In the field of International Development, increased attention has been given to the concept of women’s empowerment as it has been recognized as a potential driver for change. Classified as a global struggle, commitments to this concept have been at the core of many development interventions, whether they be a small NGOs working in a single community or large-scale international aid agencies with presence all around the world. Despite its international recognition, women’s empowerment has been largely left unquestioned within development practices and especially with regards to the impact it may have on local beneficiary communities. This thesis will address how universal ideas such as this one become meaningful in the local setting through a case study of CARE-International’s Women’s Empowerment in Zanzibar project that was implemented from the years 2008-2011. In applying Sally Merry’s (2006) concept of vernacularization, as a theoretical framework, it will be shown that international aid organizations do not simply adapt women’s empowerment to the local arena. Instead, various local actors are involved in a dynamic process of translating, negotiating, and making the concept more meaningful to the beneficiaries and, thus, cause a new hybrid understanding of women’s empowerment to emerge. This new concept draws more extensively on local institutions, knowledge and practices that have been inter-weaved with Islamic practices which play an important role in the lives of Zanzibaris. This thesis will illustrate how NGO culture converges with and diverges from the local communities and expose the realities that exist within the greater development discourse.

El objetivo principal de este trabajo de investigación es el análisis de los personajes femeninos de la serie Anne with an E y la representación del empoderamiento de la mujer. Este estudio se llevará a cabo mediante el análisis del arco de transformación de los personajes y el vestuario, elementos que identificarán su evolución respecto al empoderamiento de la mujer. Asimismo, es importante resaltar que la serie está ambientada a finales del siglo XIX, época con muchos estereotipos y limitaciones para el rol de la mujer. En la serie, los personajes luchan por empoderar a la mujer pese al contexto en el que se encuentran. Para este estudio se utilizarán guías de análisis de empoderamiento fememino, arco de transformación y vestuario. De esta manera, se podrá comprobar si los personajes cumplen con la representación de empoderamiento de la mujer en el siglo XIX. / The main objective of this research work is the analysis of the female characters of the series Anne with an E and the representation of the empowerment of women. This study will be carried out through the analysis of the transformation arc of the characters and the costumes, elements that will identify their evolution regarding the empowerment of women. Likewise, it is important to note that the series is set at the end of the 19th century, a time with many stereotypes and limitations for the role of women. In the series, the characters struggle to empower women despite the context in which they find themselves. For this study, female empowerment analysis guides, transformation arc and wardrobe will be used. In this way, it will be possible to check if the characters comply with the representation of the empowerment of women in the 19th century. / Trabajo de investigación

<p>Infant and young child feeding practices are suboptimal in Tanzania, but optimal nutrition during the first two years of life is critical for development. At this age, behaviors of caregivers determine children’s diets, but few studies quantify how fathers or couples jointly influence child feeding. We investigate how men and women shape the family food environment to determine children’s diets in rural Mara, Tanzania. This mixed methods study used quantitative baseline data from the Engaging Fathers for Effective Child Nutrition and Development in Tanzania (EFFECTS) trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03759821), including 960 rural households with both parents and a young child. Logistic and linear mixed effects regressions examined associations between parental determinants and exclusive breastfeeding (n=189) and child dietary diversity over one day and one week (n=764 children 6-23 months; n=597 children 9-23 months). Parental determinants measured knowledge of breastfeeding and complementary feeding, self-efficacy on provision of diverse or nutritious diets, workload away from home, social support, household savings, and couples’ communication and decision-making, indicating women’s empowerment. Qualitative data drew from formative research (July-August 2018) conducted with parents of children aged 0-36 months, including eight focus group discussions (FGDs) with mothers and fathers (four FGDs each, 31 and 30 participants, respectively). FGDs were transcribed, translated, quality checked, and coded to identify key themes. The odds of exclusive breastfeeding decreased with mothers’ higher workload away from home and increased with mothers’ reports of more frequent couples’ communication over household decisions. Higher child dietary diversity was linked to mothers’ reports of higher knowledge of nutritious foods, higher social support, and higher couples’ communication frequency and quality. Generally, fathers’ determinants were not associated with children’s diets. Qualitative findings indicated that knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding was common, but challenges of perceived breastmilk insufficiency, women’s workload, and concerns about breastmilk quality led to early introduction of complementary foods. Affordability was a common challenge to appropriate complementary feeding, while couples’ decision-making dynamics and attitudes and beliefs about foods had the potential to be both enablers and barriers. Interventions must improve nutrition knowledge and social support, and they must empower women through joint decision-making and more gender-equitable workloads between parents to enable optimal child diets. </p>

Social enterprises are hybrid organizations that tackle societal challenges by using conventional business models. Being hybrid organizations means that social enterprises pursue dual objectives: social (developmental) and financial. By taking performance, subsidization and internationalization perspectives, this thesis contributes to understanding the hybridity of social enterprises and how this hybridity drives their general operations and key decisions such as foreign market selection and targeting strategy. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo describir el empoderamiento en mujeres que han vivenciado experiencias de violencia y que residen en Nieveria (Huachipa, Lima). El método fue de tipo cualitativo y se adoptó un enfoque fenomenológico-hermenéutico. La técnica empleada para la recolección de información fue la entrevista semi estructurada, la cual se aplicó a 8 mujeres que han llevado un proceso terapéutico y que han asistido a Qallariy (proyecto para la promoción de la salud mental) durante seis meses como mínimo. Los resultados revelan un empoderamiento individual y empoderamiento colectivo y de relaciones próximas. Se concluye que los procesos de apoyo psicológico y las actividades colectivas han permitido cambios y mejoras en la vida de las participantes debido a las experiencias y aprendizajes que aportaron en el proceso de empoderamiento. / This study aimed to describe the empowerment of women who have experienced violence and who reside in Nievería (Huachipa, Lima). The method was qualitative and a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach was adopted. The technique used to collect information was the semi-structured interview, which was applied to 8 women who have undergone a therapeutic process and who have attended Qallariy (a project for the promotion of mental health) during six months minimum. The results reveal an individual empowerment and collective empowerment and close relationships. It is concluded that the psychological support processes and the collective activities have allowed changes and improvements in the lives of the participants due to the experiences and learning that they contributed to the empowerment process. / Tesis

This paper explores the empowerment of adolescent girls through sport using two case studies. Both case studies take place in predominantly Muslim countries: Egypt and Bangladesh. The sports programs also are both implemented through schools, public in Egypt and private in Bangladesh. I also evaluate the feasibility of establishing sports programs across the world. Because of Afghanistan’s especially harsh circumstances for women, the final chapter strategizes methods to implement similar programs there. I conclude by assessing the future of girls' sports programs in the Middle East and whether or not governments and international organizations should continue investing in these programs.

Partendo da una concettualizzazione multidimensionale della povertà, il presente lavoro di ricerca studia l’effetto prodotto dalla partecipazione a programmi di microcredito su specifiche dimensioni di genere: l’empowerment delle donne e la violenza domestica. Il primo capitolo analizza la letteratura empirica sul tema in un’ottica critica, gettando le basi per lo sviluppo dei successivi. La seconda parte esamina la relazione fra partecipazione al microcredito e due distinte dimensioni di empowerment utilizzando un modello ad equazioni strutturali (SEM). Accanto alla partecipazione a tali programmi, considero, quale potenziale causa del processo di empowerment femminile, le attitudini maschili in merito al ruolo svolto dalle donne all’interno e al di fuori del contesto familiare. Dai risultati emerge un’associazione positiva fra microcredito e dimensioni di empowerment considerate, ma l’effetto delle attitudini maschili non è significativo. Infine, nell’ultimo capitolo esamino come la partecipazione al microcredito, congiuntamente ad altri fattori socio-demografici, influenza il subire violenza domestica e le attitudini femminili circa la giustificazione della stessa in determinati contesti. Dall’analisi empirica emerge un’associazione positiva tra microcredito e violenza domestica, mentre il partecipare a tali programmi non produce alcun effetto significativo sulle attitudini femminili in merito alla giustificazione della stessa. / The focus of this dissertation is about the influence of participation in microcredit programs on gendered dimensions of poverty. Specifically, I refer to multidimensional poverty in terms of women’s empowerment and domestic violence. The first chapter reviews the empirical literature on microcredit and poverty in a critical perspective and lays the foundations for the two later chapters. The second part explores the relationship between participation in microcredit programs and two distinct dimensions of women’s empowerment using a structural equation model with categorical observed variables. I consider a set of potential causes of the empowerment dimensions including participation in microcredit programs and men’s attitudes towards women’s role in intra-household relationships and in the social context. Interestingly, the former is positively associated with empowerment while the men’s perception about the women’s role do not produce a significant effect on both empowerment dimensions. The last chapter investigates how participation in microcredit programs along with other socio-demographic factors affect the likelihood to experience physical violence and the likelihood of women’s beating justification in different situations. The most interesting result concerns the influence of microcredit on the outcomes variables: it doesn’t affect women’s beliefs about beating justification but it is positively associated with physical violence.

A large number of adult women living in rural parts of the country had neither the free time nor the opportunity to receive basic education at their early ages. As a result, despite the women's numerical significance, and their remarkable contribution to the economic development, women faced social and cultural challenges that undermine their human worth and dignity. These problems result mainly from lack of education among the majority of women and can possibly cause poverty and inequality. To address these problems, adult education and literacy programs that incorporate functional adult literacy, vocational training, and entrepreneurial support was implemented. Such a program is believed, would promote socioeconomic empowerment of women. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the impact of this adult literacy program on the rural women's socioeconomic empowerment. Conscientization and dialogue theory of Paulo Freire was adopted as a theoretical framework. A case study method was used with a purpose to determine the impact of adult literacy on the socioeconomic life of rural women. For sampling purpose, three adult literacy supervisors, five adult literacy facilitators, and twenty women were included. Data collection tools were in-depth interviews, focus group discussion and personal field notes. To analyze the data, the researcher took the rules proposed by Huberman and Miles (1994) and Marshall and Ross (1995).The analysis of the data resulted in two major themes, five categories, and twenty-one sub-categories. The result showed that the adult literacy program enhanced the following components of women's life: At the individual level, it improved, the ability to read, write and calculate; self-confidence to express one's feeling and idea; a positive self-concept; and confidence to challenge the already established wrong meaning about women. At the social level, literacy changed women's negative attitude towards children's education; improved their ability to persuade/communicate their spouses; it improved women's knowledge of family planning and health matters. Furthermore, it improved women's social networking ability and mobility; and changed women's attitude towards commonly practiced social evils like female child genital mutilation; and also increased women's participation in social affairs. At an economic level, adult literacy equipped women with the knowledge and skills to engage in different income generating activities like poultry production, honey production and growing different types of vegetables. Moreover, adult literacy advanced women's knowledge of saving and effective utilization of resources. However, it was found that that specific adult literacy program could not equip women adequately to exercise their decision-making right in financial management. / Language Education, Arts and Culture / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

This work is based on the analysis of documents and conducted interviews with the aim to evaluate how and to what extent the Czech bilateral development projects reflect gender. It is crucial for an assessment how gender is reflected at the various stages of the project cycle. The research is framed by the twin-track approach according to which gender is mainstreamed and also projects focused on women's empowerment are carried out. To evaluate the research question the methodology proposed by Caroline Moser (2005) is used, which also evaluates the conceptual setting and institutional settings, making comprehensive analysis of gender issue possible. The paper examines two cases, namely projects under the auspices of the Czech Development Agency implemented in the period from 2010 to 2014 in the sector of water and sanitation in Ethiopia and in the health sector in Georgia. It was found through the research that gender is reflected formally in development projects. Formal consideration is a manifestation of the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic to reflect gender issues in the context of international development cooperation. However, there is still a lack of a systematic approach, under which there would be designed sufficient capacities, standardized procedures, clear...

Ethiopia has one of the largest populations in the world, an estimate of 114 million inhabitants. With more than 40% of the population below the age of 15 the country has to make further progress in meeting its family planning needs. The fertility rate has slowly declined, but the population continues to grow. Efforts to reduce gender disparities and empower women have fallen short in many parts of the world. Evidence suggesting a link between women’s empowerment, health outcomes and health care service utilization. A secondary analysis of the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey was conducted. The aim of this study was to determine the association between women’s empowerment, sociodemographic and reproductive factors and contraceptive use among married women and women living with partner aged 15-49 in Ethiopia. Logistic regression, bivariate, and descriptive analysis was conducted. Decision-making role in regard to husband’s money was a strong predictor for contraceptive use. Women who alone or jointly made decision were more likely to use contraceptives. The state of wealth of women was a significant determinant for contraceptive use. Those with lower education were more likely to use contraceptives compared to those with higher education. Women who did not intend to have more children were more likely to use contraceptives. This study showed that contraceptive use is associated with women’s economic decision-making age, and several sociodemographic and reproductive factors. Improving women’s empowerment, through decision making power can improve contraceptive use and therefore achieve better maternal health.