2.2 Conceptual framework
2.2.6 The empowerment approach
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The empowerment approach, according to Moser (1993:74), is the most recent approach to the development of Third World women. Empowerment, strictly speaking, according to Rippennaar-Joseph (2009:23), is not part of the WID concept but is an approach ‘used largely by Third Women feminists in the mid-1980 as a result of the paradigm shift in thinking about women and development’. The empowerment approach, according to Moser (1993:57), arose out of the failure of the equity approach. Its origin is in ‘Third World women’s writing and grass-roots organization’ (p. 74). The empowerment approach, according to Aslop and Norton (2004:4), is closely associated with rights-based approaches to development which have their founding principle in justice and equity in relations between people, as well as the idea that individuals are entitled to benefits which the government is obliged to advance, promote and protect. Rights-based approaches emerged from the political understanding of development which has shifted from the technical aspect to justice and equity (Aslop & Norton 2004:4). The empowerment approach, according to the Commission on Women and Development (2007:11), is developed to operate in relation to changes on two levels, namely (i) personal capacity and (ii) in the socio-political dimension. The best-known pioneer of the empowerment approach has been the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) which was an initiative set up by individual women and women’s groups before the 1985 Conference of Women in Nairobi (Moser 1993:75). The purpose of DAWN (quoted in Moser 1993:75) has not only been to analyse the conditions of women throughout the world, but also to formulate a vision of an alternative future society, which they outlined as follows:
We want a world where inequality based on class, gender and race is absent from every country and from the relationships among countries. We want a world where basic needs become basic rights and where basic rights become basic needs and where poverty and all forms of violence are eliminated. Each person will have the opportunity to develop her or his full potential and creativity, and women’s values of nurturance and solidarity will characterise human relationships. In such a world women’s reproductive role will be redefined: childcare will be shared by men, women and society as a whole. Only by sharpening the links between equality, development and peace, can we show that the ‘basic rights’ of the poor and the transformation of the institution that subordinate women are inextricably linked. They can be achieved together through the self-empowerment of women. (1985:73 75.)
The empowerment approach, like the equity approach, acknowledges the inequalities between men and women, and the origins of women’s subordination and the origins of oppression in the family, and also in the community in terms of race, class, colonial history and current position in the current international economic order, but it goes beyond what the equity approach was capable of doing, by encouraging and maintaining that women have to challenge oppressive structures and situations simultaneously at different levels (Moser
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1993:75). Despite the difficulty in defining the concept of empowerment, this approach, according to Moser (1992:92), focuses on reducing inequality between women and men through the bottom–up mobilization of women. The approach, according to Moser (1993:74), sees women’s subordination ‘not only as the problem of men but also of colonial and neo- classical oppression’. It is for this reason that women need to stand up and fight against the oppression perpetuated by both men and colonialists. In order to fight against these forms of oppression, gender power relations need to be transformed through individuals or groups by developing awareness of women’s subordination, and building up their capacity to challenge it (p. 74). The concept empowerment is widely used in development agency policy and programme documents in general and in relation to women in particular (Reeves & Baden 2000:35). The term is highly political and, therefore, its meaning is also highly contested (p. 35). They indicate that empowerment is closely associated with power itself. However, Reeves and Baden (2000:35) argued that women empowerment ‘despite its complexity did not imply women taking over control of power previously held by men, but rather the need to transform the nature of power relations’. Andersen (1992:174) explains that empowerment does ‘not imply transferring power from men to women, but it focuses on increasing women’s control over their choices in their life’. The empowerment approach, however, ‘may threaten the positions previously held by men because it encourages women to make choices, including an increase in the decision-making capacity in the household and community which men may regard as undermining or challenging their socially constructed authority’ (p. 174).
Moser (1993:74) emphasizes the fact that the empowerment approach acknowledges the importance of increasing power but it does not seek the power of domination over others; in other words, the approach does not encourage women to have dominant power over men.
Contrary to the belief of some men that the empowerment approach seeks to reduce their power in the household and community, it identifies ‘power that is required more in terms of the capacity of women to increase their own self-reliance and internal strength without compromising the power previously held by men’ (p. 74). This approach only seeks to empower women through the redistribution of power within and between societies (p. 75).
However, the empowerment approach, according to Andersen (1992:175), questions the following two assumptions of the equity approach:
(i) Development necessarily helps all people including men.
(ii) Women want to be integrated into the mainstream of Western-designed development, in which they have no choice in defining the kind of society they want.
The empowerment approach, according to Andersen (1992:174), goes beyond the equity approach. It seeks to promote self-reliance and self-confidence so that women play a
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meaningful role in society. The approach recognizes the triple role of women, namely (i) reproductive work (primary), (ii) productive work (secondary) and (iii) community-managing work. It champions the use of a ‘bottom up’ approach to raise women’s awareness so that they can challenge their status in society. Recognition of the limitations of the top–down government legislation, according to Moser (1993:76), has led the adherents of the empowerment approach to acknowledge that their strategies will not be implemented without the sustained and systematic efforts of women’s organisations and groups that have a common purpose for achieving development. The empowerment approach, according to Moser (1993:77), seeks to ‘assist traditional organizations in moving towards greater feminist issues’. The limited success of the equity approach to confront directly the nature of women’s subordination through legislative changes has led the empowerment approach to avoid confrontation, and for that reason, the approach ‘utilizes practical gender needs as the basis for mobilizing support, and as a means through which strategic needs may be reached (p. 77).
The potentially challenging nature of the empowerment approach, according to Moser (1993:77), has resulted in it ‘being largely unsupported by donor agencies and national governments because it emphasizes proper consultation with all stakeholders and those institutions have to work through official channels’. Lack of support for the empowerment approach by donor agencies and national governments is an indication that beneficiaries are not treated as equal partners in the development process but as subordinates.
However, empowerment is a new approach that has been adopted in South Africa to deal with the problem of poverty. Joseph (2002:19) maintains that local government should promote community empowerment because, in reality, ‘black women are the majority of the poor, and any strategies to combat poverty must take this into account’. Joseph (2002:19) argues that the empowerment of women is ‘a moral imperative’ because their contributions are often undervalued and ignored, which ‘erodes their self-confidence and limits their opportunities to develop the required skills’.
2.3 Review of the evidence of the role of community development programmes in