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1
Wong, Chau Ying. "Participation and empowerment : an ethnography of Miao women in rural China /." View Abstract or Full-Text, 2003. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?SOSC%202003%20WONG.
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Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-134). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.
2
Parveen, Shahnaj. "Empowerment of rural women in Bangladesh a household level analysis." Weikersheim Margraf, 2005. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2681912&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Furat, Mina. "Rural Development And Women." Phd thesis, METU, 2013. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615576/index.pdf.
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This Dissertation analyzes the conditions, problems and potential of rural women&rsquos empowerment through a sample of rural women&rsquo
s organizations (two women&rsquo
s cooperative, seven rural development cooperative and one village women associaton) with interpreting DAWN iniative and GAD approach with a socialist feminist perspective. In this study, it is stated that the agricultural sector policies and rural development policy were constructed in relation with the conditions of underdevelopment and thus, in relation with the agreements with IMF, WTO and IPARD Programme of EU which enforced the decreasing of agricultural sector subsidies. It is notable that these policies are formulated with an aim of increasing the influence and significance of capitalist relations in agricultural sector and rural areas without taking precautions for the survival of small sized farming households in rural areas. Despite these general influences of underdevelopment to Turkish Agricultural Sector and patriarchal gender assumptions, these women&rsquo
s organizations could be successful to some extent empowering their members with the recognized dimensions of empowerment such as
psychological, economical, social, organizational and political. All these dimensions are interrelated with each other. In this study, it was observed that while economic empowerment and psychological empowerment is the base of all other dimensions of empowerment, social empowerment and organizational empowerment are the most dynamic processes of empowerment and political empowerment is hardest dimension or outcome to achieve.
4
Lakwo, Alfred. "Microfinance, rural livelihoods, and women's empowerment in Uganda." Leiden : African Studies Centre, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1887/11945.
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Webb, Chequita Y. "Political empowerment of black women in the rural south: a case study of three black women mayor in rural Georgia." DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, 1997. http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/111.
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The three mayors and the respective cities studied in this paper were Mayor Emma Gresham Keysville, GA; Mayor Justine Brown Oliver, GA and Mayor Carrie Kent Walthourville, GA. The intent of this paper was to show that the three black women mayors chose to run for mayor because they felt that through their political position they could improve the lives of the citizens of their respective cities, especially the socioeconomic status of blacks in their cities and improve the cities in the important areas of: education, employment, housing and health care. The further intent of this paper was to address the apparent neglect of scholarship regarding black female mayors in rural Southern cities by performing a case study of the black women mayors in rural Georgia. None of the black women mayors studied in this paper were successful in improving the education or housing in their cities nor the socioeconomic status of blacks and somewhat successful in improving health care. This study addresses the neglect by scholars regarding black female rural Southern municipal politics. Further study is warranted to understand the impact of black women mayors in the rural South.
6
Litho, Patricia K. "Information and communication technologies and the "empowerment" of women in rural Uganda." Thesis, University of East London, 2007. http://roar.uel.ac.uk/3399/.
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Within development and feminist discourse, ICTs are increasingly presented as a solution to Africa's problems of poverty, conflict, corruption and gender inequality issues amongst other problems. However this study questions these promised benefits, specifically the extent to which ICTs can actually lead to women's empowerment as often claimed by development and feminist discourse. Empowerment is considered a problematic concept because the concept itself is not clearly defined nor are parameters by which to identify and measure empowerment specified within development/empowerment projects. I argue for a need to go beyond the usual focus on project outcomes but identify and question the underlying contradictions in women's empowerment and relational issues of power at both the individual and institutional level. This thesis uses an African feminist perspective as the overarching approach to challenge dominant discourses to recognise 'voices of others' in the construction of knowledge and move away from the hegemonic approaches that are mostly informed by Western perspectives. The argument here is that experiences are context specific and there is a need to recognize the socio-cultural, political and economic diversity that exists when implementing empowerment projects because these elements influence the way individuals respond to a situation. By taking diversity into consideration, this study endeavours to avoid reproducing stereotype images about rural women in Africa and their experiences of technologies, because women have different identities and experiences. It is important to note that women are not merely recipients of technology but also play a role in reshaping the direction of technologies. A predominantly qualitative approach, supplemented by a limited amount of quantitative approach was employed to examine a case study of an ICT for women's economic empowerment project in Uganda. Using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, observation and a review of documents, this study established that the way women experience technological change is influenced by the context in which the ICT is introduced. The findings revealed that women's exposure to ICTs may result in some changes and redefine how they view themselves and relate with those around them but these changes are not always synonymous with empowerment. The study found that the adoption of ICTs is affected by a number of factors that may favour or hinder women's empowerment. Interaction with ICTs sometimes produced negative impacts rather than the promised benefits. It could also be argued that these challenges could just be experienced at the beginning of women's relationship with ICTs but as people get more acquainted with the technologies they could negotiate ways out of oppressive circumstance by further changing behaviour. Findings from the empirical work imply that empowerment is a circular process and not a linear hierarchical process as Longwe (1991) seems to suggest. It was found for instance that sometimes women had a high level of awareness and participated in political processes but their welfare and access situation was still wanting. In other cases women had political power and control over resources but still seemed unaware of their rights or did nothing to change the oppressive situations they lived in. This study therefore contributes to feminist scholarship by providing insights into the unique experiences of women living in rural Uganda in relation to ICTs and its potential for women's empowerment.
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Nwanesi, Peter Karubi. "Development, Micro-credit and Women's Empowerment: A Case Study of Market and Rural Women in Southern Nigeria." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Sociology and Anthropology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/958.
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This study investigates women's economic empowerment in relation to micro'credit schemes in southern Nigeria. The study also evaluates the benefits and limitations of micro'credit as a resourceful means of enhancing women's economic activities in the labour market and eliminating poverty among market and rural women. Micro'credit schemes and institutions which provide soft loans to women have become a critical tool in development programmes aiming to empower them. The Nigerian government (both at Federal and State levels) has pursued this development trend since 1985 and today, it is estimated that an increasing number of Nigerian women participate in these schemes. Besides, it is widely accepted among development practitioners that micro'credit schemes not only contribute to poverty reduction but also empower the have'nots. My research design has drawn on gender analytical frameworks such as the 1980 Harvard Analytical Framework, Kabeer's 1998 Women's Empowerment Assessment, and Mayoux' 2001 micro'credit empowerment paradigm. This study employed as its methodology, ethnographic field research. This includes semi'structured interviews and participant observation. In addition, data was obtained from state databases, archives and development websites. Throughout, both qualitative and quantitative methods and analysis were used. This study found that women in southern Nigeria are extensively engaged in economic activities. It also established that micro'credit provides finance to enhance market and rural women's participation in production and trade. The study further ascertains that women have some control over their loans. However, increased economic activities may have also increased participants' financial responsibilities and household decision'making is still a prerogative of male head of the family. In addition, this study found that older married women in this region enjoy a comparatively high degree of personal mobility, but restrictions on travel in terms of distance and time are very common for younger married women. These restrictions are sanctioned by customs, household obligations, and social infrastructures. While problems with the transportation network have enhanced the middlemen's domination of economic activities in this region they increased women's dependence on their services. All this renders empowerment for women more difficult to achieve although it makes a practical contribution to their everyday lives.
8
Irenaeus, Ellen. "Empowerment of women- a strategic tool in rural development : Case study at the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women, Madhya Pradesh, India." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-158829.
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Basnet, Sita Ram. "Income generating programmes and the socio-economic empowerment of rural women in Nepal." Thesis, University of Reading, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.499358.
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The "disempowered" position of women is considerable policy concern in Nepal. Various development efforts are underway, that are focused on "the empowerment of women". One approach to empowering rural women adopted by a large number of development agencies, mainly since the 1990s, is through Income Generating Programmes (IGPs). The findings indicate that, through their participation in IGPs, women became involved in various social, economic and political activities that extended their influence on household and community affairs and increased their access to and control over their personal and household income. The study also shows that women's awareness of their rights and capacities has increased, and that there has been an increase in their level of social mobility and public participation. The issue of women's empowerment is a complex one and the study concludes that the IGPs should give due consideration to the social structural and contextual factors that shape the local situation, as there are difference among women in the areas studied such as wealth, caste/ethnicity and educational status.
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Choudhury, Gias Uddin Ahmed. "Impact of Microcredit Program on Women's Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-80192.
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Background – This study is an attempt to explore the relationship between microcredit and the socio-economic empowerment of women in rural Bangladesh. Microcredit is simply the extension of a small amount of collateral-free institutional loans to jointly liable poor group members to generate employment and income enhancing activities. As it is too difficult for poor members to get loan from the formal credit institutions, Grameen Bank (GB) or other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) provide small loans to vulnerable groups of the society by which they are expected to empower over his counterparts. Research questions – RQ1: How does micro-credit affect different indicators of women empowerment in the rural areas of Bangladesh? RQ2– Is the impact different from the male counterparts in the sample households? Purpose – This study is an effort to find the impact of microcredit on a number of indicators of women’s empowerment in the rural areas in Bangladesh. Methodology – Quantitative Regression Techniques such as Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Instrumental Variable (IV) method have been applied to get the relationship between microcredit and women empowerment. Conclusion – Applying nationally representative cross-section survey data, Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) 2015, this thesis is intended to find the causal linkage between microcredit and women empowerment’s with different dimensions of women’s decisions are taken as empowerment indicators: production, resources, income, leadership, savings and time. The analysis has been conducted at the household level. The study assumes that women empowerment is endogenous. After controlling for endogeneity in the estimation by using an instrumental variable (IV) ‘distance to the market’ this study finds a significant relationship between microcredit and different dimensions of women’s empowerment. Participation in the microcredit program is found to be significant in explaining some of the outcome indicators of empowerment for the sampled households.
11
Sugathan, Manju. "Community development and empowerment of women in rural India through a recycle textile cooperative." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10646/.
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In the village of Vellanchery, Tamil Nadu state, India, the main source of income is through the weaving of traditional silk saris. This activity is completed by the males of the families. This is a domestic process carried out on handlooms using a warp of approximately twenty-one metres; from which, three six metre sari lengths are produced. This leaves close to three metres of remnant silk yarns on the warp beam. Past efforts to make use of these remnant yarns have been aimed at the production of fashion accessories, including items such as: bangles and necklaces, which crucially are of low value and only sold in the local market. As such, the production of these items from remnant yarns provide minimal economic empowerment of the women in the village, which is very much needed. The thesis investigates the development of a process of recycling hand spun knitting yarn using 30% of these silk remnants collected from handlooms blended with 70% scoured lamb’s wool. Alluring and unique yarn colours, that are non-repeatable, and have excellent handle and knit-ability can be produced. Notably, non-repeatable yarn colours make this product unsuitable for the mainstream fashion market, however bespoke designs are extremely desirable for craft hand knitters. The idea is to use hand spinning, which is a therapeutic craft, whereby the wheels employed could be housed in one building to enable women to form a cooperative system. The aim of the project is to create a framework for a sustainable cooperative model combining the socio-economic and political aspects for setting up a women’s cooperative, including the technology for production and a marketing strategy.
12
Zhang, Huiyi. "Economic Development and Women Empowerment in China: Is There a Regional Pattern?" Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-38458.
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The rapid economic development in China has successfully drawn a worldwide attention and benefit its population, with a average 8 percentage GDP growth rate every year and 500 million people out of poverty. While a large number of people are seeking for the reason why economic achievement in China has been so dramatic and unprecedented, less people show solicitude for Chinese women`s condition and empowerment. Women as a worldwide vulnerable group, their well-being need to be taken into consideration during the process of developing economy. In China, female population accounts for 48.47 percentage (633.2 million) of entire population. Under the big picture of economic prosperity, the author found that Chinese people`s living condition has advanced largely, the popularization of basic education and medical service has benefit the vast majority people, meanwhile, people can be more involved in political process to express their opinions. However, women are benefited disproportionately but still less empowered than men are. Moreover, since China is a geographically large country, the economic development has shown some regional characteristic, that means, in southeastern China, due to the convenient traffic condition, such as harbors, economic development process is faster than in northwestern China, where traffic and natural conditions are both weak. Would that cause a unequal empowered situation between women from different economic developed regions? Women has been paid less attention through the history of China, let alone different conditions of women in different regions. In this thesis, the author will describe women`s different empowered situation in rural and urban regions of China, via a capability approach viewpoint, and discussion of whether there is a regional pattern will be based on (Dis) Empowerment model.
13
Wakoko, Florence. "Microfinance and women's empowerment in Uganda a socioeconomic approach /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1064325172.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 196 p.; also contains graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Linda M. Labao, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-196).
14
Sansak, Avorn, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, and School of Agriculture and Rural Development. "Empowering women in rural development : a collaborative action research project in northern Thailand." THESIS_FAH_ARD_Sansak_A.xml, 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/722.
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The development policy and plans of the Thai government have emphasized economic growth aimed at 'modernising' the country, enacted through agricultural modernisation and industrialisation under the name 'rural development'. Women In Development (WID) approaches based on the modernisation model have been added to 'development' plans more recently. Examination of the effects of these WID programmes upon rural women demonstrates that poor women are disempowered by the 'top-down' rural development programmes. This study is an attempt to test collaborative action research (CAR) as a methodology to empower rural women to become the decision makers in the rural development process. CAR was carried out in Sandee Village, northern Thailand. This suggests that rural women can be empowered through continuous cycles of the collaborative learning process of planning, acting, observing and critical reflection with the researcher acting as a facilitator. Through this learning process, rural women have increased their capacity to make choices, to deal with existing constraints and to create changes. In this respect 'development' can be initiated from within.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
15
Alao, Abiodun. "How telecentres contribute to women empowerment in rural communities: case of Western Cape, South Africa." Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Commerce, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30439.
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Background – This study investigates how telecentres contribute to the empowerment of women in the rural communities of selected regions of the Western Cape, South Africa. Women face the problem of ICT access due to a host of socio-economic factors. Rural women lack computer skills, and there is a need for more women to be computer literate to eliminate poverty challenges and improve their economic standards. Telecentres are ICT initiatives established in disadvantaged communities for people to have access to the digital world. The aim of telecentres is to enhance information access, promote the use of ICTs for community development, provide information services to communities and provide computer skills training of individuals in communities. However, most telecentres do not focus on how women specifically can benefit from using their services provided at the telecentre. Women who have access to information gain knowledge through ICTs and may share their knowledge, concerns, best practices and experiences, gain a greater understanding of their current situation and solve issues that were previously beyond their capability and enhance their livelihood. Purpose of the research – Telecentres are ICT community development initiatives with no focus on gender aspects. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate how telecentres contribute to the empowerment of women in rural communities, and to provide adequate information for improving women’s livelihood. Problem statement – The scenario of men leaving their wives behind and migrating to urban centres to seek employment explains why the number of female-headed rural households varies between 50% and 80%. These women are left behind are known to be the least likely to reap the gains of ICTs in subSaharan Africa, due to the limited access to telecentres in the rural areas. Furthermore, there is limited literature on how the use of telecentres is linked to women empowerment, or the impact of ICTs on rural women's economic well-being. An attempt at addressing these problems is made here. This study has analysed the contribution of telecentres to the empowerment of women and development in the identified problems/knowledge gaps. Design/methodology/approach – The research study intends to address the question: How telecentres contribute to women empowerment in the rural communities. To address this question the research adopted a qualitative method to present the view of women respondents of the telecentre which was utilised for the data collection. The study used the following data collection techniques: Semistructured in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and focus group discussions. The study is explanatory, and the research philosophy of the study is interpretative; this is to understand the phenomenon in a given context. The study used three theories such as the Domestication Theory, Individual Difference Theory, and Dimensions of Empowerment Theory as a theoretical lens. The case study method is used to conduct an in-depth investigation of the research. Findings –. The key findings of this study signify that few women incorporated the telecentre use in their daily lives. However, socio-cultural and contextual factors hindered women from effectively using telecentres. The use of the telecentre affected the process of empowerment in women through the computer skills training offered at the telecentre which facilitated the use of the technology artefact. Originality/contributions – The study makes practical contributions for the government and Nongovernment organisations to use telecentres for enhancing other socio-economic development programmes, as well as a theoretical contribution through the creation of a conceptual model. Furthermore, the telecentre was consciously explained in this study to accommodate programmes that may contribute to women’s capabilities and digital gap.
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Saleemi, Sundus [Verfasser]. "Empowerment of Girls and Women in Rural Pakistan : Migration, Decision-making and Consciousness / Sundus Saleemi." Bonn : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, 2020. http://d-nb.info/1224270304/34.
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Gunasekera, Arosha Indika. "Achieving rural development in Sri Lanka through a systematic model : microfinance and women's empowerment." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708366.
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Padilla, Herrera Andrea Michelle. "Rural Women's Empowerment Through the Bono de Desarrollo Humano in Loja, Ecuador." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1585909837570404.
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Bird, Jessica. "Micro-Enterprise Development for Dalit Women in Rural India: An Analysis of the Implications of “Women's Empowerment”." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1286.
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The overall purpose of this study is to assess various market-based versus aid based approaches to financial autonomy for Dalit women in rural India and the goals and assumptions of the multiple stakeholders involved in each method (mainly, national and international NGOs, the state, and micro-finance organizations). I argue that approaches to income generation such as entrepreneurship, capital investment, and skill building, are based on similar objectives of economic agency, but ultimately lend to different results because of their varying assumptions about “women’s empowerment.” By separating these approaches into three methods of income generation based on their objective to promote either wages, labor, or capital, the political incentives of each stakeholder becomes more clear. The research presented in my literature review ultimately led me to predict that for Dalit women in India to experience financial autonomy, wage labor that produces immediate outcomes is a more viable route to overall empowerment than entrepreneurship due to its cultural constraints women fact. However, after analyzing my comparative case studies which focused on three different methods of handicraft and textile production facilitated through state, institutional, private stakeholders, I began to see how a a multiple-income generating approach, such as combining the resources of NGOs, micro-finance, and the state, reduces caste and gender barriers to entrepreneurship. Through a feminist and Marxist analysis, I assess the problems that occur when actors determine a blanket approach to empowering all women without considering their diverse contexts, and more specifically, how different identities and standpoints work to inform and oppress notions of empowerment. My interviews with experts in the field have led me to recommend that methods of income generation facilitated through grassroots Self Help Groups is the best way for rural, Dalit women to women to achieve economic agency.
20
Dutt, Khaleda Gani. "The Role of Adult Literacy in Transforming the Lives of Women in Rural India: Overcoming Gender Inequalities : Comparative case studies in Bhilwara District Rajasthan & Howrah District West Bengal India." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-139791.
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The Indian diaspora is woven around castes, languages, dialects, religions- a young nation boasting of an ancient civilization in which inequalities are deeply ingrained in its culture and traditions. Although vital government interventions have succeeded in increasing the literacy rate of women in both urban and rural areas general household characteristics such as income, caste, occupation and education attainments of parents still continue to determine access, attendance, completion and learning outcomes of girls and women from severely disadvantaged communities. The critical issue investigated in the comparative case study is why and how established hegemonic roles changed because of the catalytic role of adult literacy. The research was conducted in Bhilwara District, Rajasthan and Howrah District, West Bengal, India where literacy has played an intrinsic role in transforming the lives of the rural and marginalized women. In Indian society social norms often prevent women from exercising their free choice and from taking full and equal advantage of opportunities for individual development, contribution and reward. So assessing empowerment/transformation would mean identifying the constraints to empowerment, how women’s agency has developed and finally looking if ‘agency’ was able to address the constraints to women’s access to adult literacy. This would also entail seeking answers to questions such as ‘How is transformation represented in their narratives? What was the impact of literacy upon their lives?
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Masenya, Malesela Jim. "The effects of gender discrimination in water services provision on women empowerment in Gapila Village, Limpopo Province." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1534.
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Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2015The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of gender discrimination in water services provision on women empowerment in GaPila Village, located in Limpopo Province. Gender discrimination remains a major challenge both in the labour market and within households. The allocation of resources within households is still much gendered due to unequal gender relations in most rural areas. Men are allocated most resources within households and have many benefits than women. Such also manifest to children. Despite, women being major beneficiaries of the delivery of water services, they are discriminated against as they are not involved with the processes that precede the provision of such services. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research approach to establish the effects of gender discrimination in the provision of water services on women empowerment. The findings of the study illustrated that culture and tradition are the key to the inadequacy of women’s access to and control over management of water services. Cultural practices within communities either ignore female participation in water services management. Their participation is obstructed by lack of time, level of education, low self-esteem and flexibility due to substantial workload and numerous household responsibilities. The study also showed that according to local cultural beliefs, the status of women whether high or low, does not determine the amount of work that must be done by her at home, because irrespective of her status or career placement, her primary assignment is to care for the family/home. The study further revealed that women in the GaPila Village are allowed access to economic opportunities and participation roles during community meetings. Also, women are allowed to occupy positions such as chairperson, secretary and treasurer; however, due to culture and tradition, low self-esteem and lack of support from men, women do not take advantage of such opportunities to occupy these positions of authority in water services. Therefore, the study concluded that, as woman’s contributions regarding water services provision remains inconsequential because they are excluded from decision making processes that affect their level of living and prospects of empowerment. From a water services provision perspective, this study affirms the theoretical principle that discrimination against women disempowers them. Women are the beneficiaries of water services because most of their duties require water. As such, it is important for women to actively participate and to be involved in the management committee relating to water services and provision.
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Ansari, Rushina. "The Complexities of Empowering Rural Indian Women (A story of Indian Panchayats)." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21007.
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In the following research I strive to focus on the various aspects that influence the‘empowerment’ issue of rural Indian women. I refer to two governmental reforms inparticular - the historic ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ (WRB) which insists on a onethird participation of women at the lower tier of political structure in India called thePanchayats and the controversial ‘Two Child Norm’ (TCN) which restricts politicalparticipation of both men and women Panchayat candidates if the couple chooses tohave more that two children (Buch, 2005).I spread my research over a variety of social actors relevant to this issue and useKabeer’s (1999) three-dimensional model of dissecting empowerment that analyzesthe term at an intrinsic level. It is revealed through this research and analysis that inspite of the government’s efforts through the WRB reform of providing resources tothe rural women toward economic and social empowerment through politicalparticipation, the power terrains of caste, culture and religion withhold their agency.On the other hand, the tainted TCN stipulation, which in some cases has proveddetrimental to women, has also shown signs of being helpful in determining theintrinsic aspect of empowerment like gaining a voice in terms of reproductive rights.Such findings however bring into focus the government’s lack of commitment andforesight in designing such reforms and hence this research helps us locate the sites ofdevelopment to make the term ‘empowerment’ more meaningful.
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Hultberg, Linda. "Women Empowerment in Bangladesh : A Study of the Village Pay Phone Program." Thesis, Jönköping : Jönköping University. HLK, Sektionen för kommunikation, 2008. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:3836/FULLTEXT01.
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Sansak, Avorn. "Empowering women in rural development : a collaborative action research project in northern Thailand." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/722.
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The development policy and plans of the Thai government have emphasized economic growth aimed at 'modernising' the country, enacted through agricultural modernisation and industrialisation under the name 'rural development'. Women In Development (WID) approaches based on the modernisation model have been added to 'development' plans more recently. Examination of the effects of these WID programmes upon rural women demonstrates that poor women are disempowered by the 'top-down' rural development programmes. This study is an attempt to test collaborative action research (CAR) as a methodology to empower rural women to become the decision makers in the rural development process. CAR was carried out in Sandee Village, northern Thailand. This suggests that rural women can be empowered through continuous cycles of the collaborative learning process of planning, acting, observing and critical reflection with the researcher acting as a facilitator. Through this learning process, rural women have increased their capacity to make choices, to deal with existing constraints and to create changes. In this respect 'development' can be initiated from within.
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Rodriguez, Carreon Vivianna. "Empowerment Formation: women’s agency for participation in decision making within the poverty and conflict context case of rural Peru." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/11500.
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The focus of this thesis is on the relationship of influences between the individual’s agency and the empirical knowledge of the world within a process of experiencing empowerment. The empowerment formation is the dynamic of the agency transformation where the perceptions of all the affecting forces internally and externally are recognised. The broader context is based on the understanding of the human development and human security approach in order to focus on the centre of the society, the matter of human well-being. The case study chosen for analysis is the rural area in Peru where women’s agency is seen as constrained by the oppression of poverty and repression of conflict. Yet, at the same time these rural women have developed their agency for participation in decision-making in their search for truth and justice. The process of the empowerment formation is explained in terms of the dynamic between agencies: passive agency, survival agency, active agency and conscient (conscious) agency. This thesis is searching for an understanding of how rural women’s agency has been held back from participation in formal decision-making and the approaches are drawn in a case study, the rural women in Peru, in particular quechuans living in the highlands. This thesis is not a conclusive process leading to the solution of the problem found in the thesis, but is intended to highlight the obstacles constantly forming, evolving and transforming the agency for the empowerment formation of rural women living in poverty and conflict. This thesis argues that a hologram perception in which can be seen the wholeness of the agency’s experience permits the interpretation of the disconnections that are formed and which contribute to what extent and why rural women’s empowerment is withheld. As there could be different reasons why women were disadvantaged, it is found here that the answer could lie in each human’s freedom and their relationship with their perceived reality. The analysis of freedom to enhance women’s agency is based on human capabilities which are understood as the environment that enables the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ of any human to develop what they value and have a reason to value within ethical purposes. The lack of freedom in women’s agency triggered by the traumatic experiences while living under inhuman conditions requires consciousness in order for women to come to terms with their reality. The thesis concludes that the development of agency in the empowerment formation needs consciousness capabilities, a mechanism to permit the empowerment formation of the rural women living in poverty and in the aftermath of conflict.
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Ngomane, Thandi Susan. "Land as an economic empowerment tool: access, control and ownership of land by rural women in the Mpumalanga Province,South Africa." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1614.
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Baird, Devon. "Intercultural factors in the Peace Corps' role as a change agent in the empowerment of rural Guatemalan women." Scholarly Commons, 2014. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3540.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this research study was to analyze the success of the Peace Corps’ Municipal Development Program in its role as a change agent in the empowerment of rural Guatemalan women, and includes an exploration into the intercultural factors that may have affected the outcomes. I used my Peace Corps site of Santa Cruz El Chol, Guatemala as the case study for this research. I reviewed literature in five areas to use as a foundation to guide my research. This included literature regarding Guatemalan history and Guatemalan women’s issues, women’s empowerment in the international development context, Peace Corps, change agentry, and intercultural relations. I obtained data from four different groups. I interviewed a focus group of female leaders from El Chol, obtained questionnaires from 42 rural women from El Chol and its surrounding villages, interviewed three Peace Corps Guatemala staff members, and gathered surveys from 18 returned Peace Corps volunteers. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered via open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, and scale-based questions. An analysis of the findings revealed implications in three areas. The first area focused on Guatemalan women who are especially vulnerable to institutional and domestic violence, which leads to a lack of educational and economic opportunities and continues to prevent their empowerment. Next, the Peace Corps volunteers were generally satisfied with their service, but felt traits of Guatemalan society and culture prevented them from positively influencing women’s empowerment. Additionally, findings revealed that Peace Corps volunteers served as change agents in that they saw themselves and were seen by others as positive role models for the Guatemalan women with whom they worked. Finally, time management styles, differences in perception of gender roles, and direct versus indirect communication styles sometimes clashed to cause issues in U. S. American and Guatemalan abilities to work effectively together.
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Amir, Salma. "Microfinance and empowerment : understandings and experiences of rural women in north western Pakistan, including situations in natural disaster." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/17580/.
Full textAbstract:
This research examines the relationship between microfinance, women’s empowerment and natural disasters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a northwestern province of Pakistan. It does so through female clients from non-disaster and post-disaster affected areas. This study’s central argument is that if, as advocates claim, microfinance enhances women’s economic and social empowerment and their well-being, then this empowerment should be visible in the social context and within the context of natural disaster. If women are assumed to be empowered through microfinance, then they should be able to address their vulnerability more effectively. This study applies a qualitative methodology that uses interviews, FGDs and oral histories as data generation tools. The study evinces a meagre increase in women’s savings and financial decision-making. However, it finds no visible change in ownership of major tangible assets. The study concludes that the effects of microfinance on women’s economic empowerment are not always positive when women transfer loans to others. It further shows an increase in women’s intangible assets such as self-confidence and knowledge, but a limited increase in women’s access and mobility to market related activities due to the prevailing patriarchal norms. This study finds no radical change neither in the gendered division of labour nor men’s abusive behaviour despite women’s economic contribution. This study highlights that women’s social capital enables them to gain recognition and acceptance from the community but also pressurise women for timely repayment. More importantly, the study’s original contribution to the existing literature lies in its findings that show that, although natural disasters may destroy women’s tangible assets, they did not completely undermine women’s intangible assets and strengths. However, despite reducing women’s post-disaster vulnerability, microfinance, in fact, exacerbated additional pressures of loan repayments and its policies hindered women from accessing new loans and savings while in possession of current loans.
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Baird, Devon A. "Intercultural Factors in the Peace Corps' Role as a Change Agent in the Empowerment of Rural Guatemalan Women." Thesis, University of the Pacific, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10934389.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this research study was to analyze the success of the Peace Corps’ Municipal Development Program in its role as a change agent in the empowerment of rural Guatemalan women, and includes an exploration into the intercultural factors that may have affected the outcomes. I used my Peace Corps site of Santa Cruz El Chol, Guatemala as the case study for this research. I reviewed literature in five areas to use as a foundation to guide my research. This included literature regarding Guatemalan history and Guatemalan women’s issues, women’s empowerment in the international development context, Peace Corps, change agentry, and intercultural relations. I obtained data from four different groups. I interviewed a focus group of female leaders from El Chol, obtained questionnaires from 42 rural women from El Chol and its surrounding villages, interviewed three Peace Corps Guatemala staff members, and gathered surveys from 18 returned Peace Corps volunteers. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered via open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, and scale-based questions. An analysis of the findings revealed implications in three areas. The first area focused on Guatemalan women who are especially vulnerable to institutional and domestic violence, which leads to a lack of educational and economic opportunities and continues to prevent their empowerment. Next, the Peace Corps volunteers were generally satisfied with their service, but felt traits of Guatemalan society and culture prevented them from positively influencing women’s empowerment. Additionally, findings revealed that Peace Corps volunteers served as change agents in that they saw themselves and were seen by others as positive role models for the Guatemalan women with whom they worked. Finally, time management styles, differences in perception of gender roles, and direct versus indirect communication styles sometimes clashed to cause issues in U. S. American and Guatemalan abilities to work effectively together.
30
Baird, Devon A. "Intercultural factors in the Peace Corps' role as a change agent in the empowerment of rural Guatemalan women." Scholarly Commons, 2013. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/841.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this research study was to analyze the success of the Peace Corps' Municipal Development Program in its role as a change agent in the empowerment of rural Guatemalan women, and includes an exploration into the intercultural factors that may have affected the outcomes. I used my Peace Corps site of Santa Cruz El Chol, Guatemala as the case study for this research. I reviewed literature in five areas to use as a foundation to guide my research. This included literature regarding Guatemalan history and Guatemalan women's issues, women's empowerment in the international development context, Peace Corps, change agentry, and intercultural relations. I obtained data from four different groups. I interviewed a focus group of female leaders from El Chol, obtained questionnaires from 42 rural women from El Chol and its surrounding villages, interviewed three Peace Corps Guatemala staff members, and gathered surveys from 18 returned Peace Corps volunteers. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered via open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, and scale-based questions.
An analysis of the findings revealed implications in three areas. The first area focused on Guatemalan women who are especially vulnerable to institutional and domestic violence, which leads to a lack of educational and economic opportunities and continues to prevent their empowerment. Next, the Peace Corps volunteers were generally satisfied with their service, but felt traits of Guatemalan society and culture prevented them from positively influencing women's empowerment. Additionally, findings revealed that Peace Corps volunteers served as change agents in that they saw themselves and were seen by others as positive role models for the Guatemalan women with whom they worked. Finally, time management styles, differences in perception of gender roles, and direct versus indirect communication styles sometimes clashed to cause issues in U.S. American and Guatemalan abilities to work effectively together.
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Sundholm, Cecilia. "Educate a woman - and you will educate an entire nation? : A comparative study between rural and urban areas on the perception of education and empowerment of women." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för livsvetenskaper, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-9447.
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This thesis aims to investigate if there are differences between men and women in rural and urban areas on perception of women empowerment. The focus is on girls’ education and development in a post – colonial country. Semi structured, qualitative interviews were conducted in Babati district, Tanzania in February 2011. In order to obtain as much useful information and data as possible several research questions were focused on during the fieldwork. These were: What is the perception on empowerment of women, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? , How does a gender gap in school affect development, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? , Is the patriarchal heritage an obstacle for development and gender equality, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? , Why are urban areas more equal than rural areas, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? The conclusion is that people in rural and urban areas are very similar in their opinions’ of empowerment of women and education for girls. The traditional social and cultural structures are often obstacles for development.
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Hanson, Victoria Funmilayo. "An empowerment programme for women on breast self-examination towards the prevention of breast cancer in Iddo Local Government, Oyo State, South-west Nigeria." University of the Western Cape, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/4682.
Full textAbstract:
Philosophiae Doctor - PhDCancer is a major public health concern in both developed and developing countries; it accounts for 13% of all deaths globally, of which 70% occur in middle- and low-income countries. In Nigeria, over 10 000 cancer deaths and 250 000 new cases of cancer are recorded yearly. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, after lung cancer. It is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women and the most common cause of death worldwide. Late detection and diagnosis of breast cancer leads to high mortality rate. In Nigeria certain cultural taboos are associated with breast cancer, which lead to poor information dissemination to women in rural communities. Breast self-examination (BSE) provides an inexpensive method for early detection of breast tumours. Knowledge and awareness about Breast Self-Examination are critical to promote consistent practices when the people concerned are empowered with the needed information to acquire the knowledge and skills which will inform practice of any health issue. In Nigeria it was reported that the number of women at risk of breast cancer increased progressively from 24.5 million in 1990 to about 40 million in 2010. This number is projected to rise to over 50 million by 2020, should the trend continue unabated. The current study explored the understandings of breast cancer and prevention, with particular emphasis on BSE practice among rural women, and developed an empowerment programme to promote uptake of this practice in a rural community in a south-western state of Nigeria. The study was framed in the Health Belief Model and Kieffer’s empowerment process. Participatory action research was used as study design and approach; and utilized both qualitative and qualitative methods. The sample for quantitative phase comprised 345 women aged 20 to 60 years, selected from 5 communities using a cross-sectional procedure. Data gathering instrument was a questionnaire. Summative statistics were calculated using the SPSS program. The sample for qualitative phase comprised of 95 women who were selected from the respondents to the quantitative phase. The data was collected through focus group discussion. The qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. Three themes that emerged for qualitative analysis which are: knowledge/awareness of BSE, practice and appeal for intervention, and misconception and fear. The survey results showed that a large proportion of the respondents (75.1% and 76.5%) had low levels of knowledge about BSE and did not practice BSE. Also, about 77% of the respondents expressed one form of barrier or another to BSE practice. However, despite these inadequacies, 87% of the respondents were ready and willing to improve their health if empowered with the right information and motivation. The empowerment program informed by the quantitative and qualitative phases and the stages of change with the full participation of the women. The program consisted of hands-on physical demonstrations, BSE pamphlets, and mnemonic songs were identified media of disseminating knowledge and practice of BSE. These media became the platforms for the empowerment programme developed for the women. A day was also set aside, just as is done for immunisation, for BSE practice and other women’s health issues to promote the prevention of breast cancer in the community. The “Physical demonstration” intervention resulted in an increase in the correct BSE practice from 23.5% at the beginning of the study, to 85.3% post the intervention. The “other intervention” resulted in 80% to 94.7% of participating women being able to practice correct physical step-by-step performance of BSE. The participatory approach contribute to a high levels of participation by women in Iddo local Government which led to the increase in the correct Breast Self–Examination as stated above.
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Dullea, Karen. "Participatory research and the empowerment of women : supporting women's practical and emotional needs in a Canadian rural Aboriginal community." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2003. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2503/.
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Lennie, June. "Troubling empowerment: An evaluation and critique of a feminist action research project involving rural women and interactive communication technologies." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2001. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/18365/1/June%20Lennie%20Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Participatory research methodologies and the use of interactive communication technologies (ICTs) such as email are increasingly seen by many researchers, including feminists, as offering ways to enhance women's inclusion, participation and empowerment. However, from critical and poststructuralist perspectives, some researchers suggest the need for greater caution about claims that participatory methodologies and certain communication technologies automatically enhance inclusion and empowerment. These researchers argue that issues of power, agenda and voice in the research context require greater attention (LeCompte, 1995).
The major argument made in this thesis is that feminist researchers need to adopt a more critical and rigorous yet pragmatic approach to evaluating women's empowerment, inclusion and participation, and that this approach needs to include an analysis of diversity and difference, macro and micro contexts, power-knowledge relations, and the contradictory effects of participation. The outcomes of this study suggest that this approach can create new knowledge and understanding that will enable the development of more effective strategies for women's empowerment and inclusion.
To explore and support this argument, findings are presented from a detailed evaluation and critique of a major feminist action research project that involved women in rural, regional and remote Queensland, Australia and elsewhere, a university research team and several government and industry partners. The project made extensive use of ICTs, including email and the Internet, and aimed to be empowering and inclusive.
Given the many contradictory discourses of empowerment that currently circulate, empowerment is seen as a problematic concept. The multiple meanings and discourses of empowerment are therefore identified and considered in the analysis. With the increasing importance of communication technologies in rural community development, this study also evaluates the effectiveness of ICTs as a medium for empowering rural women.
The 'politics of difference' (Young, 1990) that underpins attempts to include a diversity of rural women in feminist research projects presents many challenges to feminist praxis. Chapters 1 and 2 propose that, in evaluating such projects, researchers need to take diversity and difference into account to avoid reproducing stereotyped images of rural women, and to identify those who are included and excluded. This is because of the complex nature of the identity 'rural woman', the multiple barriers to women's participation, and the diverse needs, agendas and ideologies of participants and stakeholders. The concept of seriality (Young, 1994) is used in this study to avoid reproducing 'rural women' and feminist researchers as women with a singular identity.
Chapters 1 and 2 argue that a comprehensive and critical analysis of these complex issues requires an eclectic, transdisciplinary approach, and that this can be fruitfully achieved by using a combination of two feminist frameworks of theory and epistemology: praxis feminism and feminist poststructuralism. While there are commonalities between these frameworks, the feminist poststructuralist framework takes a much more cautious and critical approach to claims for empowerment than praxis feminism. The praxis feminist framework draws on feminist theories that view power as social, cooperative and enabling. Women's diverse needs, values, issues and experiences are taken into account, and the analysis aims to gives voice to women. The purpose of this is to better understand the processes that meet women's diverse needs and could be empowering and inclusive for women (or otherwise). In contrast, the feminist poststructuralist framework uses Foucault's (1980) analytic of power as positive and strategic, exercised in all our interactions, and intimately connected to knowledge. The power-knowledge relations, and the multiple and shifting discourses and subject positions that were taken up in various research contexts are identified and analysed. The purpose of this is to highlight the contradictions and dangers inherent in feminist practices of empowerment that often go unnoticed.
To achieve its practical and critical aims, this study uses two different, but complementary, research methodologies: participatory feminist evaluation and feminist deconstructive ethnography, and multiple research methods, which are outlined in Chapter 3. This eclectic approach is argued to provide maximum flexibility and creativity in the research process, and to enable the complexity and richness of the data to be represented and understood from a diversity of perspectives. Triangulation of the multiple methods and sources of data is employed to increase the validity and rigour of the analysis.
Assessing how well feminist projects that use ICTs have met the aim of including a diversity of women requires an analysis of a wide range of complex social, economic,cultural, technological, contextual and methodological issues related to women's participation. Analysing these issues also requires giving voice to a diversity of participants' and stakeholders' assessments and meanings of 'diversity' and 'inclusion'.
The results of this analysis, set out in Chapter 4, suggest that differences in perceptions of diversity and inclusion are strongly related to participants' and stakeholders' political and ideological beliefs and values, and their degree of commitment to social justice issues. The evaluation found that a limited diversity of women participated in the project, and identified many barriers to their participation.
Feminists argue that women-only activities are often more empowering than mixed gender activities. The evaluation findings detailed in Chapter 5 suggest that the project's women-centred activities, particularly the workshops and online groups, were very successful in meeting the multiple needs of most participants. However, contradictory or undesirable effects of the project's activities were also identified. This analysis demonstrates the need to consider the various groups of participants and their diverse needs in assessing how well feminist methods and activities have met women's needs or are empowering.
Chapter 6 identifies various forms and features of empowerment and disempowerment and categorises them as social, technological, political and psychological. A model is developed that illustrates the interrelationships between these four forms of empowerment. Technological empowerment is identified as a new under-theorised form of empowerment that is seen as increasingly important as ICTs become more central to women's networking and participation. However, the findings suggest that the extent to which participants want to be empowered needs to be respected. While many participants were found to have experienced the four forms of empowerment, their participation was also shown to have had various disempowering effects. The project's online group welink (women's electronic link), which linked rural and urban women, including government policy-makers, was assessed as the most empowering project activity.
The discourse analysis and deconstructions, undertaken in Chapter 6, identify competing and contradictory discourses of new communication technologies and feminist participatory action research. The various discourses taken up by the researchers and participants were shown to have both empowering and disempowering effects. The analysis demonstrates the intersection between empowerment and disempowerment and the shifting subject positions that were taken up, depending on the research context. It was argued that the discourses of feminist action research operated as a 'regime of truth' (Foucault, 1980) that regulated and constrained the discourses and practices of this form of research.
An analysis of a highly contentious welink discussion challenges feminist assumptions that giving voice to women will lead to empowerment, and suggests that silence can, in some circumstances, be empowering. This analysis highlights the intersection of voice and silence, the limitations of the gendered discourse of care and connection, and how this discourse, and other factors, regulated the use of more critical discourses.
Critical reflections on the study are made in Chapter 7. They include the suggestion that an 'impossible burden' was placed on the project's feminist researchers who used an egalitarian feminist discourse that produced expectations of 'equal relations' between participants and researchers. However, these relations had to be established in the context of a university-based project that involved senior academic, government and industry staff.
Drawing on the new knowledge and understandings developed, this study proposes several principles and strategies for feminist participatory action research projects that seek the inclusion and empowerment of rural women and use ICTs. They include the suggestion that feminists need an awareness of the limits to the politics of difference discourse when power-knowledge relations are ignored. A further principle is that there is value in adopting a Foucauldian analytic of power, since this enables a better understanding of the complex, multifaceted and dynamic nature of power-knowledge relations in the research context. This approach also provides an awareness of how processes that attempt to empower will inevitably produce disempowerment at certain moments. Principles and strategies for undertaking participatory feminist evaluations are also suggested.
35
Lennie, June. "Troubling empowerment: An evaluation and critique of a feminist action research project involving rural women and interactive communication technologies." Queensland University of Technology, 2001. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18365/.
Full textAbstract:
Participatory research methodologies and the use of interactive communication technologies (ICTs) such as email are increasingly seen by many researchers, including feminists, as offering ways to enhance women’s inclusion, participation and empowerment. However, from critical and poststructuralist perspectives, some researchers suggest the need for greater caution about claims that participatory methodologies and certain communication technologies automatically enhance inclusion and empowerment. These researchers argue that issues of power, agenda and voice in the research context require greater attention (LeCompte, 1995). The major argument made in this thesis is that feminist researchers need to adopt a more critical and rigorous yet pragmatic approach to evaluating women’s empowerment, inclusion and participation, and that this approach needs to include an analysis of diversity and difference, macro and micro contexts, power-knowledge relations, and the contradictory effects of participation. The outcomes of this study suggest that this approach can create new knowledge and understanding that will enable the development of more effective strategies for women’s empowerment and inclusion. To explore and support this argument, findings are presented from a detailed evaluation and critique of a major feminist action research project that involved women in rural, regional and remote Queensland, Australia and elsewhere, a university research team and several government and industry partners. The project made extensive use of ICTs, including email and the Internet, and aimed to be empowering and inclusive. Given the many contradictory discourses of empowerment that currently circulate, empowerment is seen as a problematic concept. The multiple meanings and discourses of empowerment are therefore identified and considered in the analysis. With the increasing importance of communication technologies in rural community development, this study also evaluates the effectiveness of ICTs as a medium for empowering rural women. The ‘politics of difference’ (Young, 1990) that underpins attempts to include a diversity of rural women in feminist research projects presents many challenges to feminist praxis. Chapters 1 and 2 propose that, in evaluating such projects, researchers need to take diversity and difference into account to avoid reproducing stereotyped images of rural women, and to identify those who are included and excluded. This is because of the complex nature of the identity ‘rural woman’, the multiple barriers to women’s participation, and the diverse needs, agendas and ideologies of participants and stakeholders. The concept of seriality (Young, 1994) is used in this study to avoid reproducing ‘rural women’ and feminist researchers as women with a singular identity. Chapters 1 and 2 argue that a comprehensive and critical analysis of these complex issues requires an eclectic, transdisciplinary approach, and that this can be fruitfully achieved by using a combination of two feminist frameworks of theory and epistemology: praxis feminism and feminist poststructuralism. While there are commonalities between these frameworks, the feminist poststructuralist framework takes a much more cautious and critical approach to claims for empowerment than praxis feminism. The praxis feminist framework draws on feminist theories that view power as social, cooperative and enabling. Women’s diverse needs, values, issues and experiences are taken into account, and the analysis aims to gives voice to women. The purpose of this is to better understand the processes that meet women’s diverse needs and could be empowering and inclusive for women (or otherwise). In contrast, the feminist poststructuralist framework uses Foucault’s (1980) analytic of power as positive and strategic, exercised in all our interactions, and intimately connected to knowledge. The power-knowledge relations, and the multiple and shifting discourses and subject positions that were taken up in various research contexts are identified and analysed. The purpose of this is to highlight the contradictions and dangers inherent in feminist practices of empowerment that often go unnoticed. To achieve its practical and critical aims, this study uses two different, but complementary, research methodologies: participatory feminist evaluation and feminist deconstructive ethnography, and multiple research methods, which are outlined in Chapter 3. This eclectic approach is argued to provide maximum flexibility and creativity in the research process, and to enable the complexity and richness of the data to be represented and understood from a diversity of perspectives. Triangulation of the multiple methods and sources of data is employed to increase the validity and rigour of the analysis. Assessing how well feminist projects that use ICTs have met the aim of including a diversity of women requires an analysis of a wide range of complex social, economic, cultural, technological, contextual and methodological issues related to women’s participation. Analysing these issues also requires giving voice to a diversity of participants’ and stakeholders’ assessments and meanings of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’. The results of this analysis, set out in Chapter 4, suggest that differences in perceptions of diversity and inclusion are strongly related to participants’ and stakeholders’ political and ideological beliefs and values, and their degree of commitment to social justice issues. The evaluation found that a limited diversity of women participated in the project, and identified many barriers to their participation. Feminists argue that women-only activities are often more empowering than mixed gender activities. The evaluation findings detailed in Chapter 5 suggest that the project’s women-centred activities, particularly the workshops and online groups, were very successful in meeting the multiple needs of most participants. However, contradictory or undesirable effects of the project’s activities were also identified. This analysis demonstrates the need to consider the various groups of participants and their diverse needs in assessing how well feminist methods and activities have met women’s needs or are empowering. Chapter 6 identifies various forms and features of empowerment and disempowerment and categorises them as social, technological, political and psychological. A model is developed that illustrates the interrelationships between these four forms of empowerment. Technological empowerment is identified as a new under-theorised form of empowerment that is seen as increasingly important as ICTs become more central to women’s networking and participation. However, the findings suggest that the extent to which participants want to be empowered needs to be respected. While many participants were found to have experienced the four forms of empowerment, their participation was also shown to have had various disempowering effects. The project’s online group welink (women’s electronic link), which linked rural and urban women, including government policy-makers, was assessed as the most empowering project activity. The discourse analysis and deconstructions, undertaken in Chapter 6, identify competing and contradictory discourses of new communication technologies and feminist participatory action research. The various discourses taken up by the researchers and participants were shown to have both empowering and disempowering effects. The analysis demonstrates the intersection between empowerment and disempowerment and the shifting subject positions that were taken up, depending on the research context. It was argued that the discourses of feminist action research operated as a ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980) that regulated and constrained the discourses and practices of this form of research. An analysis of a highly contentious welink discussion challenges feminist assumptions that giving voice to women will lead to empowerment, and suggests that silence can, in some circumstances, be empowering. This analysis highlights the intersection of voice and silence, the limitations of the gendered discourse of care and connection, and how this discourse, and other factors, regulated the use of more critical discourses. Critical reflections on the study are made in Chapter 7. They include the suggestion that an ‘impossible burden’ was placed on the project’s feminist researchers who used an egalitarian feminist discourse that produced expectations of ‘equal relations’ between participants and researchers. However, these relations had to be established in the context of a university-based project that involved senior academic, government and industry staff. Drawing on the new knowledge and understandings developed, this study proposes several principles and strategies for feminist participatory action research projects that seek the inclusion and empowerment of rural women and use ICTs. They include the suggestion that feminists need an awareness of the limits to the politics of difference discourse when power-knowledge relations are ignored. A further principle is that there is value in adopting a Foucauldian analytic of power, since this enables a better understanding of the complex, multifaceted and dynamic nature of power-knowledge relations in the research context. This approach also provides an awareness of how processes that attempt to empower will inevitably produce disempowerment at certain moments. Principles and strategies for undertaking participatory feminist evaluations are also suggested.
36
Joseph, John Santiago. "The relevance of involvement in micro-credit self-help groups and empowerment : findings from a survey of rural women in Tamilnadu." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=100632.
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The purpose of this dissertation is to establish the extent to which women's membership in self-help groups and their involvement in various activities of these groups, with particular reference to Micro Credit programs, impacted their socio-economic empowerment. The objective is to study the socio-economic empowerment impact factors (evidences) in women members of micro-credit self-help groups in rural India upon the self, the family and the community.Data selected for analyses was based on an operational model of empowerment that encompassed indicators of purported empowerment at the personal, family and community levels. The working hypotheses in quantitative analyses are that there are significant differences in income, savings, assets, expenditure, basic amenities, as well as attitudinal and behavioral changes in the rural women before and after their group membership.
The qualitative interviews helped to assess the life conditions of the women as the process of empowerment before and after their participation in self-help group micro-credit program. The qualitative interviews were to corroborate the veracity of reported progress from the survey to shed some light on the specific factors that contributed to their empowerment in line with their present quality of life at personal, family and community levels. Hence, the impact of the program is measured as the difference in the magnitude of a given parameter between the pre-and post-SHG situations by comparing the life condition of members before joining the self-help group to their condition three years after joining.
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Qomfo, Athenkosi. "The role of land reform in addressing women empowerment in the rural communal area of Nqandu, Eastern Cape, South Africa." University of Western Cape, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7386.
Full textAbstract:
Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)Endless debates on the land reform policy and the ‘radical’ proposed strategy of expropriating privately-owned land without compensation had South Africans questioning the effects of the strategy, and the unpopular decision to adjust Section 25 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. Traditional leaders like King Zwelithini Goodwill, leader of the Ingonyama Trust, were reassured that communal land would not be included in the redistribution of land for the public interest– mainly because distributing privately–owned land entrusted to traditional leaders would violate the statutory land laws. What is not addressed in the communal land entrusted to traditional leaders is the protection of women’s right to land in patriarchal communal areas operating under customary laws. This discussion of women accessing rural land has resulted in an increasing number of women gaining opportunities to access and control residential and agricultural land. However, in practice, access to land does not guarantee sustainable use and ownership of the acquired land - rather, temporary access is given. Women’s control and ownership of communal land are dependent on their social networks and affiliations to men in their family and community. This study investigated the ownership of land as a factor of empowerment amongst women living in the rural community of Nqadu, which will be referred to as Nqadu throughout the study, and the existing relationship between traditional authorities and municipal officials in hindering or enhancing the power within the Nqadu women. In addition, the thesis highlighted where the Land Reform Policy and its gender-equality mandate is not upheld in the rural area of Nqadu, it also discussed reasons why it is not upheld and explore how women see the land reform policy as a mechanism for their enhanced and improved livelihood. The aim of this study was not merely to create enlightenment about the imbalances in women’s land ownership and control but to also to investigate women empowerment in relation to land ownership in Nqadu, Eastern Cape. The researcher argues that communal rural practices disregard gender mainstreaming and work as an isolated system apart from the prevailing norms in the legal systems in administering the allocation of land to women. To investigate the effects of the customary laws on the fulfilment of livelihood assets and its impact on the mobilisation of women to own and control land within communal traditional areas, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) was employed. A mixed-methods approach was used, and semi-structured interviews and questionnaires and secondary statistical data were also utilised to support the qualitative data. To gain enlightenment on development of the tenure status in the Mbhashe local municipality, the municipal officials who are responsible for the land-related issues in Mbhashe were also interviewed. Due to data limitations within the primary statistical data, a greater focus was placed on the strategies used to handle land allocation in Nqadu, which is largely a male dominated traditional councils. In addition, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted alongside the collection of secondary data in the form of statistical data and policy documents, i.e MLM IDP and the DRDLR. Although the policies and programmes tabled by the DRDLR in relation to land reform have initiated conversation and implementation as far as land tenure is concerned, the coordination of the statutory and customary laws and practices are mutually exclusive. The Nqadu women continue to depend on social affiliation and structural relations within their relationships with the Nqadu men. It is advised that local and municipal government’s focus the target population for gender mainstreaming projects and gender-equal policy frameworks on men as much as women. This strategy will reduce the copying mechanism used to remain silent in households or communities that hinder their empowerment. Land reform has aided in the transformation of land from black to white, however, the proportion of women who have complete ownership and control over residential and agricultural land in communal rural areas is has not improved. Women must be provided the same opportunity to control assets like land, if not land reform will continue to be a political mechanism to empower of black people, or create a wealthier class within the black community but not all genders.
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Sharma, Rashmi. "Women District Leader’s Perspectives of Organizational Change in a Rural Women’s Education and Empowerment Program in India: An Appreciative Inquiry." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1459508688.
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Kalazani-Mtya, Lindeka. "The empowerment of women in agriculture: does it contribute to poverty alleviation and improvement of quality of lives in rural areas?" Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/318.
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This study examines the extent to which the Siyazondla food programme, which is a woman based project, empowers women with agricultural skills and knowledge to alleviate poverty and improve their quality of lives in Ducats North area in East London. The investigation is based on the argument that when a woman is empowered, poverty will be reduced and the quality of life will improve. Through the use of qualitative research methodology, all women who are the main beneficiaries of the Siyazondla programme in Ducats North village were interviewed. Findings seem to indicate that although women in the project manage to produce good crops to feed their families, they are still not sufficiently empowered with skills and education to improve their quality of lives. This was found to be exacerbated by the fact that the officials assigned for the programme are to a greater extent inefficient and lack relevant knowledge to support beneficiaries. Most importantly, it was revealed that there is lack of monitoring and evaluation of the programme by government and this was considered to be the major constraint to successful implementation of the programme and in ensuring that poverty is alleviated in the area. It is on the basis of these findings that the study recommends that in order to yield positive results and ensure that women in the programme are empowered, there is a need to change the deeply embedded patriarchal perceptions and discriminatory practices and attitudes that seem to undervalue women‟s work. This will require greater awareness of women‟s contribution to agriculture, and the recognition of the role played by women in food security and poverty alleviation, coupled with a strong commitment from the government to empower rural women in agriculture.
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Sjöberg, Josefine, and Sandra Österlund. "Men's perceptions of how gender equality affects gender relations at household levels in rural Uganda : - A case study conducted in two villages in Isingiro district in South-West Uganda." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-49437.
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In Uganda, the constitution provide protection for women´s rights. However, progress is still slow and the situation on household levels are largely unknown. Many focus on the challenges for women when it comes to gender equality, but as there is now a general recognition of the importance to include men in this work, this study aims to focus on men's perceptions and thoughts regarding gender equality, women empowerment, gender roles and social change, to contribute valuable information on this matter. Previous studies have shown signs of male resistance towards gender equality. To best understand the underlying reasons for this resistance, the theory of Hegemonic Masculinities by Connell and Messerschmidt was chosen to analyse the findings. This theory suggests that hierarchies between men, and notions of male ideals, can have an impact on men´s behaviour. A field study was conducted in rural Uganda which used the methods of individual interviews and focus group discussions, targeting men in different ages and socio-economic backgrounds. The questions asked regarded the roles for men and women, how the roles are changing, their perception of gender equality and the impact of women empowerment on gender relations, all with a focus on house hold level. These answers were complemented by key respondents on both local and national level. The main results of this study shows that there seems to be a general change in the role for women, but the male ideal is still tied to being the provider and leader in the family. Gender equality was in somewhat contradictory viewed as something good that could lead to development, as long as the men could remain higher in status than women. Lastly, many men seemed worried about women empowerment leading to disrespect, arguments and divorce, even though some benefits also were recognized. These findings indicate that “universal ideas” of gender equality have a wide range of local interpretations that needs to be taken into consideration when promoting gender equality in a development context.
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Alvarado, Beatriz Rosa. "Issues of voice and agency in Andean rural young women's education an ethnographic study /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1155670273.
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Lee, Renee Gravios. "Uneasy Tensions in Health Care Delivery in a Rural Appalachian Coal Mining Community: Envisioning Alternative Solutions." Diss., Virginia Tech, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/30555.
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Research consistently supports that some segments of society are at considerably higher risk for illness and death than the national average. While the existence and extent of poor health outcomes for these "vulnerable populations" are well documented, less research attempts to explain why such inequities persist and how they might be resolved. Thus, many vulnerable individuals fail to get adequate health care.
How can health care delivery be improved to better serve those consumers most at risk of poor health? Addressing this issue requires an in-depth understanding of the unique health and social needs of vulnerable consumers and how these needs are being met (or not met) by the health care industry. Based on field research using a variety of methods, this study examined health care delivery to one at-risk population, women in a rural Appalachian coal mining community, with the ultimate goal of envisioning service design and distribution strategies that might better serve disadvantaged populations.
Consistent with the change-oriented goal of this research, a feminist approach guided this study. Women's everyday experiences in managing their health needs were explored through an analysis of their health care stories. Health care providers were also interviewed in order to explore both sides of the service encounter dyad. The voices of the women and the providers reveal uneasy tensions in health care delivery and illuminate why the current system does not meet the actual health care needs of the women or their community. A variety of solutions are offered to improve health care delivery.Ph. D.
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Luo, Shujuan. "YOUNG FEMALE MIGRANT WORKERS' LIFE SKILLS LEARNING AND PRACTICE, ITS SOURCES AND EMPOWERMENT PROPERTIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1500459758354548.
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Peebo, Jeanna, and Alexandra Kosovic. "GSM Based Technology as a Tool to Reach Higher Financial Inclusion in Rural Areas : The Digitising of Savings Groups." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-260147.
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Digital aid to increase financial inclusion in developing countries is an increasing area of interest growing together with the global expansion of mobile phone penetration. This paper analyzes technical, social and financial aspects of the possibility of digitizing Xitique, a local community-based microfinance model in rural Mozambique. The aim was to understand the technical requirements of building a GSM based application while preserving cultural importance and the native features of the Xitique savings method. Data was gathered through field studies, where technical experts and the target group, being rural women, provided extensive contributions for the thesis’ findings. The results proved substantial evidence supporting the motive of developing a Xitique application from both a social as well as economic perspective. This was supported by the expressed customer demand that, as part of the result, emanated in a prototype and sustainable Social Business Model for the Xitique application’s serviceAnvändning av digitala hjälpmedel för att öka ekonomiska inkludering i utvecklingsländer är ett växande intresseområde som tilltar tillsammans med den globala expansionen av mobilanvändning. I denna rapport analyseras tekniska, sociala och finansiella aspekter av möjligheten att digitalisera Xitique, en lokal samhällsbaserad mikrofinansmodell på landsbygden i Moçambique. Syftet med arbetet var att förstå de tekniska kraven för en GSM-baserad applikation och hur kulturell betydelse bäst kunde bevaras genom den digitala imitationen av de existerande metoderna som används i den traditionella Xitiquen. Data samlades genom fältstudier där tekniska experter och målgruppen, kvinnor på landsbygden, gav omfattande bidrag till avhandlingens resultat. Resultatet visade att det fanns väsentliga bevis som stöder motivet att utveckla en Xitique-applikation från både ett socialt som ekonomiskt perspektiv. Detta understödjs vidare av den uttryckta efterfrågan hos kvinnorna, som en del av resultatet, ledde till en prototyp och en hållbar social affärsmodell för en Xitique-applikation.
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Mkhize, Gabisile Promise. "African Women: An Examination of Collective Organizing Among Grassroots Women in Post Apartheid South Africa." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1357308299.
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Khosa, Richard Mafemani. "The impact of community development projects on the empowerment of women in the Malamulele Area of the Thulamela Local Municipality in Limpopo Province." Thesis, University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1441.
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Thesis (M.Dev. (Management and Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2012This study investigates the impact of community development projects (CDPs) on the empowerment of women in the Malamulele area of the Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo Province. The study investigates whether the implementation of CDPs really changes the living conditions of women or whether it is merely a smokescreen to cover the failure of the government to provide decent jobs for people who are living in absolute poverty. The aim of the study, however, is to assess the impact that CDPs have on women empowerment. The objectives of the study that were derived from the main aim include identifying the types of projects, and their impact on women and men. The findings of the study would contribute to social science knowledge and would also help to develop new strategies that could be used to solve problems of poverty. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in this study. The population of the study were projects in which both women and men were involved. However, more women were selected from sampled projects because the aim of the study was to investigate the impact of CDPs on women. Stratified random sampling was used to select respondents in order to ensure that all strata were represented in the sample. The findings of the study suggest that CDPs improve decision-making capacity, the acquisition of assets and skills, and create job opportunities for women. It is, therefore, recommended that development planners consider increased funding in order to implement more projects in the area as these are the tools through which women in rural communities can eradicate poverty.
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Zhou, Le. "Les voies de l’autonomisation des femmes en zone rurale : modes d’organisation et d’action pour l’accès au marché dans la province du Ningxia, Chine." Thesis, Paris 9, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013PA090042.
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Cette recherche se focalise sur les actions d’autonomisation des femmes en zone rurale par le biais d’une organisation collective visant à les aider à accéder au marché dans la province du Ningxia en Chine. Nous avons étudié la pertinence de ces actions selon la vision des femmes qui y sont engagées. Au-delà de ces actions, nous avons prolongé nos travaux dans les deux dimensions de la notion du Sujet – à savoir la subjectivité et la responsabilité – et nous avons par là même discuté la viabilité des voies d’autonomisation des femmes rurales. Suite aux analyses des interactions entre ces femmes rurales et leur environnement extérieur, nous concluons sur la participation responsabilisée de tous les acteurs sociaux et sur le respect de la subjectivité de chacun, en vue de l’autonomisation véritable des femmes rurales et pour l’établissement d’un modèle qui pourra être reproduit au profit du développement durableThe present research focuses on the actions of empowering rural women through their own cooperative to help them enter the modern market in Ningxia province in China. We investigated the relevance of these actions according to the vision of the women who are involved . Beyond these actions , we have extended our discussions in the two dimensions of the concept of the Subject - subjectivity and responsibility - and we have thus discussed the viability of the ways to empower rural women. Following the analysis of interactions between rural women and their external environment , we conclude the responsible participation of all social actors and the respect of the subjectivity of each, with the aim of the true empowerment of rural women, and also try to establish a model that can be replicated for sustainable development
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Beguerie, Victor. "Impact de l'accès à l'énergie sur les conditions de vie des femmes et des enfants en milieu rural : analyse d'impact du programme des plate-formes multifonctionnelles au Burkina Faso." Thesis, Clermont-Ferrand 1, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015CLF10471/document.
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De par sa multi dimensionnalité, l’accès à l’énergie permet de contribuer grandement à l’atteinte de nombreux Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement et notamment l’OMD3 qui vise à promouvoir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes. Dans les zones rurales, le faible accès à l’énergie contraint les femmes dans leurs activités quotidiennes, et les freine dans leur développement et leur émancipation. Ce constat est à la base de la création du concept des plates-formes multifonctionnelles (PTFM). Une PTFM est un ensemble d’équipements qui fournit des services énergétiques. La configuration de base d’une PTFM comprend un moteur diesel qui entraine un moulin, une décortiqueuse et un alternateur. Ce dernier fournit de l'électricité. Au Burkina Faso, le Programme National Plates-formes Multifonctionnelles pour la Lutte Contre la Pauvreté (PN-PTFM/LCP) a été lancé en 2005. Une enquête ménage à deux passages (2009 et 2011) a été mise au point afin d’analyser l’impact de ce programme sur les conditions de vie des femmes et des enfants, et afin de déterminer si les PTFM sont un bon moyen de contribuer à l’atteinte des OMD au Burkina Faso.Les analyses en variables instrumentales et en double différence menées dans cette thèse montrent que les PTFM permettent de réduire le temps quotidien consacré aux travaux domestiques de certaines femmes. Pour ces femmes, les analyses montrent que ce gain de temps est réinvesti dans la création d’AGR. En revanche, il existe peu d’effets de diffusion bénéfiques sur l’éducation ou la santé des enfants. Ainsi, le programme PTFM au Burkina ne contribue que partiellement à la réalisation des OMD relatifs aux bien être des femmes, en effet les résultats positifs obtenus ne concernent qu’une catégorie de ces dernières. En ce qui concerne les OMD relatifs à la santé ou à l’éducation des enfants, le programme PTFM ne semble pas avoir les effets bénéfiques escomptés. Nous estimons que ces résultats mitigés du programme PTFM au Burkina Faso sont le fruit de problèmes de fonctionnement récurrents des plates-formes, et du faible degré de multifonctionnalité des PTFMThrough its multidimensionality, energy access actively contributes to the achievements of several Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and especially MDG3 which aims at promoting gender equity and women empowerment. Lack of access to energy is a major issue for women in rural areas since it limits their choices in their daily activities and, therefore, undermines their development and their empowerment. This statement is at the core of the creation of the concept of the multifunctional platform (MFP). MFPs are a set of equipment which provides energy services. The basic version of MFPs comprises a diesel engine turning a mill, a husker and an electric alternator which furnishes electricity. In Burkina Faso, the Programme National Plates-formes Multifonctionnelles pour la Lutte Contre la Pauvreté (PN-PTFM/LCP) was launched in 2005. A household survey with two rounds (2009 and 2011) have been implemented in order to analyze the impact of the MFP program on woman and child living conditions, and in order to determine if MFP are a good way to contribute to achieving the MDGs in Burkina Faso. Instrumental variable and double difference analyses lead in this thesis conclude that MFPs enable to reduce the daily time dedicated to domestic tasks for some women. For these women, this time saved is reinvested in creating income generating activities. By contract, little evidence has been found regarding positive externalities on child education and health. Thus, the MFP program only partially contributes to achieving the MDGs related to woman well-being, since the positive effects only concern some women. Concerning the MDGs related to child health and education, the MFP program doesn’t seem to have the expected results. We consider that these mixed results of the MFP program in Burkina Faso are mainly due to repeating technical problems, and to the weak degree of multifunctionality of the MFPs
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Simmons, Kathryn Elizabeth. "Textiles in Rural Bolivia: Where Does the Art of Traditional Textile Making Fit Into Today's World?" University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1418306303.
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Johansson, Viktor. "'The world has changed; these days, women are the ones who are keeping their families'. Gender norms, women's economic empowerment and male capture in the rural Tanzanian poultry value-chain." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-445115.
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The study presented in this thesis aimed to explore how gender norms in four rural districts in Kilimanjaro and Lindi Region of Tanzania might influence rural women chicken farmers' economic empowerment when an urban vendor introduces an improved breed of chicken. More specifically, the following aims were explored: the normative expectations for husbands and wives in the communities researched, and how these expectations may influence intra-household negotiation processes following a market-led intervention within the Tanzanian poultry value-chain; if and how intra-household resource allocation may be changed if profits were to increase within a women-led business. To achieve the aim of this study, the experiences and insights from the study participants were collected through focus group discussions in a case study methodology of the Tanzanian poultry value-chain in four rural districts of Tanzania applying a qualitative research approach within the research paradigm of Feminist Critical Theory. Data was collected through scenario responses in eight focus group discussions (FGDs) in Hai and Siha districts of Kilimanjaro Region and Ruangwa and Lindi Rural districts of Lindi Region and analyzed by applying a thematic analysis. Three findings are presented in this thesis. First, women and men in the researched communities witness a changing society in which women increase their presence in the economy. In contrast, men struggle to live up to the expectations associated with being constructed as the household's breadwinner. Second, women's economic agency may both improve but also compromise women's ability to adopt a practice of innovation if the practice is introduced without acknowledging gender dynamics present in the communities. Finally, findings imply that development opportunities in the Tanzanian poultry sector add levels of negotiations where women and men need to negotiate gender norms in their communities while deciding on resource allocation in a growing business. In addition, the term Male Capture is brought forward as a central theme throughout the thesis. It is used to frame a dynamic in which men seize control over a previously women-controlled asset once women have demonstrated the success of an innovation. Insights are presented into the norms that trigger and legitimize the event of Male Capture in the researched communities and provide stakeholders in the Tanzanian poultry value-chain with information on how to approach market-led interventions without running the risk of marginalizing women. Finally, the thesis concludes that for researchers that aim to challenge the longstanding gender inequalities which legitimize Male Capture, Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) should be adopted.