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Empowerment for Women

Unilever’s response to the criticism it has received for its Fair & Lovely advertisements assumes a view that the poor are rational, well-educated consumers. Arun Adhikari, executive director for personal products at HUL, said, “We are not glorifying the negative but we show how the product can lead to a transformation, with romance and a husband the pay-off.”⁶¹ The creator of the Air Hostess advertisement, R. Balakrishnan, argued that “the consumer automatically regulates advertising . . . [and] is extremely mature, as she is shelling out money for our product.”⁶²It is a romanticized view that sees the poor consumers as powerful enough to regulate advertising. After the Indian government banned two Fair & Lovely commercials, HUL was unrepentant and argued that its commercials were about “choice and economic empowerment for women,” and the company has continued to produce similar advertisements.

The women’s movements obviously do not buy this argument. This is not empowerment; at best, it is a mirage; at worst, it serves to entrench women’s disempowerment. The way to truly empower a woman is to make her less poor, financially independent, and better educated; social and cultural changes also need to occur that eliminate the prejudices that are the cause of her deprivations. If she were truly empowered, she would probably refuse to buy a skin whitener in the first place.

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ICTs and Empowerment of Women
The papers in this anthology have shown how new media communication technologies are empowering in particular young and middle class women. Women in Asia have employed the soft power of digital media to confront the hard power of patriarchy, for example, the networking of feminists to promote women’s...
(Feminist Cyberethics in Asia: Religious Discourses on Human Connectivity)
Empowerment of women
Although none of the 193 countries in the UN have met targets towards the 2030 sustainable development goals on gender equality, progress has been made. It is often women themselves who have exemplified the positive psychology principles of agency, optimism and connection in moving the agenda forward....
(Creating the World We Want to Live in: How Positive Psychology Can Build a Brighter Future)
Empowerment of Women of Color Faculty through Mentoring
Given the myriad of challenges, an ideal approach for retaining women faculty of color in the academy is empowerment mentoring, a positive, innovative approach that addresses their various professional roles (research, teaching, and service). Empowerment strategies are distinct in that they lead to the...
(Handbook of University and Professional Careers in School Psychology)
Women’s Empowerment
For the respondents, the call centers’ policy of non- discrimination based on age, religion, ethnicity, sex, and gender promote women’s empowerment. Women are given the chance to work and many of them handle leadership posts. Jen considers her post as a team leader a challenge to be more creative...
(Feminist Cyberethics in Asia: Religious Discourses on Human Connectivity)
Cooperatives as “topographies” of women’s empowerment
As politics, especially at the local level, have spatialized in male dominated spaces, this has reproduced the private/woman and public/man dichotomy. This process has also led women to make spatial tactics to maneuver for masculinized networks and institutions. For not only attempting to position themselves...
(Turkey’s Electoral Geography: Trends, Behaviors, and Identities)
How patriarchal power structures undermine women’s empowerment and gender equality: the case of Nigeria
Ozgiir Tiifekgi and Mohammed Hashiru 1 Introduction Though it is common knowledge, Nigeiia is highly characterised by patriarchy from time immemorial (Aina, 1998). Despite deliberate attempts by governments and NGOs, patriarchy appears to dominate all spheres of the Nigerian economy and politics,...
(The Economics of Gender Equality in the Labour Market:Policies in Turkey and other Emerging Economies)
Syntheses of GrOW-supported research on women’s economic empowerment
Stalled progress: Why labour markets are failing women James Heintz Introduction Paid employment has the potential to improve women’s ability to make autonomous decisions that have substantive impacts on their lives (UN Women 2015). As a result, labour market dynamics have implications for women’s...
(Women’s Economic Empowerment: Insights from Africa and South Asia)
Labour markets and women's economic empowerment
We begin with a consideration of a paradox that has emerged in recent decades. There have been improvements in a range of socioeconomic outcomes for women and advances in gender equality in many, although not all, parts of the world. These achievements include better educational outcomes for women, higher...
(Women’s Economic Empowerment: Insights from Africa and South Asia)
Macroeconomics and gender: Recent research on economic growth and women’s economic empowerment
Sophia Kan and Stephan Klasen Introduction Over the last two decades, women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has become increasingly recognised as an important development outcome by governments and development stakeholders. WEE is not only a goal in and of itself, but a means for overall economic growth...
(Women’s Economic Empowerment: Insights from Africa and South Asia)