The Road to Women’s Empowerment in a Man's Crop : A field study of Ugandan women's empowerment process in the coffee farming industry

In recent years the concept of empowerment has flourished to a large extent, not least in development studies. Empowering marginalised communities, poor people and women has become a priority for development agencies and organisations. This thesis aims to assess how women are empowered by a top-down approach through International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) and a bottom-up approach through the women themselves. The paper is based on a field study that took place in the coffee farms of Uganda where women face enormous challenges as they work in an exploited industry and live with husbands who often withhold the income of the work the women have done. Drawing on Naila Kabeer’s definition of empowerment, this paper looks at if and how the resources, agency and achievements of the women have led to empowerment in the levels of household, workplace and community. The research strategy used for this paper is data collected from semi-structured interviews with women working in coffee farms in Uganda. The results show that women become empowered to a large extent in the workplace and community levels but struggle in the household level. There is not sufficient transformative power from IWCA and the women themselves to change the structures regarding gender-norms that are vastly embedded in the culture. There is a need to raise more awareness and knowledge, not only for women and organisations but for the men as well, in order to reach women’s empowerment and gender equality