Rethinking Empowerment Theory Using a Feminist Lens: The Importance of Process

Abstract

This article highlights the importance of social, historical, and political context when theorizing empowerment and “maps” empowerment as a cyclical, rather than a linear, process. Synthesizing important perspectives in feminist thought and empowerment theory, it proposes understandings of positionality, conscientization, and social transformation that are meant to inform empowerment-oriented, feminist social work practice.