Study of Empowerment Measurement : In the Context of Gender and Development

This paper is to attempt to join in the discussion on measuring empowerment in the context of gender and development. Though empowerment is the crucial issue to be discussed, it is not clearly defined, nor measured. Literature argues empowerment as something good on its own without concrete definitions. Empowerment entails a process of change. Changes can be measured, and empowerment as well, by qualitative means. The international community has been working on poverty alleviation programmes. Their apporaches have diverted several times and currently, empowerment becomes the first and most essential requirement of both planning and development. Meanwhile, gender has become the eminent issue, as gender studies advances. The Fourth World Conference on Women of 1995 in Beijing has declared that women\u27s rights are human rights. Gender implies a power structure of the control and the controlled. Empower is the vital issue to achieve gender free society. I discuss empowerment in this paper and suggest four dimensions of empowerment: social, economic, psychological and physical empowerment. I also offer indicators to measure empowerment.国立情報学研究所の「学術雑誌公開支援事業」により電子化されました