Engaging with Empowerment: An Intellectual and Experiential Journey

Srilatha Batliwala

Sep 2015 · Women Unlimited

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In this fascinating collection of writings, Srilatha Batliwala, feminist thinker and practitioner, explores the many dimensions of what empowerment means for, and to, women. Looking back on a life lived through commitment to a cause—rather than to an organisation or to a sector—and working for it at many levels and locations, she traces the evolution of the concept from the late 1980s till now, unravelling its ambiguities, highlighting insights gained through practice, and analysing how and why it has been depoliticised and reduced by the state and aid agencies. Along the way, Batliwala traverses key sectors, including education for women, politics outside political systems, grassroots movements, energy for sustainable development, and a controversial questioning of a rights-based approach to women’s equality.

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SRILATHA BATLIWALA, feminist activist and researcher, is Civil Society Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard University. She worked for 25 years in India in a range of social change and gender justice activities that spanned grassroots organising, advocacy and research, with a deep commitment to gender equality and the women’s movement. She has published extensively on development and women’s issues.