paraguay
Global Eff orts towards Women’s Empowerment
The concept of empowerment has been associated with a
range of activities undertaken by and for women in diff erent
sectors, including education. 6 Defi nitions of empowerment
vary and tend to be described as a process, an end-state,
and a capacity. 7 Women’s empowerment has been defi ned
as “skills and knowledge that usually comprise several
dimensions: economic (capacity to generate independent
income), psychological (feelings of self-esteem), cognitive
(critical understanding of one’s reality) and political
(awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize
and mobilize). (Stromquist, 2002; 2006). 8 Nelly Stromquist
refers to empowerment as “the multidimensional changes that
women must undergo to become active agents of their own
transformation” (2006:154).
Amongst development practitioners, there’s some
agreement that, in order to promote women’s empowerment,
it is necessary to create the opportunities and an environment
that allows women to participate in educational programs; and
also a need to set up specifi c educational programs for women
that provide the type of education and training that will
sensitize people towards gender discrimination and will raise
their acceptance of women’s promotion (Medel-Anonuevo
& Bochynek, 1995 9 ; Ramos, 2007a 10 ; 2007b 11 ). Furthermore,
in order to succeed, women’s empowerment programs must
include certain components such as: promotion of gender
awareness; integration of technical, entrepreneurial, cultural
and communal aspects; information and lessons on politics;
and provision of planning and thinking skills, among others.
(Malhotra, 2003) 12
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Efforts to measure women’s empowerment 13 may
consider diff erent levels of action (micro/macro, individual/
collective), diff erent spheres (economic, political, social),
diff erent temporal scales (often beyond the lifetime of a
single program) and must be sensitive to social context.
Approaches to measuring women’s empowerment must also
take into account the fact that empowerment can be a slow
process of change and the impact of a program may not be
seen immediately at the end of the funding period.
The Women’s Leadership Program in Paraguay
(WLPP)
The Women’s Leadership Program in Paraguay (2012-
2015) integrated key elements of the USAID Gender Equality
and Female Empowerment Policy into the program to
support national and local development goals that promote
gender equality and female empowerment in the agricultural
sector. The WLPP was a partnership between the National
University of Asuncion (UNA) and the University of
Florida (UF). The primary objective of the project was to
support national and local development goals in Paraguay
that promote gender equality and female empowerment in
the agricultural sector. The two universities collaborated
to (1) promote and support women’s access to the National
University of Asuncion (UNA) with a focus on developing
leadership skills; (2) strengthen institutional capacity of
UNA’s School of Agricultural Sciences and the Center for
which prioritizes equal rights and participation for men and
women, access to economic resources and work, equitable
education, comprehensive healthcare, life free of violence,
and eff ective decentralization. Since 2015, Paraguay has
committed to boost gender equality and has made progress
in the implementation of the Public Policy Law for Rural
Women, with more than 1,000 rural women trained on
agriculture techniques and resource management. In 2016, the
Law for Comprehensive Protection for Women against Any
Kind of Violence was approved, and a task force to ensure its
full implementation has been formed.
Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve in Paraguay and Agricultural
High School for Girls.
Global Research Framework, Women’s Empowerment Strategic Impact Inquiry (January 19, 2006). CARE, USA.
Kabeer, N., (2001) ‘Resources, Agency, Achievements: Refl ections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment’, pp 17-59 in Discussing Women’s
Empowerment - Theory and Practice’, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Stockholm, Sweden
8
Stromquist, N. P. (2002) Education as a means for empowering women, in: J. Parpart, S. Rai & K. Staudt (Eds) Rethinking empowerment. Gender and
development in a global/local world (London, Routledge), 22–38.
9
Medel-Anonuevo, Carolyn and Bettina Bochynek (1995). The International Seminar on Women’s Education and Empowerment, in Women, Education and
Empowerment: Pathways towards Autonomy edited by Carolyn Medel-Anonuevo. UNESCO Institute for Education Studies 5, 1995: Hamburg, Germany.
10
Ramos, F. (2007) a. Life’s Structures and the Individual’s Voice: Making Sense of Women’s Words. In “The structure and agency of women’s education,”
edited by Mary Ann Maslak. Albany: State University of New York Press.
11
Ramos, F. (2007) b. “Imaginary pictures, real life stories: The FotoDialogo method,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20 (2) March-
April 2007, pp. 191-224.
12
Malhotra, A. 2003. Conceptualizing and Measuring Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International Development.
13
Helpdesk Research Report: Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment, 2010.
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