From Power to Women’s Empowerment: The Missing Links

Polar, Vivian; Poole, Nigel

Abstract

This chapter explores the instrumentalization of women’s empowerment in agricultural research for development, with particular attention on critically examining how the concept of empowerment has become understood as an externalized process that can be bestowed on women through production-oriented interventions. The chapter explores multiple manifestations of power and depicts their occurrence through experiences of women and men farmers in the Andean region. It analyzes how the use of empowerment has deviated from building agency and disrupting power dynamics, highlighting the need for a feminist and transformative conceptualization and operationalization of empowerment in the agricultural sector.

Citation

Polar, V., & Poole, N. From Power to Women’s Empowerment: The Missing Links. In J. Njuki, H. Tufan, V. Polar, H. Campos, & M. Morgan-Bell (Eds.), Gender, Power and Politics in Agriculture: Revisiting Theory and Practice (115-136). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60986-2_7

• Online Publication Date: Sep 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 28, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 28, 2024
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 115-136
• Book Title: Gender, Power and Politics in Agriculture: Revisiting Theory and Practice
• ISBN: 9783031609855
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60986-2_7
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-60986-2_7
• Related Public URLs: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60986-2