Encyclopaedia Of Women Empowerment

Power and Empowerment in Social Sciences

Power has been the focus of such debate within the social sciences. The dominant understanding has been of power as ‘power over’. Where one person, or group of people, is able to control in some way the actions or options of another. This can be overt, such as through the use of physical coercion, or hidden, as when psychological processes are influenced in such a way as to restrict the range of options perceived, or to lead someone to perceive the desired option as being their own desire. The use of power over can be very subtle. Empowerment, used within the ‘Women In Development’ (WID) perspective on women predominated since 1970, is constructed on that “power over” view of power. The view is that women should somehow be ‘brought into development’ and become ‘empowered’ to participate within the economic and political structures of society. They should be given the chance to occupy positions of ‘power’, in terms of political and economic decision-making. It does not involve a structural change in power relations. There is no consideration of the power dynamics of gender. It is predominantly one group (men) which has power over another group (women) such ‘neutrality’ precludes analysis, not only of, gander power dynamics, but also of how one set of such dynamics can interact with others to produce complex power relationships. The texts are arranged in a lucid form and written in colloquial English. All the essential aspects of this subject have been included. Hopefully, the present study will prove very useful for students and teachers.