The "Empowered"?
By Olivia DiNucci
What is empowerment? Who defines the term and is any one definition the “right” definition?
Women and girls’ “empowerment” continues to take up more and more space in the media and is an increasing focus in government and non-government organizations worldwide. The concept and emphasis of “empowerment” may be conceived as a buzzword, trendy and/or the epitome of neoliberalism.
I used the term unconsciously in Morocco during my Peace Corps service. Many Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), especially female, no matter what country of service, find ourselves working on programming with women and girls to be at the core of our work. How do we implement empowerment initiatives with our host country counterparts in a way that we are not defining the term for beneficiaries, but the beneficiaries are defining it from within?
In Morocco, there was no direct translation of “empowerment” intothe local language, so when defining “empowerment” we as facilitators were using piecing other words together to get the concept across. The language barrier was also met with generational, educational and gender barriers. Even if the concept had a direct translation, similar to how people define “feminism,” there are many variations and depending on how you define the term, you may be unwilling to accept ones that differ.
As outsiders, Peace Corps Volunteers can either be looked at as “the ones with all the answers,” or ones whose Western views “work” where we came from but not in the country we are serving in. If we think empowerment of all people should be a universal standard, an attempt to break both of these notions down is needed in order to create an approach that comes from within instead of from above or from the outside.
A commitment to grassroots, community and individual-based approach is critical when working on “empowerment initiatives” on the ground. But, what about how the rest of the world views the “empowered girl” or the “empowered woman.”
Professor and author, Christina Scarf, explores this concept further and says, “The ‘other’ of the neoliberal subject – vulnerable, powerless, passive, and dependent – is often constituted along all too familiar hierarchies of power. Despite its inclusionary rhetoric – all 600 million adolescent girls have the potential to change the world – formations of neoliberal subjectivity seem to reproduce classed and racialized exclusions.”
When identifying a handful or even a singular “Shero”, like Malala of Pakistan, we often assume they individually serve as the agent of change for an entire population, well beyond their capacity or reach. The way the West views the “empowered Malala”, assumes she has the potential to single-handedly improve the education and wellbeing of every girl in Pakistan, and even broader-the entire region. It further emphasizes the “otherness” and also reiterates stereotypes of Muslim men, Pakistan and the region.
Instead, using a narrative that is not just benefiting our definition or our understanding of what empowerment should or should not be can provide a more widespread and “from within” mentality that has been neglected in many spaces.
However, when we take girls or women outside of their community and place them in the broader context, say for example featuring them on TV specials, news articles or award them prestigious honors. We are portraying them as an “other,” someone who stands out and serves as an exception to a preconceived idea of the people, place or culture they are associated with. This is incredibly dangerous when people are completely unfamiliar of those people, place or culture.
When we talk about, implement and/or celebrate “the empowered,” we must have a more holistic approach, defining the term from within not from the outside and intentionally eliminate “otherness.”