Gendered Empowerment? A Case Study of iDE's Women's Economic Empowerment Model in Gimbuchu, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract: As empowerment retains its status as a buzzword among international development agencies, it has lost its essential element – power – intended to highlight the unequal structures and relations allowing disempowerment. Nonetheless, it has proliferated in the discourse and practice of women’s empowerment, as gender equity has become an important cross-cutting issue for many organizations and governments. However, the process of women’s empowerment is not well understood from the unique standpoint of women who experience it as part of NGOs’ project interventions. Utilizing a case study approach and qualitative methods, this thesis focuses on how women experience a women’s economic empowerment model implemented by an NGO in Ethiopia. Centering on Kabeer’s (1999) three dimensions of empowerment – resources, agency, and achievements – this study sheds light on the empowerment process, as women engage in it individually and collectively. Through discussions and participatory drawings, this thesis finds that the women engaged in the organization’s empowerment model utilized cognitive and relational resources to exercise an efficient from of agency. However, the gendered nature of the model limited women from transforming sufficient material resources into meaningful achievements.