Empowerment

Defining empowerment is difficult, because the word has been used in very diverse ways. In general, empowerment refers to an increase in power. The nature of that power varies dependent on context; however we rarely speak of empowerment with regard to cultural groups already understood to be in a position of power. Women's studies and feminist scholars have often utilized concepts of empowerment in response to marginalization and limited power for women. Understandings of empowerment differ with regard to the type of empowerment, the “signs” of empowerment, and the process of empowerment.

Frequently, empowerment refers to the increased ability of an individual to make choices and take actions (personal empowerment). The term is often used in this way by those involved in therapeutic efforts. For example, in medical empowerment literature, scholars and practitioners focus on patients' access to information and control and their ability to utilize those resources in medical interactions and decision making. Many writers argue that the structures of traditional medicine are disempowering to patients and that steps should be taken to create openings for patient empowerment.

Empowerment can also refer to interactional change, in which participants attain greater equality in particular relationships. The term is utilized in this way by self-improvement texts and by therapy and counseling services. Organizations that work directly with women in abusive relationships can often use a relational empowerment approach. Though such organizations may attempt to help a woman feel personal empowerment as well (and thereby improve self-concept), they typically address the unique relational system rather than only the psychological state of the woman herself.

Finally, the term empowerment can be used to address the status of groups of marginalized individuals, along with efforts made to increase their social and political power in a particular cultural or societal milieu. Literature and scholarship that focus on so-called Third World countries and their relationships to world powers sometimes utilize this approach. The assumption is that empowerment is an issue of political and social positioning within a larger structure. When we hear the term feminist empowerment, it is likely to be used in this fashion, with an emphasis on the empowerment of women as a group, within larger cultural domains.

While these categories of empowerment may be definitionally distinct, the personal, relational, social, and political are completely intertwined. Thus, when we talk about gender empowerment or female empowerment, we could be thinking about the belief that individual women have in their ability to make choices and act. We could also be considering the extent to which women in relationships have access to power bases in those specific relational cultures, or we may be focusing on the extent to which women, as a demographic-social-political group, have power in a culture.

The term empowerment can also signify multiple qualities of an individual or group. In some cases, empowerment or empowered refers to a feeling of self-confidence or agency. Used this way, it principally addresses changes in self-cognition that may, or may not, have an impact on behaviors or relationships but would impact the individual's understandings and evaluations of self. Empowerment may also be used in the context of behavior, with the idea that what we are speaking of is the ability to make choices and enact them, to “act purposefully.” In these instances, the focus is on the behavioral component, though there is an implicit understanding that changes in self-concept are necessary for behavioral change. Finally, empowerment can refer to the way groups or individuals are perceived and responded to by others. To consider empowerment in this way focuses not on the feelings or behaviors of the individual or group but on how the individual or group is assessed. Again, there is some underlying presumption of a relationship between changed feelings, behaviors, and assessments.

...