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Winnifred Bedigen - Understanding Empowerment through a Cultural Theory Lens: Women in the Horn of Africa

Category
Seminar
Date
Date
Thursday 16 November 2017, 16:15 - 17:45
Location
Social Sciences Building 14.33
Category

As part of the University of Leeds School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) research seminar series, you are warmly invited to a presentation by Dr Winifred Bedigen (University of Leeds):

This paper seeks to clarify some of the misunderstood issues in current African women’s empowerment and development messaging. Some western scholars, by theorising women’s empowerment through western lenses, have found African women to be distinctively different, and yet have gone ahead to design and implement empowerment programs regardless. Others, though, point to high levels of women’s marginalisation in the Sub-Saharan region and the urgency to act. These are efforts to increase women’s involvement in peace and development work as they have become more mainstreamed by international institutions like the United Nations (UN), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). This work explores African (the Horn) socio-cultural versions and emphases on women’s empowerment, pointing to their strengths, weaknesses, and what these might mean for policy and development practice.