Women’s subordination in marital relations is a problematic issue causing socio-economic imbalance between spouses. These issues are found within the system of Uganda’s patriarchal society. Mobile money (m-money) is a service that entered the Ugandan market in 2009 that allows transferring and withdrawing money and paying bills with your cellphone without being connected to a formal bank. Earlier research shows positive impact of m-money use for women’s entrepreneurship in a male-privileged society. These realities render interest towards investigating how m-money effects women and if it has any impact on their self esteem in their marital relation. The study aims to understand the effect of women’s use of m-money in a marital relation. The field study was carried out in Mbarara using interviews and observations to approach the issue. Ugandan women have a lower position within the marital relation as well as in society in general since it is the man who heads of the family. The study reveals an existing lack of trust between spouses, resulting in the exclusion of one another from their individual finances. This lack of trust becomes an impediment of mutual support within the marriage. Furthermore the study shows that women from a higher strata use m-money as a security line of income and gives leeway to meet both traditional expectations such as care taking of children and modern expectations to be employed within the formal sector. The lower strata of women who use m-money tend to protect the money from their husbands who have different priorities than their wives. Through m-money women are given a tool allowing them to circumvent economic confrontations between the spouses and the societal hierarchal structures. The economic security creates a reality where women are less vulnerable because of their independence. The gained independence can however be deemed as a less bad alternative to dependence as it gives them a stronger foundation to manage the combination of the above-mentioned traditional and modern expectations within society.

In Uganda, the constitution provide protection for women´s rights. However, progress is still slow and the situation on household levels are largely unknown. Many focus on the challenges for women when it comes to gender equality, but as there is now a general recognition of the importance to include men in this work, this study aims to focus on men's perceptions and thoughts regarding gender equality, women empowerment, gender roles and social change, to contribute valuable information on this matter. Previous studies have shown signs of male resistance towards gender equality. To best understand the underlying reasons for this resistance, the theory of Hegemonic Masculinities by Connell and Messerschmidt was chosen to analyse the findings. This theory suggests that hierarchies between men, and notions of male ideals, can have an impact on men´s behaviour. A field study was conducted in rural Uganda which used the methods of individual interviews and focus group discussions, targeting men in different ages and socio-economic backgrounds. The questions asked regarded the roles for men and women, how the roles are changing, their perception of gender equality and the impact of women empowerment on gender relations, all with a focus on house hold level. These answers were complemented by key respondents on both local and national level. The main results of this study shows that there seems to be a general change in the role for women, but the male ideal is still tied to being the provider and leader in the family. Gender equality was in somewhat contradictory viewed as something good that could lead to development, as long as the men could remain higher in status than women. Lastly, many men seemed worried about women empowerment leading to disrespect, arguments and divorce, even though some benefits also were recognized. These findings indicate that “universal ideas” of gender equality have a wide range of local interpretations that needs to be taken into consideration when promoting gender equality in a development context.

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<p>Since the Beijing Conference on women in 1995 ‘gender-mainstreaming’ has been the new buzz word within the international development regime. Gender equality is increasingly believed to be a major determinant for socioeconomic development in the Global South. However, the development agenda and the gender strategies for the Global South are still outlined and determined by development professionals at head quarters of the development business in the in the Global North. Heavy critique has been launched against the prevailing international development paradigm, not only for being increasingly centralised and categorised as business, which distances global policy from the lived realities in the Global South, but also for obscuring unequal power relations between men and women behind the political correctness of gender.</p><p>This study explores how gender and gender power relations are perceived and approached in practical development work in India. Through the example of the Self-Employed Women’s Association, SEWA, my ambition is to give an example of how gender bias and social inequality can be targeted through practical socioeconomic development work in a way that is both context sensitive and sprung from the Global South. SEWA is a women’s organisation, as well as a trade union and a cooperative movement. Aiming at improving employment and social and economic security for the female workers in the informal sectors, SEWA has organised its 800 000 members and social security services into cooperatives to bring about a process of social transformation with women at the centre.</p><p>My empirical findings show that SEWA approaches gender bias in concrete and particular forms. As gender discrimination and poverty are interconnected, dealing with low-income households’ basic socioeconomic needs will also restructure gender power relations. With a large member-base and with ties to NGOs, corporations and governmental bodies, regionally, nationally and internationally, SEWA has become a powerful actor for social development, even at times when they face heavy resistance due to their feminist principles and commitment to the poor and socially marginalised.</p>

Indonesia signed CEDAW 1980 and ratified it in 1984 making it one of the first countries in South East Asia to do so. Despite legislation and governmental efforts women are still discriminated against in areas such as access to education, resources and credit. Income generation and women´s empowerment have been recognized on an international level as important strategies to enhance gender equality and in the process of alleviating poverty. By using the method of the focus group interview this study examines the process of empowerment for a group of women who take part in an income generation program in South Lombok, organized by a local NGO which uses the CAF methodology of self funded communities. Using Jo Rowlands (1997) empowerment model to analyze the collected data the study identifies encouraging and inhibiting factors to the empowerment process and the changes the process have generated. The study finds that the income generation program provides an important motivation for the women to join and the women experience some empowering impacts due to access to resources. However, it is the educational aspects of the program as well as the social support system that the self-help groups provide that contain the most empowering elements.

This thesis aims to investigate if there are differences between men and women in rural and urban areas on perception of women empowerment. The focus is on girls’ education and development in a post – colonial country. Semi structured, qualitative interviews were conducted in Babati district, Tanzania in February 2011. In order to obtain as much useful information and data as possible several research questions were focused on during the fieldwork. These were: What is the perception on empowerment of women, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? , How does a gender gap in school affect development, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? , Is the patriarchal heritage an obstacle for development and gender equality, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? , Why are urban areas more equal than rural areas, according to local men and women in rural and urban Babati? The conclusion is that people in rural and urban areas are very similar in their opinions’ of empowerment of women and education for girls. The traditional social and cultural structures are often obstacles for development.

Migration has been an extensive topic in Sweden as it has been debated and discussed through various perspectives such as through the political and social participation. Within this scope of research education is one of many important factors that enhance political and social participation within migrant women (Atger, 2009). This research aims to analyze the role of educating migrant women in empowering them to acknowledge their political and social development through the tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer; resources, agency, and achievements (1999). Resources have been examined as economic, human and social ones by the tool of content analysis. Agency refers to the ability of individuals to recognize and act upon choices available to them; decision-making process (Ibid). Achievements include women participation in different organizations, political parties and in the labor market. This paper analyses education that empowers migrant women through resources, agency and achievements to become a socially and politically active agent in Sweden.

This dissertation consists of three essays on women empowerment in Iran. In the first two chapters, we examine the impact of the rapid expansion of electricity to rural areas of Iran after the 1979 revolution on two important determinants of women's empowerment, fertility and female literacy. We use the timing of provision of electricity to villages to identify its impact on the child-woman ratio and the literacy rate of adult women and men. We use difference-in-differences (DID) method as well as instrumental variables (IV) to account for the potential endogeneity of electrification. Our findings for the impact of electricity on fertility is highly sensitive to the method of identification. The DID results imply that electrification lowers fertility whereas the IV estimates suggest the opposite. The results on literacy are consistent across estimation methods, both showing that electrification increases female literacy. In the third chapter, we focus on the role of education in the empowerment of women. The positive effects of education on female empowerment through lower fertility and greater labor force participation are well known. Female empowerment is also closely identified with greater participation in market work and access to an independent source of income. In the past two decades Iranian women have increased their education, lowered their fertility, but their labor force participation remains low. In this chapter we examine the role of education in the empowerment of Iranian women through their allocation of time between domestic work, child education, and market work. We find evidence that more educated women spend more time in market related activities and child education, but less in domestic work. The behavior of women in time allocation to market work and childcare exhibits similar patterns and both are quite different from house or domestic work. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that education empowers women by increasing their ability to earn more income as well as through their ability to invest in the education of their children. / Ph. D.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Women play an important role in food security. Growing, processing, purchasing, preparing and serving food to their families is a common and distinctive relationship they have to food in most societies in the world. They also play a critical role in food security. Yet, studies show that women are the most vulnerable to household food insecurity. At the heart of women’s differential vulnerability to household food insecurity is their lack of ownership of the means of food production, mainly land. Food is grown on land and access to land for productive purposes is vital for food security, especially for women who have little other means of securing food aside from performing subsistence farming for household food security. Thus, analyzing women experiences of accessing land and productive resources, and the manner in which such access shapes their empowerment and ability to achieve household food security is important. In this dissertation, women’s empowerment refers to a process where women gain the ability to make strategic life choices; I take the position that for women to be empowered, their access to resources, individual capacities and agency must be improved. Thus, this dissertation aims to examine the lived experiences of female farmers in Stellenbosch in terms of access to land and productive resources, and the implications this kind of access has for women’s empowerment and household food security.

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