Women’s Empowerment in Brazil: Tensions in discourse and practice

Abstract

Cecilia M. B. Sardenberg reflects upon the experience of NEIM – the Nucleus of Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies of the Federal University of Bahia – in engaging with ‘empowerment’. NEIM has been involved in 27 years of activism in order to bring about changes, both structural as well as in women’s individual lives, towards insuring greater autonomy for women and our increasing participation in decision-making. She opens up questions about how to engage more directly and more openly with the concept of empowerment, and considering its theoretical underpinnings and their methodological as well as wider political implications.