Women's Empowerment and Gender-based Violence in Post-Conflict Liberia

Previous research on empowerment of women has tried to show a correlation between empowerment and a reduction of gender-based violence. Some studies confirm that correlation and it is argued that especially economic empowerment is key to such a correlation. However, the correlation based on economic empowerment is disputed, and some scholars argue that economic empowerment is not sufficient to tackle structural issues based on power inequalities, such as gender-based violence. This study will build on the latter argument in the debate of empowerment, and will use the case of post-conflict Liberia to support this discussion. In post-conflict Liberia, significant efforts to empower women have been made and yet, high levels of gender-based violence remain. By examining two official policy documents directed toward reduction of gender-based violence and enhancement of women’s empowerment, this thesis concludes that there is a lack of recognition of gender relations structured around an unequal distribution of power, in the two documents. The study will therefore end with the argument that in order to create empowerment of women that reduce issues such as gender-based violence, strategies to enhance women’s empowerment need to account for gender relations based on power dynamics