Fazlur Rahman Gulfam - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Fazlur Rahman Gulfam
There are a variety of understandings of the term empowerment due to its widespread usage. If emp... more There are a variety of understandings of the term empowerment due to its widespread usage. If empowerment is looked upon in terms of ability to make choices: to be disempowered therefore, implies to be denied choice. The notion of empowerment is that it is inescapably bound up with the condition of disempowerment and refers to the processes by which those who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such ability. Thus, there could be statistical swells indicating improvements in indicators of gender equality, but unless the intervening process involved women as agents of that change, one cannot term it as 'empowerment'. People who exercise a great deal of choice in their lives may be very powerful, but they are not empowered, because they were never disempowered in the first place. Empowerment cannot be defined in terms of specific activities or end results because it involves a process whereby women can freely analyze, develop and voice their needs and interests, without them being pre-defined, or imposed from above. The assumption that planners can identify women's needs; runs against empowerment objectives. The present paper is an attempt to develop conceptual clarity of the term empowerment delineating it with several other overlapping concepts of gender equality, social inclusion, powerful etc. and suggest and advocate an inclusive approach of policy measures whereby the planners working towards an empowerment approach develop ways enabling women themselves to critically review their own situation and participate in creating and shaping the society as agents of change themselves.
There are a variety of understandings of the term empowerment due to its widespread usage. If emp... more There are a variety of understandings of the term empowerment due to its widespread usage. If empowerment is looked upon in terms of ability to make choices: to be disempowered therefore, implies to be denied choice. The notion of empowerment is that it is inescapably bound up with the condition of disempowerment and refers to the processes by which those who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such ability. Thus, there could be statistical swells indicating improvements in indicators of gender equality, but unless the intervening process involved women as agents of that change, one cannot term it as 'empowerment'. People who exercise a great deal of choice in their lives may be very powerful, but they are not empowered, because they were never disempowered in the first place. Empowerment cannot be defined in terms of specific activities or end results because it involves a process whereby women can freely analyze, develop and voice their needs and interests, without them being pre-defined, or imposed from above. The assumption that planners can identify women's needs; runs against empowerment objectives. The present paper is an attempt to develop conceptual clarity of the term empowerment delineating it with several other overlapping concepts of gender equality, social inclusion, powerful etc. and suggest and advocate an inclusive approach of policy measures whereby the planners working towards an empowerment approach develop ways enabling women themselves to critically review their own situation and participate in creating and shaping the society as agents of change themselves.