Strategic Impact Inquiries

As discussed in the Women's Empowerment Framework, CARE defines women’s empowerment as the sum total of changes needed for a woman to realize her full human rights – the interplay of changes in:

• Agency: her own aspirations and capabilities,
• Structure: the environment that surrounds and conditions her choices,
• Relations: the power relations through which she negotiates her path.

1. Looking at the various settings across the illustration (accessing healthcare, in village meetings, in a government context, in a market, with family, in a religious community, as part of a political movement or among women), what are the roles the woman holds? In each, from where might her power come?
   
2. How powerful would you feel in each of these scenes? Why?
   
3. In each scene, as the woman asserts her power, how might it affect the power of others?
   
4. How might dynamics of power change if these scenes took place in Kandahar, Afghanistan? Or Nairobi, Kenya? What about in your community?
   
5. How might race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class or religion influence your sense of power in each of these situations?
   

1. The woman, or anyone, has multiple roles and relationships. With each, her level of power can vary. While the scene of the woman with government officers shows her exerting her power in the public realm of government, her life and sense of empowerment encompass the public and private sphere. What key relationships may comprise her home life that empower or repress her? Perhaps, she has a supportive family or partner at home who share household duties to enable her to work with government officials. In other cases, the SII found women who are vocal leaders in their communities but tolerate violence in their homes. This gap illustrates how a woman may be empowered in one sphere of her life, while not in another. It also highlights how women can simultaneously take on a number of roles. The woman may be a daughter, sister and mother; a member of a religious community, or movement. She may be a friend or neighbor, and a citizen of her community. Similarly, our lives also hold many roles. At work we are colleagues, direct reports and managers. At home we have another set of roles as parents, children, siblings and intimate partners. In our communities, we are citizens, neighbors and friends. In each relationship and setting, our level of power can be different.
   
   
2. Power can be economic, political, social, cultural and symbolic. People are rarely powerful in (nor powerless across) all forms.   In coalition with others, the woman may gain strong social and political power, though she may not be highly regarded economically or as a woman within her culture.
   
   
3. Power is not a zero-sum game. As the woman gains power and voice in the government, perhaps for the first time, it  does not mean that others must lose their voice in the government. The woman’s growing political power may, however, mean that government officials must consider her interests more when making decisions.
   
   
4. Power is socially constructed. Power depends on where you are, who you are and what culture you are from. The significance of power changes from New York City, to Kandahar or Timbuktu.
   
   
5. A person’s experience of power can depend on their gender, race, class, age, etc. As an ethnic, cultural or sexual minority, the woman may not wield as much power in each of these situations as one who belongs to the ruling class, majority religion or identifies as heterosexual.

The complexities of power affect the aspirations and actions of women and men, staff and participants, in the multiple roles that we all embody. As CARE pursues our commitment to women’s empowerment, we must consider the existing power structures and relations, and how our work can negotiate and confront these relations and structures in pursuit of gender equity. In the workplace we must also reflect on how our own strategic decision-making, organizational hierarchies, staff recognition and communications uphold CARE’s vision and commitment to social justice, tolerance and equity.