife's involvement in household decisions using a multinomial logit regression combined with a control function that deals with potential endogeneity bias. We find that wives with more friends are less likely to make decisions jointly with their husband, and are more likely to report that their husband makes decisions without their involvement. We further explore whether the effects depend on the "type" of friends, as defined by their gender and whether they are shared with the husband. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malaria in pregnancy remains a major public health problem in endemic areas of the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region. However, there is limited understanding of the association between women's empowerment and the uptake of sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy (IPTp-SP) in Kenya. This study examines the association between women's empowerment indicators (decision-making power, control of assets, education, and employment status) and the uptake of three or more doses of IPTp-SP in the Lake endemic region of Kenya. Methods: The analysis utilized a dataset from a cross-sectional baseline survey of 3129 women aged 15–49 years in Kisumu and Migori Counties who had a live birth within the last 2 years preceding the study. Data were collected between June to August 2021. A descriptive analysis was conducted to show the distribution of respondents by key background characteristics, and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression to examine statistically significant associations between women's empowerment measures and the uptake of 3+ doses of IPTp-SP. Results: Among the 3129 women surveyed, 1978 (65.7%) received 3+ doses of IPTp-SP during their most recent pregnancy. Controlling for individual characteristics and the number of ANC visits, the odds of taking 3+ doses of IPTp-SP increased among women who had high decision-making autonomy (AOR = 2.33; CI = 1.81–3.01; P < 0.001); and tertiary level of educational attainment (AOR = 1.51; CI = 1.10–2.06). However, the association between control of assets and uptake of IPTp-SP was positive but not statistically significant. Conclusion: Women's decision-making autonomy and educational attainment were positively associated with the uptake of IPTp-SP. As a result, maternal health interventions should focus on less empowered women, specifically those with less decision-making autonomy and no/low formal education, as they are less likely to achieve optimal uptake of IPTp-SP during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the development intervention of microfinance programs with women borrowers in strong patriarchal communities such as in rural Bangladesh. Using Rahman's framework (1999) of 'public transcript' vs. 'hidden transcript', we describe how women's structural vulnerability is understood and leveraged by the microfinance institutions (MFIs). The findings in this paper is based on data from 331 surveys and 40 in-depth interviews from Dumuria, a southern sub-district of Bangladesh. We found that MFIs' providers largely conceptualized women's empowerment as increasde in financial participation, mobility and household decision-making. Although the MFIs present microfinance programs as successfully contributing to women's empowerment, we found that the patriarchal gender norm(s) pervasive in rural Bangladesh meant that men controlled and used most of the microfinance loans. We also found that MFI's do little to monitor or address this issue, instead, they emphasizing high loan recovery rates as evidence of women's empowerment. Furthermore, MFIs leveraged women's structural vulnerability apparent in the gendered division of labour, mobility restrictions, and notions of honour and shame to ensure the high recovery rates. We conclude that MFIs obscure the reality of their ulterior profit-making motives with the rhetoric of false narratives of women's empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork with a formalized youth hip-hop organization in Colombia whose broad work with youth included a mission of women's and girls' empowerment. Throughout this article, I show how young women, through their affiliation with this professionalized organization, utilized city spaces to articulate opposition to gender-based inequalities and marginalization, within a larger context of protracted armed conflict and everyday violence. In these spaces, women configured themselves as hip-hop " guerreras " (warriors) and " luchadoras," (fighters) to convey their fortitude while minimizing risk. I argue that they balanced "uncivic" modalities of hip-hop with a civic language of empowerment to garner support for their labor and causes. By examining women's NGO affiliations and their creative performances, I show how women simultaneously reinforced sanctioned rhetoric of empowerment while strategically carving spaces to craft media intended to challenge dominant ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women environmental defenders continue to face marginalization despite their growing significance in ecological conflicts. The media's role in empowering or further rendering them invisible is unclear. This study thus examines depictions of South African women defenders in news articles. A feminist critical discourse analysis of 98 media reports about 48 conflicts suggests a typology of the conflicts and the women involved. I argue that media depictions of women defenders can sometimes enact discursive violence by imposing agendas and stereotypes that do not reflect their lived realities. This study identifies two tropes depicting women defenders as desperate mothers or underdogs, which empowers yet silences diverse women in diverse ways. The implications of such archetypes are that reporting may not only oversimplify the complexity of their experiences, but also contribute to pressures on women to be self-sacrificing and docile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to examine the association between women's empowerment and childhood nutritional status while accounting for the mediating role of household headship structure. Cross‐country, cross‐sectional quantitative data from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (2015–2018) were used. Women's empowerment was measured as a composite index of participation in household decision‐making, attitude towards domestic violence, and asset ownership. Childhood nutrition status was measure as anaemia (haemoglobin concentration < 110g/L), stunting (height‐for‐age z‐scorescore <−2) and the co‐occurrence of anaemia and stunting. Applying the Lewbel two‐stage least squares, women's migration status was used as an instrumental variable. We used data on 25,665 woman‐child dyads from eight sub‐Saharan African countries: Burundi (2016), Ethiopia (2016), Guinea (2018), Malawi (2016), Mali (2018), Zimbabwe (2015), Uganda (2016), and Tanzania (2015). The women were in their reproductive ages (15–49 years) and children were under 5 years old. The findings showed that an increase in women's empowerment index reduces children's likelihood of being anaemic and having a co‐occurrence of anaemia and stunting [coeff (SE), −0.114 (0.025) and −0.072 (0.032), respectively]. Specifically, an increase in asset ownership or decision‐making dimensions of empowerment significantly reduces the likelihood of anaemia and the co‐occurrence of anaemia and stunting among children. Children of empowered women from male‐headed households were more likely to be anaemic and be concurrently anaemic and stunted compared to their counterparts whose mothers were from female‐headed households. Interventions designed to improve childhood nutrition through women's empowerment approaches need to consider asset ownership and instrumental agency of women while acknowledging the mediating effect of household headship typology. Key messages: The mediating role of household headship in women's empowerment and childhood nutrition nexus was explored in eight sub‐Saharan African countries.Overall, an increase in women's empowerment significantly reduces anaemia and the co‐occurrence of anaemia and stunting in children.Specifically, women's autonomy in asset ownership and decision‐making reduces anaemia and the co‐occurrence of anaemia and stunting in children.Children of empowered women belonging to male‐headed households had poorer nutritional status than those in households with empowered female heads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooking, an important household activity is often done using heavy polluting fuels by a majority of households in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). In this study, we examine how the choice of cooking fuel affects women empowerment using nationwide household level data from Ghana. We examine whether fuel choices could lead to women's social and economic empowerment. By employing the Survey-based Women Empowerment Index (SWPER) and Principal Component Analysis to construct comprehensive indices of women empowerment, we find that using clean cooking fuel has significant positive associations with women empowerment across all domains and could consequently help reduce inequality to the advantage of women. Other socioeconomic factors such as household size and wealth were found to significantly determine women empowerment status. Both clean cooking fuel use and the reduction of social and economic inequalities are important targets to be met under the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three decades, many research works have been conducted to define and measure the complex and composite concept of empowerment. However, an individual empowerment tool is still needed, to be applied for any disadvantaged group, women, youths (male or female), poor, etc., or any economic sector, and which can be more suitable for rigorous impact assessment studies. This paper contributes to the growing empowerment literature by providing a new multi-domain, survey-based empowerment measurement tool, the individual empowerment index (IEI). The IEI is unique in its characterization and construction. It combines individual empowerment scores in six empowerment domains: production, household livelihood, resources, income, leadership, and time allocation. It is a flexible and survey-based empowerment parameter that can be generated at individual, household community or country levels, or for any target social category. The IEI is constructed through a specific methodology based on a scale survey with an ordinal variable principle and a general process for construction of domain indicators. A key advantage of the IEI is that different household members (even husband and wife) can have different IEIs and statuses. Findings from applying the IEI approach to data collected from 1120 West-African lowland rice farmers show that lowland rice farmers globally achieved on average 71% of their full empowerment potential with only 40% of them found to be globally empowered. Female farmers were found to have lower control over their lives and were less than male farmers to be empowered. IEI estimates and comparison between WIEI and other women empowerment indexes estimates show reasonable correspondence despite the difference in the methodology and can hold for the validity of the IEI. The new IEI is a suitable tool and is recommended for quantitative and rigorous impact assessment and monitoring of programs and projects empowerment indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the socio-legal condition of the woman in the work environment in Cameroon to determine the extent to which it plays in favor of her empowerment. An extensive review of the laws and the literature relating to Labour law in Cameroon has revealed that several Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) launched by the United Nations in 2010 (WEP-Booklet, 2010) have been incorporated by the lawmaker. The principle of equality that drives all those principles is very present in the regulation as issues of discrimination in employment are a constant preoccupation of the lawmaker. Unfortunately, it is observed that the cultural context that keeps imprisoning the woman in Africa in general to the role of mother and wife has not eased her empowerment although she has even been given the opportunity to act in the political field. A more effective legislation that neutralises discriminations in employment and provide for a good sanction system against the violation of the principle of equality at work is unavoidable to empower women. But this is not enough as political awareness is the key that will boost their empowerment and thereof contribute to development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women and girl safe spaces (or "safe spaces") are increasingly being implemented in contexts of forced displacement. With little research on safe spaces, their design and implementation has often relied on toolkits and practice guides that standardise how empowerment is defined and pursued within them. Drawing on my feminist ethnography of a safe space for Syrian refugee women in Beqaa valley, Lebanon, I share four women's stories of (dis)empowerment in and because of the safe space. These women's stories highlight the unintended negative consequences when meanings attached to empowerment are imposed by the organisation or not shared among women. Embracing collective self-determination over definitions of empowerment and its pursuit, instead, enables women to negotiate, organise, and work together to determine the shared meaning and future direction, because having collective power over the definition and pursuit of empowerment is also having power over what is deemed possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In alignment with the sustainability strategy focusing on good governance, sustainable development, and racial harmony, this study investigates the access, use, and effects of ICT training on women in Sarawak. Its primary objective is to assess how ICT training benefits women in managing small homebased businesses. Data was gathered through questionnaires from 62 participants who attended training sessions in various Sarawak locations: Kota Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Kuching, and Bako. This research holds significant importance for the state government, as it strives to increase the number of individuals with ICT skills and narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas. The study reveals a strong consensus among respondents regarding the positive impact of ICT on empowering women, boosting their self-esteem, enriching their knowledge and skills, benefiting the socio-economic community, and fostering efficient management practices. The findings offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of ICT training for Sarawakian women engaged in home-based businesses. The mean scores for all variables indicate high agreement among respondents, with values exceeding four for each variable. This study underscores the substantial role of ICT in knowledge dissemination and empowering individuals, particularly in advancing gender equality. It suggests that ICT is an invaluable tool for successful training in rural areas and underscores the need for a systematic strategy to enhance ICT literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have shown that correcting presbyopia among women could increase short-term income and quality of life. However, it is unclear whether these short-term outcomes translate to long-term empowerment. This is partly due to women's empowerment being under-studied in the eye health field. Hence, we attempted to understand Zanzibari craftswomen's perception of how near-vision spectacle correction could empower them. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 craftswomen with presbyopia (7 to 21 April 2022), identified from Zanzibari cooperatives using quota and heterogeneity sampling. We included a sample of tailors, beaders/weavers, and potters who were 40 years and older. Directed content analysis was performed on interview transcripts. Results: Two themes and seven sub-themes emerged from the data. Craftswomen perceived that at the personal level, near-vision spectacle correction could improve their economic empowerment (better income and savings and buying things for themselves), psychological empowerment (more self-confidence and decision-making), political empowerment (taking up leadership roles), and educational empowerment (acquiring new skills). At a relational level, they perceived that near-vision spectacle correction could bring about economic empowerment (ability to buy things for the family), social empowerment (ability to participate in social activities), and educational empowerment (ability to educate other women). Conclusion: Older craftswomen perceived that correcting near vision could empower them at personal and relational levels that encompass economic, psychological, social, political and educational empowerment. The findings laid the foundation for future research into eye health and women's empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Psychological distress in pregnancy is associated with adverse postnatal outcomes. We aimed to identify how social support and women's empowerment are associated with pregnancy-specific daily experiences among women suffering antenatal anxiety in Pakistan. Methods: Data were collected as part of a randomized controlled trial of a psychosocial intervention for antenatal anxiety in a tertiary hospital in Pakistan. We included 594 women in early pregnancy (≤ 22 weeks) who endorsed mild to severe anxiety symptoms. Generalized linear regression models were used to analyze the associations of perceived social support and women's empowerment in relation to pregnancy-specific daily hassles and uplifts using a culturally adapted and psychometrically validated version of the Pregnancy Experience Scale-Brief. Results: High social support was positively associated with frequency and intensity of positive pregnancy-specific experiences (B = 0.39, 95% CI 0.23–0.54 uplifts frequency; and B = 0.17, 95% CI 0.12–0.22 uplifts intensity), and was inversely associated with frequency of negative pregnancy-specific experiences (B = − 0.44, 95% CI − 0.66, − 0.22). Women's household empowerment was associated with greater uplifts frequency and intensity (B = 0.55, 95% CI 0.20–0.90 frequency; and B = 0.28, 95% CI 0.17–0.40 intensity). High social support and household empowerment were inversely related to PES hassle-to-uplift ratio scores. Conclusions for Practice: Greater social support and household empowerment were associated with positive pregnancy-specific experiences in the context of antenatal anxiety in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tells the story of a university community engagement project that began in the late spring of 2020 when the world went into lockdown. Increased concern over women's welfare and well‐being was brought into question in relation to those who are vulnerable with complex needs and had suffered societal‐induced hardships. In conjunction with an innovative women's community project, this study considered the value of art‐based online support as a platform from which to offer a non‐judgemental and mindful space with a focus on identity and empowerment. The study is based on weekly art drop‐in online workshops for vulnerable women and considers the value of hybrid 'spaces' as a pedagogical and practical model of communicative support and collective care. Findings from this community‐engaged project highlight the responses and shifts within subjectivities through situated art experiences. As art educators, it offers us an understanding of the potential for cumulative and affective artmaking to build communities of care as an inclusive and emancipatory learning tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's empowerment is fundamental for realizing unalienable human rights and is vital to sustainable development outcomes. In India, the SWABHIMAAN intervention program was an integrated multi-sectoral strategy to improve girls' and women's nutrition before conception, during pregnancy, and after childbirth. This study assesses the role of self-help-group (SHGs) in improving the effectiveness of community health interventions and its impact on their self-empowerment. Qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews (IDI) with community-based SHG members involved as Nutrition Friend (Poshan Sakhi-PS) in the SWABHIMAAN program in 2018 was used for analysis. Informed consent procedures were followed, and only those who voluntarily consented to the interview were interviewed. Twenty-five IDIs of purposively selected PSs in three states (Bihar, n = 9; Chhattisgarh, n = 8; and Odisha, n = 8) were analyzed thematically, according to Braun & Clarke (2006). NVivo 12 software was used for organizing and coding data. Three central themes that emerged to explain women's empowerment were (1) Barriers & redressal mechanisms adopted by PS, (2) PS as a change-maker, and (3) Changes in the life of PS. The study found that women perceive themselves as more empowered through involvement in the SWABHIMAN intervention program, besides improving the community's and their households' nutritional status. The results suggest that policies and programs on health and nutrition interventions need to involve peer women from the community, leading to more effective outcomes. Empowering women and closing gender gaps in employment/work are critical to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural development projects increasingly aim to improve health and nutrition outcomes, often by engaging women. Although evidence shows such projects can improve women's and children's health and nutrition and empower women, little is known about their impacts on women's health- and nutrition-related agency and the extent to which impacts emerge through women's empowerment, largely due to a lack of instruments that measure the dimensions of women's agency that are directly relevant to health and nutrition outcomes. We developed an optional, complementary module for the project-level women's empowerment in agriculture index (pro- WEAI) to measure health- and nutrition-related agency (pro-WEAI + HN). Our method for developing related indicators used data collected from six agricultural development programmes implemented across Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Mali (pooled sample = 12,114) and applied psychometric analysis (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) and the Alkire-Foster methodology. Results revealed seven indicators covering women's agency in the areas of her own health and diet; her health and diet during pregnancy; her child's diet; breastfeeding and weaning; purchasing food and health products; and acquiring food and health products. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis revealed measurement invariance across contexts and samples. Tests of association (Cramer's V) and redundancy suggest that the pro-WEAI + HN indicators measured aspects of agency that are distinct from the core pro-WEAI. The uptake of these indicators in studies of nutrition-sensitive agricultural development projects may strengthen the evidence on how such programming can enhance women's empowerment to improve health and nutrition outcomes for themselves and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology has applications that can revolutionize political and economic governance. Although most of the academic literature on blockchain has focused on Bitcoin, there is a need to look at the feasibility of new humanitarian applications. This study will proceed in two steps. First, it surveys current theoretical and practical work on how blockchain can be used to help protect the human rights of migrants and refugees, primarily through creation of digital identities. Then it conducts a critical examination of two major cases: the Building Blocks initiative by the World Food Programme in Jordan and the Rohingya Project. We find that blockchain can be useful in empowering vulnerable individuals, but the empowerment of organizations creates potential human rights risks, such as the infringement of privacy and discrimination. Therefore, adequate safeguards should be in place to ensure that blockchain initiatives meet their true purposes of protecting the most vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to know the level of administrative empowerment with its dimensions (Delegation of Authority, Training, Effective Communication, Workers’ Motivation, and Building Work Teams) and its impact on workers’ creativity in government hospitals operating in the Yemeni countryside. For achieving the study objectives, the descriptive-analytical approach was used, and the study population consisted of all the workers in three governmental hospitals operating in the AlHujaria districts in Taiz Governorate: Khalifa Hospital, Al Nashma Hospital, and Alshheed Adnan Hospital, with a total number of (378) individuals. By the comprehensive survey method, the study questionnaire was distributed to the available study population (208) individuals, due to the decrease in employment because of the siege and the security conditions that Taiz is going through. (150) of them responded. Only (145) questionnaires were valid for analysis, at a rate of (70%) of the total distributed questionnaires. By analyzing the data using descriptive analysis methods and simple and multiple regression analysis using the SPSS program, the results of the study concluded that there is a positive impact of administrative empowerment on the workers’ creativity in government hospitals understudy, and also that there is a positive impact of the four administrative empowerment’s dimensions: delegation of authority, training, effective communication, and workers’ motivation on the workers’ creativity; while there was no impact of the team-building on the workers’ creativity in the government hospitals understudy, due to the variation in the workers’ awareness level of administrative empowerment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Womb yoga is a women's yoga practice developed in the UK from the observation that male bodies and experiences are privileged in mainstream yoga. Based on modern postural yoga, womb yoga integrates the philosophy and mythology of śakta tantra in reference to scholarly texts and reinterprets tantric traditions in line with Anglo-American Goddess spirituality. Through body practice, chanting, visualization, and ritual, female cyclic experiences and the different stages of women's lives are approached as gateways to the divine and as opportunities for spiritual empowerment. In addition, by offering a seasonal understanding of the menstrual cycle and establishing energetic resonances between natural elements and the body, womb yoga fosters experiences of cosmic connection and communion. The study is based on ethnographic research, combining participant observation and in-depth interviews. It details the practice of womb yoga and the experiences it engenders among participants, and discusses its feminist potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although festivals are often promoted as opportunities for community empowerment, power dynamics during festival organization might hinder such potential. To discuss this issue, this article examines the Alter do Chão Film Festival (FestAlter), an originally collaborative project in the touristic village of Alter do Chão, Brazil. Through 16 interviews with festival stakeholders, the article unveils the changing power dynamics within the organization of the festival, and how these impacted the event's goals of community participation. I argue that the organization of this event moved from union to rupture among festival stakeholders – a trajectory caused by managerial divergences regarding the meaning of community participation and a lack of understanding of the history, culture and socioeconomic circumstances of Alter do Chão, an Amazonian village marked by enduring legacies of colonial exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External tourism development organizations are frequently utilized by the various levels of the Chinese government to develop tourism and boost local economies. However, this often occurs with limited community participation. We explore the role of institutional arrangements in how people within host communities are empowered and disempowered in such situations by looking into the experiences of Fenghuang Ancient Town and two Miao villages in Hunan Province, China. In-depth interviews, participant and non-participant observation, and document analysis were undertaken. Certain community members were empowered by tourism development, especially financially. However, top-down decision-making, local elite systems, cultural habits and responses to these challenges enabled power inequality. This inequality occurred between government, tourism developer and communities, and within the communities. Only through devolution of power can social impacts from tourism development be improved but, even then, local power imbalances may influence the equity of tourism-related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street harassment against women is an understudied form of gender‐based violence that severely limits women's safety and freedoms. One potential way of addressing street harassment is directly intervening against it, that is, the woman experiencing harassment confronts the perpetrator. However, this may be difficult to do in contexts where harassment is pervasive. In the context of a grassroots women's empowerment organisation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I examined the relationship between women's positions in the social network structure of a group that espouses a norm of speaking up against street harassment, and their levels of displaying this behaviour. I hypothesised that an individual's network centrality would be associated with their engagement in behaviours that are prescribed by the group social norm; specifically, speaking up against street harassment. This hypothesis was not supported. However, exploratory analyses indicated that network centrality was a significant (negative) predictor of the participant's tendency to remove herself from the situation when harassed and a significant positive predictor of self‐efficacy for intervening against street harassment. This indicates that position in the network may play a role in confronting street harassment, though not through originally hypothesised mechanisms. Theoretical and pragmatic implications of these findings for engaging in intervention against street harassment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work (SW) is criticized for its (i) inconsistent ontology, epistemology, and methodology and (ii) co-dependency with the capitalist hegemony, which is the main cause of multiple crises that primarily affect the most vulnerable. Addressing these issues is of paramount importance if SW is to achieve its core mandate of promoting social change, social development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. The purpose of this paper is to assert that SW can address these issues by learning from the (i) Settlement House Movement (SHM), especially the Hull-House tradition of SW; and (ii) current endeavors of the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE). We were led to this assertion because we noticed in our research, in the area of SSE of vulnerable groups and SW, remarkable similarities and potentials of these two approaches to help transform SW. Our argument is based on data and insight gained from (i) a narrative literature review on the history of SW and the nature of SSE; and (ii) a systematic scoping review of the SSE of People of African Descent (PAD) in Europe. In this paper, we elaborate on our key arguments and provide examples and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilized computational techniques for a reliable analysis of discourse. These techniques were adopted to analyze the progress of Saudi social change in terms of women's empowerment within the Saudi transformation program. The data from open source 2021–2022 Saudi newspaper archives were automatically crawled using cutting-edge computational techniques and structured according to the sections of the Saudi newspapers: front page, economy, international, sports, society, culture and religion. The analysis was based on computing the minimally uneven distribution of the relative frequencies of the occurrence of the central word (the Arabic forms of woman and women) from the years 2021 to 2022. This produced two samples of text data, each of which represented the respective years. Calculating the normalized and adjusted frequencies of the central word from each section in the data from each year was important to avoid unbalanced absolute frequencies in the qualitative analysis stage. In addition, dispersion measures showed that the amount of variance in terms of the lexical dispersion of the central word was not high. The observable facts from the quantitative analysis produced a more accurate observational sample of citations, which we qualitatively analyzed. The results of the latter showed a considerable ascending change in favor of empowering women as a consequence of Saudi Vision 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Indigenous Maya women in the rural highlands of Guatemala have traditionally faced constraints to decision-making and participation in community affairs. Anecdotal experiences from previous Curamericas Global projects in Guatemala and Liberia have suggested that interventions using the CBIO+ Approach (which consists of implementing together the Census-Based, Impact-Oriented Approach, the Care Group Approach, and Community Birthing Centers), can be empowering and can facilitate improvements in maternal and child health. This paper, the eighth in a series of 10 papers examining the effectiveness of CBIO+ in improving the health and well-being of mothers and children in an isolated mountainous rural area of the Department of Huehuetenango, explores changes in women's empowerment among mothers of young children associated with the Curamericas/Guatemala Maternal and Child Health Project, 2011–2015. Methods: Knowledge, practice, and coverage (KPC) surveys and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to explore six indicators of women's empowerment focusing on participation in health-related decision-making and participation in community meetings. KPC surveys were conducted at baseline (January 2012) and endline (June 2015) using standard stratified cluster sampling. Seventeen FGDs (9 with women, 3 with men, 2 with mothers-in-law, and 3 with health committees), approximately 120 people in all, were conducted to obtain opinions about changes in empowerment and to identify and assess qualitative factors that facilitate and/or impede women's empowerment. Results: The KPC surveys revealed statistically significant increases in women's active participation in community meetings. Women also reported statistically significant increases in rates of participation in health-related decision-making. Further, the findings show a dose-response effect for two of the six empowerment indicators. The qualitative findings from FGDs show that the Project accelerated progress in increasing women's empowerment though women still face major barriers in accessing needed health care services for themselves and their children. Conclusion: The Project achieved some notable improvements in women's decision-making autonomy and participation in community activities. These improvements often translated into making decisions to practice recommended health behaviors. Traditional cultural norms and the barriers to accessing needed health services are not easily overcome, even when empowerment strategies are effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While there is extensive published evidence regarding the effectiveness of the Care Group Approach in promoting community-wide health behavior change, there is no published evidence regarding its empowering effect on its participants. Our study aimed to understand if the Care Group Approach as applied in the Curamericas/Guatemala Maternal and Child Health Project in isolated rural mountainous communities in Guatemala produced evidence of empowerment among the female participants. This is the seventh of 10 papers describing the expanded Census-Based, Impact-Oriented (CBIO+) Approach in improving the health and well-being of mothers and children in the rural highlands of the Department of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Methods: We conducted semi-structured individual and group interviews with 96 female Care Group participants –including Level-1 Care Group Promoters, Care Group Volunteers, and Self-Help Group participants. The participants were from six communities – two from each of the three municipalities making up the Project Area. Data were analyzed both using deductive thematic and by exploring the following social constructs: perceived social status, self-efficacy, decision-making autonomy, and formation of social capital. Results: The findings supported the hypothesis that Care Group participation was an empowering process. The primary themes that emerged included increased respect accorded to women in the community, women's willingness and ability to make decisions and their confidence in making those decisions, and the development of stronger bonds among Care Group members, with other community members, and with community leaders. Conclusion: Through increased theoretical and practical knowledge about important maternal and child health matters and through the social experience of obtaining this knowledge and sharing it with other community members, participation in the Care Group Approach empowered participants to make positive health behavior changes for themselves and for their children and families. This, in turn, led many participants to become more engaged in community activities for improved health and beyond, thereby enhancing social capital in the community. We conclude that the Care Group Approach, as applied in this setting, has made it possible for marginalized indigenous women living in a male-dominated society to become more empowered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will bring together the work of Soren Kierkegaard and John Wesley for the purpose of showing the relevance of their theologies for the empowerment of women. The particular focus will be on the doctrine of original sin. The paper will first address the question of why Augustine's novel doctrine became the orthodox position and why his construction restricts its applicability to women. It will then move to Soren Kierkegaard's understanding of anxiety and despair in his treatise, The Sickness Unto Death. In the theology of Soren Kierkegaard, there is room to interpret his understanding of original sin as "gendered". For him, despair is the counterpart of original sin. It finds two forms: 1. despair is willing to be a self apart from the Power (God) that constitutes the self, and 2. despair is not willing to be a self at all. Feminists have questioned the legitimacy of original sin in its traditional form, and a few have even used Kierkegaard on the way to offering an alternative to pride. One method used here is to explicate this insight further. Another method is to put Kierkegaard and John Wesley in dialogue for the purpose of imagining selfhood for women more hopefully. If "despair" can be imagined as a wounding of the self, Wesley's therapeutic model—seeing original sin as a disease and sanctification as its cure—has much to offer the conversation on personhood and empowered subjectivity, particularly for women. The primary research question investigated here is how a conversation between feminism, Kierkegaard, and Wesley offers an alternative to Augustine's "orthodoxy" without rendering the idea of original sin completely untenable and useless for women within Christianity. Even though Wesley's curative paradigm has been highlighted in more recent years, its particular strength to speak into the lives of those who do not/cannot will to be a self has perhaps yet to be fully mined. It reveals itself in the entire Wesleyan history of affirming women. However, the author believes the potential power of Wesley's theology can be further unleashed by examining its mechanism's in countering "female despair". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]