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An Empirical Examination of Women’s Empowerment and Transformative Change in the Context of International Development

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

This paper responds to calls from social scientists in the area of globalization and women’s empowerment to test a model that investigates both structural and individual components of women’s empowerment in the context of globalization. The investigation uses a liberation psychology framework by taking into account the effects of globalization, human rights discourse, and women’s activism within social movements to identify how structural inequities may be related to empowerment. Surveys conducted in rural Nicaragua revealed that land ownership and organizational participation among women were related to more progressive gender ideology, and in turn, women’s power and control within the marital relationship, individual levels of agency, and subjective well-being. The study demonstrates that psychology can bridge the theoretical arguments surrounding human rights with the practical implementation of development interventions, and provide empirical support that has yet to be demonstrated elsewhere. The findings have important implications for strategies and interventions that can improve conditions for women and contribute to the aims of social justice articulated in the Beijing Platform for Action.

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Notes

  1. There is no singularly recognized definition of a developed country. Former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, defined a developed country as, “one that allows all of its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment.” Given that many industrialized countries do not meet these criteria, and that the terms developed, under-developed, and developing are often used by so-called “First World” nations to describe the relatively low economic well-being of another country in a manner that implies inferiority, when used in this paper these terms will appear in quotations to reflect the problematic nature discussed here. Moreover, I recognize the problematic nature of land privatization in countries that have been subject to neoliberal policies that impose privatization. Nevertheless, because development practitioners allocate resources in a manner that typically exacerbates existing gendered power differentials, there is a great deal to be gained in the area of women’s well-being by implementing women’s rights in these areas.

  2. See Grabe (2010b) for additional detail regarding sampling procedures, selection criteria, and methodology. The “intervention” was a program called Programa Productivo, which was aimed at legally facilitating women’s ownership of and productivity on the land.

  3. Comparable alphas have been reported for autonomy and mastery in other international samples from Sweden (.53 and .71, respectively; Lindfors et al. 2006) and Hong Kong (.59 and .63, respectively; Cheng and Chan 2005).

  4. It is likely that the education and employment variables are not indexing social class in this sample as much as they are reflecting participation with the organization. The collaborating NGO has several education and vocational programs, which might explain why education was not significantly correlated with employment or land ownership (r = .05, p = .410; r = −.09, p = .168), whereas land ownership and employment were significantly correlated (r = 0.38, p = .000). Landowners likely reported higher levels of secondary education because of their participation in programs at the center. Similarly, the link between land ownership and employment might be explained by the fact that the majority of landowning women reported making an income off of their land.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a National Science Foundation grant (OISE-0714697) to Shelly Grabe; however, the work reflects a partnership between science and grass roots community advocacy. The community collaborators included Carlos Arenas, director of the then Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua; the women of the Xochilt-Acalt women’s center; and the CIERUNIC S.A. research team. I am also grateful for the critical perspective of Regina Langhout offered on earlier versions of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Shelly Grabe

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Correspondence to Shelly Grabe.

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Grabe, S. An Empirical Examination of Women’s Empowerment and Transformative Change in the Context of International Development. Am J Community Psychol 49, 233–245 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-011-9453-y

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