Langley, Madeline, M.G. (2022) Empowerment Across Life-Spheres: A Qualitative Investigation Among Women in Rural Bangladesh. Research Master thesis, Research Master.
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Abstract
Despite the growing number of women’s empowerment initiatives in Bangladesh, women still face many challenges. We propose a psychological approach to understand what constraints and needs women experience in their empowerment. We first outline a theory-based framework to map influences on empowerment. Based on this framework, we design and thematically analyse 11 exploratory, qualitative in-depth interviews into the constraints and needs experienced by beneficiaries of an empowerment program in rural Bangladesh. We focus on two spheres (i.e., life domains) of empowerment in which women tend to hold different levels of power: income-generating activities and nutritional security. Findings show that in both spheres relational and societal factors are crucial in determining women’s empowerment, such as social support and gender norms. We further demonstrate large differences between spheres, both in the type and the amount of constraints and needs mentioned. Women described more varied, and a larger number of constraints and needs in their empowerment in the sphere of income generating activities than nutritional security. Together, our findings underscore the importance of considering women’s social cultural embeddedness and the need to take a sphere-specific approach to empowerment, both for researching empowerment and designing effective interventions.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Research Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Hansen, N. |
| Degree programme: | Research Master |
| Differentiation route: | Other [Research Master] |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Aug 2022 09:06 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Aug 2022 09:06 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1254 |
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