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Expanding electricity access (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7) and empowering women (SDG 5) are closely linked. Most studies quantifying the benefits of the former for women focus on their economic empowerment; however, if and how such access results in women's empowerment is best understood by examining the cultural context, norms, and gender roles in which that access occurs. For instance, time saved from the use of electric appliances may be used for productive engagements, but if gender roles restrict women from leaving the home or engaging in paid work, such benefits are not realized. Here, we delve deeper into the multi-faceted and context-specific concept of women's empowerment via 28 semi-structured interviews with Zambian women. We include households with and without electricity to understand women's subjective meaning of empowerment and how access to electricity may (dis) empower them. We analyze their responses using Deshmukh-Ranadive's (2005) Spaces approach to empowerment which categorizes an individual's spaces into physical, economic, political, socio-cultural, and mental space. We find that electricity access empowers women by expanding their economic and physical, along with mental, space. This occurs via paid opportunities outside the home using electrical appliances and women reporting greater economic independence, camaraderie, self-reliance, and agency as a result. Additionally, by asking women to define what empowerment means to them, we not only bolster the claim that electricity access empowers women both economically and socially, but also ensure future programs account for empowerment explicitly in their plans.
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Does my work matter? Reduced sense of mattering as a source of gender disparities
Abstract Women may experience lower rates of entry and success into certain academic and professional spaces because of their observations that their work contributions are less valued than men's. We introducesense of matteringas a mechanism that may help explain women's underrepresentation in male‐dominated fields and leadership roles, distinguish it from related constructs, and advance a theoretical framework for how sense of mattering may shape gender disparities. Women's professional contributions are often undervalued, and women perceive and anticipate this unfair disadvantage, which may in turn limit their success, retention, and representation in stereotypically masculine spaces and roles. Attending to sense of mattering has the potential to improve upon past attempts to reduce gender disparities by emphasizing the importance of increasing the extent to which women's contributions are recognized and valued.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1919218
- PAR ID:
- 10482617
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Social and Personality Psychology Compass
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1751-9004
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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