RESEARCH OVERVIEW PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES · Wrenn, Deirdre Ni Cheallaigh, Farrah Kelly, Finola...

PUSHING THEBOUNDARIES:Understanding Women’sParticipation and Empowerment

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Emma Newbury and Tina Wallace

Trócaire envisages a just and peaceful world wherepeople’s dignity is ensured and rights are respected;where basic needs are met and resources are sharedequitably; where people have control over their ownlives and those in power act for the common good. MyRights Beyond 2015 is published by Trócaire as part ofits Programme of Policy, Research and Advocacy.

Trócaire is the overseas development agency of theIrish Catholic Church

Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland Tel. +353 1 629 3333www.trocaire.org

Northern Ireland Regional Office 50 King Street, BelfastBT1 6AD Tel .+44 28 9080 8030 Fax. +44 28 9080 8031Northern Ireland Charity Number XR 10431

Dublin City Resource Centre 12 Cathedral Street, Dublin1 Tel / Fax : +353 1 874 3875 Munster Resource Centre9 Cook Street, Cork Tel .+353 21 427 5622 Fax. +35321 427 1874 Irish Charity Number CHY 5883

Acknowledgements: Sincere thanks to all the researchparticipants for their time and for sharing their views andexperiences with us. Huge thanks also to all of the staffat Trócaire’s partners CDJP Matadi, AMDES, APADEIM,SEARCH and BKS the research exists due to your hardwork and dedication. Thank you also to all the staff inTrócaire’s country offices in DRC, India and Nicaraguaand for on-going dedication to the research over thethree years. A special thanks to Carol Ballantine, CarolWrenn, Deirdre Ni Cheallaigh, Farrah Kelly, FinolaFinnan, Hilary Daly, Kim Wallis, Niall O Keeffe andNoreen Gumbo for your feedback on the many draftreports.

We gratefully acknowledge DIFID funding and grantsfrom the Raskob Foundation and CAFOD whichcontributed to costs associated with this research.

Acknowledgements

Cover: Women of the Citizen’s Committee in Kinzau Mvuete, DRC, completing a social mapping activity. Photo: Emma Newbury

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Executive Summary

Executive Summary 2

Abbreviations 4

1. Introduction to the research 5

1.1 Introduction 6

1.2 Background to the research 71.2.1 The need for the research 71.2.2 Initial mapping and focus selection 71.2.3 Objectives of the research 8

1.3 Analytical framework 8

1.4 Methodology 101.4.1 Challenges 11

1.5 The three country contexts 11

2. The key research findings across the three countries 14

2.1 The Trócaire gender and governance programs that shaped women’s experiences 152.1.1 Governance and human Rights programme and projects 152.1.2 Gender equality programme and projects 16

2.2 Spaces for influencing decision making 16

2.3 Participation and empowerment: women’s journeys 172.3.1 Overview of the Journey 182.3.2 Case studies of individual women’s journeys 22

2.4 Barriers and enablers to the journeys 262.4.1 Barriers that women perceive hinder their journeys 262.4.2 Enablers that women perceive support their journeys 292.4.3 Barriers that are not being addressed in current programming 332.4.4 Characteristics of the spaces that affect participation 33

3. Exploring the boundaries for action 37

3.1 Including women without challenging power structures 383.1.1 Between Citizens and the State 383.1.2 Between Men and Women 39

3.2 Pushing the boundaries 393.2.1 Between Citizens and the State 393.2.2 Between Men and Women 40

3.3 Recommendations for promoting women’s participation and empowerment 42

Bibliography 43

Contents

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Pushing the Boundaries: Understanding Women's Participation and Empowerment

Women’s participation and empowerment are termsthat are used by many agencies including NGOs. Theterm empowerment was originally used to refer to aprocess of radical social transformation, wherebyexcluded social groups could define and claim theirrights collectively. Over the years its use has widenedand its meaning has become diffused, with the centralissue of power being lost. Trócaire, aware of thisfuzziness undertook a three year multi country researchon women’s participation within decision makingspaces at the grassroots level. Empowerment wasdefined in the research as the process of pushingagainst the boundaries to shape new fields of possibleaction, by increasing the capacity of those with lesspower to engage with those with more power. Theresearch was undertaken in three countries, DRC, Indiaand Nicaragua, implementing governance and genderequality programmes through local partnerorganisations. It set out to better understand howparticipation contributes to processes of empowermentand the reduction of oppressive power relationsbetween men and women, as well as citizens and thestate.

The research focused on what enabled women toparticipate in informal community decision-makingspaces. A qualitative methodology was designed tofacilitate women and the partners to identify the issuesof greatest interest and concern to them, and todescribe in their own words their experiences ofparticipating in different spaces. Participatory tools wereused by partners with groups of women in 2-4 researchsites in each of the three countries. The process itselfgenerated changes in the women and the way partnersunderstood and worked with the issues. It facilitatedTrócaire’s thinking about what participation andempowerment mean in different contexts and how toensure that the work on this is enabling real changeespecially in women’s ability to influence structures anddecisions that shape their lives

Through listening to women, who are participatingwithin decision-making spaces, analysing theirexperiences and the social and political barriers whichhinder their participation and examining the enablersthat support participation, the research maps out thewomen’s different empowerment journeys. These arevery varied. Some women only take the first step ofleaving the house, but this marks an important shift intheir lives. For the majority greater self-esteem enablesthem to express themselves in different spaces; someeven become leaders, recognised by their community

for their participation. Many actively lobby theirgovernments for access to basic services like electricityand water and a few even mobilise other women tostart their own journeys. Through this analysis comes aclearer understanding of Trócaire’s different approachesto “empowerment”, the role and purpose of promotingparticipation in different spaces as part of anempowerment process for women, and the specificityof the empowerment journeys in each context.

The research finds that participation and empowermentare in a mutually reinforcing relationship: women’sparticipation within different decision making spacescan support women to gain power but also feelingempowered can lead to women participating in newways or spaces. Participation in groups, especiallywomen only groups, can support women to buildconfidence and skills helping them to influencedecisions within their households and the widercommunity.

A number of barriers persist despite women’sparticipation and changes in empowerment. These areall underpinned by gender norms, which of course arecontextually specific but across the three countrieswere seen to result in different forms of: male controlover women’s mobility, resistance to women’sparticipation within public spaces and unequal divisionof labour between men and women. To be able tochange power relations these underlying gender normsmust be addressed alongside support for women togain confidence and knowledge as it is thesefundamental norms that perpetuate women’smarginalisation from public decision making.

The nature of the spaces also affect women’sparticipation, and the likelihood of their participationsupporting their empowerment, by limiting or enablingtheir ability to influence decisions and re-address thepower imbalance between both men and women andcitizens and the state. The research explored thecontext of women’s experiences of participation byanalysing: who created the space, who makes thedecisions, who can participate and who is excluded.Across the different contexts, a number ofcharacteristics emerged which were more likely toaffect the ability of women’s participation to supportempowerment.

Executive Summary

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Contents

Rigid hierarchies limit the opportunities for women toinfluence decisions and concentrates power in thehands of a small number of individuals, often men,reinforcing the status quo of male dominance.Programmes can reinforce this by training leaders andexpecting a ‘trickledown effect’, which may just furtherembed the authority of an elite group.

Infrequent meetings reduce the opportunity forwomen’s voice to influence decisions by limiting theamount of time with decision makers. Some spaces,generally those created for interaction between citizensand local governments, only call meeting once or twicea year they are so infrequent that the physicalopportunities for participation are drastically limited.

A space might provide the opportunity for women toexpress their needs and they might even be heard bylocal authorities or community members but unlessthey have the power to influence decisions theirparticipation is tokenistic, serving the rhetoric of citizenparticipation without delivering influence of change.

For women to be able to push the boundaries of powerit is essential for them to have the opportunity toparticipate, to organise and discuss issues affectingtheir lives, to explore concepts of women’s rights andto analyse how power operates in their lives. Strategiesfor promoting women’s inclusion in decision-makingspaces and increasing their control over their lives needto address the underlying gender norms that perpetuatewomen’s on going marginalisation. Additionallyprogrammes need a nuanced understanding of thespaces that exist and the power dynamics which affectthem, within a context, to avoid supporting participationin disempowering structures. Women’s empowermentjourneys do not necessarily correspond to the lifecycleof a programme. Supporting empowerment involveschallenging individual, social and cultural norms that areinstilled from birth and supported through laws, policies,religious beliefs and local practices and requires a long-term approach to programming.

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CDJP Commission for justice and peace

CLD Local development committee

CLGP Citizens’ committee

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

GBV Gender based violence

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

SHG Self-help group (for savings and loans)

VDC Village development committee

Abbreviations

1. Introduction tothe research

Maman Sophie Practicing with the cameras during a Photovoice trainingsession in Kinzau Mvuete, DRC.

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1.1 Introduction

Participation has been a major plank in developmentstrategy for many years. It has been much discussed,debated and analysed; there are multiple expectationsof what it can achieve and yet it can be a slipperyconcept, meaning different things for different people.While participation is an approach used for organisingand promoting women in groups, to engage in decision-making and influencing and for women’sempowerment, there is often a lack of clarity about thekinds of groups set up, the amount of time womenneed to spend in these groups, what participation inthem actually means to the women themselves, andhow participating relates to increasing empowermentfor women. There is limited discussion about thedifferences in the opportunities and barriers enabling orpreventing women and men participating in differentgroups, or how they can use what they learn in theirlives to influence decision-makers. Participation is oftenused as a broad term, undefined and divorced from itscontext and from the power relations that shape whocan join, who is excluded, who can speak and be heardand who cannot, who can act and who cannot, and whobenefits from participating.

This research set out to address some of the challengesaround working with participation; two particular issuesin the current literature stood out as gaps needing moreresearch. The first was that the focus on participationfor decision-making was on formal spaces, especiallyformal political representation; the second was the lackof women’s voices in much of the participationliterature. Trócaire was in a strong position to undertakeresearch to address the gap around participation inmore informal spaces, because participation is a corestrategy across many of its community-basedprograms. It was also able to listen to and analysewomen’s voices because partners know and often workclosely in communities with women as well as men.Two programme areas in Trócaire, gender andgovernance, were chosen as the focus of the researchbecause both are specifically committed to promotingwomen’s participation and empowerment at thecommunity level as an integral part of their overallstrategy. The research focused on women’sparticipation in decision-making spaces in threeselected countries: India, Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) and Nicaragua.

The research built up clear definitions andunderstandings of the three core concepts that wereselected to guide the study: Participation, the nature ofthe spaces at the local level where this participationtakes place, and the relationship between participationand power in enabling individual and collectiveempowerment to take place. The focus was especiallyon how participation contributes to processes ofempowerment and the reduction of oppressive powerrelations between men and women, as well as citizensand the state. Power operates at multiple levels shapingpeople’s actions, beliefs, and even their wants andideas; it is ubiquitous and often internalized so thatmany of the boundaries it creates are not perceptible.Empowerment was defined in the research as theprocess of pushing against the boundaries to shapenew fields of possible action, which involves increasingthe capacity of those with less power to engage withthose with more. As empowerment involvesrenegotiating boundaries it is necessary to understandhow participation in decision-making structuressupports women to push the boundaries of possibility.

To analyse the relationship between participation, spacesand empowerment, the research explored the nature ofparticipation in each context and analysed the differentspaces for decision-making at the community level wherewomen come together. It drew on the idea thatempowerment is both a process and an outcome, andthat within development discourse it can serve differentpurposes, notably bringing women in to engage withsociety as it is, or enabling women to challenge the statusquo and social norms that keep them unequal. Work thatfocuses on bringing women in to development forumsconcentrates especially on building women’s confidenceand skills to enable them to participate in new activities,which will benefit them and their families andcommunities. It is a form of empowerment that enableswomen to become part of the existing social, political andeconomic structures, where previously they have beenexcluded. Work that involves challenging and pushing theboundaries, while including many of the same elements,argues for more fundamental change through addressingthe power structures that cause women’s marginalisationand inequality. It involves questioning social norms,building collective voices, taking political action andaddressing the systemic structures that uphold genderinequality. It does this especially through the creation ofnew spaces and collective forms of participation.

1. Introduction to the research

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Section 1 Introduction to the research

Trócaire, partly as a result of three years of researchexploring these issues, wants to move further towardsincluding empowerment that promotes a moretransformational agenda and addresses the structuralcauses of women’s inequality. Identifying strategies andapproaches that promote engagement within theexisting structures and those that question andchallenge those structures and norms will support newprogramming towards a more radical shift in women’sposition in society.

Through listening to women who are participatingwithin decision-making spaces, analysing theirexperiences and the social and political barriers whichhinder their participation and examining the enablersthat support participation, the research maps out thewomen’s different empowerment journeys. These arevery varied. Through this analysis comes a clearerunderstanding of Trócaire’s different approaches to“empowerment,” the role and purpose of promotingparticipation in different spaces for the empowermentprocess for women, and the specificity of theempowerment journeys in each context.

A qualitative methodology was developed for thisresearch, to be used by partners in three selectedcountries where Trócaire worked. The three countrieshave very different political contexts and differenthistories of gender relations, providing very diversespaces at the community level for women to participatein. Trócaire’s partners were essential to carrying outmuch of the fieldwork because of their knowledge ofthe context and their relationships with thecommunities and the women living in them. The corefocus, once the basic mapping and analysis of thecontexts were complete, was to listen to the womenwho were participating in the different selected spaces.This was done to understand the value of participationto them; explore what spaces they accessed mosteasily; analyse how the experience of participationinfluenced their lives at home and in the localcommunity. Women were asked, through participatoryexercises, interviews, diary keeping, photography andaudio, to share and reflect on what participation meantto them in their own lives and the life of theircommunity.

Women’s lives are individual and complex, shaped bytheir contexts but also by their aspirations or their lackof control over life events. The stories that emergedwere varied, positive and negative, exciting and alsoconcerning. Their voices rang out in each of the threecountry reports and the case studies are rich. From thewealth of information given by the women, it has beenpossible to draw out some overarching trends andthemes that have relevance to programming, within andoutside of Trócaire.

The process of the research was dynamic; understandingincreased within programs and staff and partnersdeveloped new insights into their work. The research wasregularly shared within Trócaire, and influenced thinkingaround these issues over the three years. Some of thebenefits of the research can already be seen in the newstrategies for the organisation and the changing work ofsome of the staff and partners in the different countries.

1.2 Background to the research

1.2.1 The need for the research

Under Trócaire’s 2012-2016 Strategic Plan, GenderEquality and Governance & Human Rights form two ofthe five strategic programme areas. Both programsaddress issues of citizen participation as key toempowerment, but they conceive the relationshipbetween these in different ways. For the GenderProgramme, empowerment is the end goal; for theGovernance programme, empowerment is themechanism to achieve participation. In 2012 it wasdecided that there was a need to better understandprogramming on women’s participation, and how thatlinks to empowerment and political engagement acrossthe two programme areas, in order to understand currentstrategies and look for ways to improve programming. Asa result, Trócaire undertook a three year research projecton women’s participation in decision-making spaces inthree selected countries: India, DRC and Nicaragua.

1.2.2 Initial mapping and focus selection

An initial literature mapping that took as its starting pointwomen’s participation was conducted, to understandwhat is already known from other research and to identifythe gaps. The review explored the key concepts ofparticipation, empowerment and space and provided thebasis for building the analytical framework for theresearch.

The literature review identified two overriding issuesaround participation: these were an absence of women’svoices in the literature, and a heavy emphasis onparticipating in formal political structures, especially at thenational level. Far less evidence was available around therole and experience of promoting women’s participationwithin their communities (although since the researchstarted, new materials have emerged from otherorganisations such as Oxfam (2013), on the importanceof working with women at this level and of listening towomen and understanding the complexity of their lives).A 2015 review of literature and learning on these topicsfrom ODI concluded that the process through whichwomen’s participation becomes meaningfully able toinfluence decisions is still a ‘black box,’ with limitedunderstanding of what happens in informal spaces andhow this is of value to women and gender equalityagendas (Domingo, 2015).

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A mapping of Trócaire’s programming was alsoundertaken, which showed that the majority of Trócaire’swork supporting women’s participation happened at thegrassroots level and was about encouraging communitymobilisation through organising and training. The barriersfor women to participate were identified by staff andpartners as rooted in women’s lack of confidence andtheir low skills and knowledge. A core assumption wasthat working on these would enable women to participateand exercise their influence. The causes of women’smarginalisation in political processes at all levels werelocated, to a large extent, within the women themselves.Far less work was being done to address the structuralbarriers to women’s participation rooted in laws, policies,and practices of discrimination.

The research focused on what enabled women toparticipate in informal community decision-makingspaces, using a methodology that prioritised women’sviews and experiences, to understand how participationhappened, how this supported women’s empowerment,and how empowerment enabled better participation.

1.2.3 Objectives of the research

The overall purpose was to bring women’s voices andexperiences to the fore to inform, in a usable and practicalway, the issues to be addressed in programming forwomen’s participation and empowerment. The researchaimed to deepen understanding of participation andempowerment at the community levels, in order toimprove policy and practice related to women’sparticipation in decision-making spaces.

Specifically this research aimed to:

• Map and understand the spaces where womenwere able to participate;

• Explore the barriers and enabling factors forwomen’s participation in public decision-makingspaces at the community and local levels;

• Investigate Trócaire’s strategies to enable womento participate in decision-making spaces, tocapture learning and identify good practice andthe challenges in Trócaire’s programs;

• Explore the effects of participation in thesespaces on individual women’s lives and thecommunities they live in, including understandingbetter how empowering it is and what changes itenables for women.

1.3 Analytical framework

The research was specifically interested in howparticipation contributes to processes of empowermentand the reduction of oppressive power relationsbetween men and women, as well as citizens and thestate. In reviewing the literature, the multiple and often‘fuzzy’ meanings attached to the concepts ofparticipation and empowerment became very apparent,and it was decided that a clear analytical framework wasneeded to guide the research. The analytical frameworkis rooted in three core concepts: participation, spaceand power (Newbury & Wallace, 2014).

Nicaragua2 Local organisations

4 Communities

India2 Local organisations

4 Communities

Democratic Republic of Congo1 Local organisation

2 CommunitiesFigure 1:Research sites

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The discussion on participation drew especially on thework of Gaventa (2004) and the concept of ‘citizenshipparticipation’, an approach that relates directly to Trócaire’srights based approach. At the heart of this type ofparticipation is the desire to create new opportunities forcitizens to gain the power to influence communitydecisions. The goal is “the collective and participatoryengagement of citizens in the determination of the affairsof their community” (Dietz, 1987). Citizen participationcreates opportunities for empowerment; it involvesbringing those excluded into decision-making forums tohave a say in issues that affect their lives, and givesaccess to power for those who are so often marginalised.How this happens is determined by the women and menin each different context, and the experience and natureof citizen participation varies widely between differentcommunities and different kinds of groups.

To situate participation within lived experiences, theresearch draws on Andreas Cornwall’s (2002) seminalwork on ‘spaces’. This theory regards participation as aspatial practice that occurs in bounded yet permeablearenas. Andrea Cornwall’s taxonomy of spaces providesa framework for the research to explore what concreteopportunities there are for participation.

The taxonomy divides spaces into three types:

• Closed spaces: these are hard toenter. The rules ensure that onlyspecific actors can enter the spaces,often because they hold a specificrole or have a particular type ofexperience. Within these spaces decisions aretaken only by the actors allowed access and madebehind closed doors (for example, the law courts,cabinet, boards of trustees).

• Invited spaces: these are spacescreated by agencies external to thecommunity (such as localgovernment or non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs)) in whichpeople are invited to participate; the rules are set bythe agencies that create them. They are oftenconstructed to be open and to include peopleusually excluded from more formal closed spaces.They are designed to give new opportunities, oftento women, to participate in decision-making (e.g.village planning committees, parent teacherassociations, water user groups, women’s groups).

• Organic spaces: these are spacescreated by people themselves, oftento build unity and to challenge powerholders; they are united around acommon cause. These are collective and popularspaces run by people themselves, where the rulesof entry and behaviour are set by them; they can beopen to all or focused on specific groups such as

refugees, the elderly, women or youth groups. Theycan be ad-hoc or established, long or short term(e.g. lobbying groups, protest groups, self-helpgroups addressing urgent service gaps).

It is important to remember that some spaces are fluid;they may start off as organic and later be transformed intoinvited spaces, especially when outside agencies comein to support the work. They may start as invited spacesand later become more organic, as for example whenprojects come to an end. Closed spaces are usually muchmore fixed in nature. This typology helps to map thedifferent spaces in each context and understand whereparticipation can take place, and who has the power tocontrol the space and set the rules for who may or maynot join, speak and be heard.

Recognising that participation does not occur in a vacuumbut as part of the social world where power dynamicsshape the boundaries of action, the analytical frameworkdrew on debates about the ubiquitous and complexnature of power and domination in order to understandthe potential that spaces and women’s participation inthese spaces provide for influencing decision-making andsupporting the transformation in power relations. Fourtypes of power were identified:

• ‘Power over’ is the most commonly discussedform of power and refers to domination, controland repression to varying degrees. This form ofpower is regarded as a negative force that controlsthe oppressed person’s ability to take action.

• ‘Power within’ is the internal capacity that allhumans possess; without this all other types ofpower are not possible. Self-confidence and self-worth are regarded as measures of ‘powerwithin.’

• ‘Power to’ refers to the unique potential of everyperson to be able to take action to influence theirworld and can be considered as the visiblemanifestation of ‘power within.’

• ‘Power with’ refers to the power created throughcollective action, where the whole is greater thanthe sum of the individuals.

The research defined empowerment as a process ratherthan a state of being, and built on Ferguson’s definition ofempowerment as “a political and material process whichincreases individual and group power, self-reliance andstrength” (Ferguson, 2004, p. 1). Empowerment then isa process of pushing against the boundaries of power toshape new fields of possible action; it is also the outcomeof this process which sees shifts from oppressive ‘powerover’ relations to more fluid power relations. Changes canoccur and power can be negotiated through the increasein the three forms of transformational power (powerwithin, power with and power to).

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“One might envision a continuum of power relations onwhich domination forms one end-point. At the oppositeend would be the fluid power relation defined by socialboundaries that are understood by all participants andthat allow the maximum possible space, not only foraction within, but also effective action upon theboundaries themselves.”(Hayward, 1998, p. 21)

Power is understood as complex, negotiable andresponsive to peoples’ actions, although the pervasivenature of ‘power over’ (in relation to both male andfemale relations and relations between the citizen andthe state) is recognised as real and often resistant tochange.

This analytical framework allows for an exploration ofhow far participation promotes women’s empowermentand a move away from male and state domination(power over), to a situation where power can benegotiated by and with women to address theirimmediate and long term needs.

There are different purposes and end points topromoting changes in women’s power, and it isimportant for programming to clarify where the currentapproaches to women’s empowerment within Trócaireand the NGO sector sit. At one end of the spectrum,proponents of empowerment argue that if women canbe brought into participating in existing structures,through making changes to both external and internalconstraints, then they will have the power to influencedecisions that directly affect their lives and interests.This approach aims to improve women’s lives throughintegrating them into existing decision-making and otherstructures, from which they have previously beenexcluded. The purpose is to increase their access toservices, resources and decisions, through building theirconfidence, self-esteem and understanding. At theother end of an empowerment spectrum, it is arguedthat to achieve transformational change, women needto do more than work within existing structures; theyneed to be aware of, understand and challenge thecauses (not only the symptoms) of their inequality andexclusion. Transformational change requires challengingexisting social norms and the structures of inequalitythat disempower them, at every level from thehousehold to the national. It requires confidence andself-esteem, but also an understanding of the structuralcauses of their exclusion and work to address thesethrough collective action. Women’s inequality isunderstood to rest as much in structural barriers as inlack of confidence and self-belief.

While the aims of different empowerment programsmay differ and sit in different places along a continuum(from working within the status quo to pushing theboundaries), the work shares many methods andapproaches. While each end of the spectrum is rootedin very different understandings of empowerment andeach has different overall goals and often uses differentmethodologies, there are nevertheless links betweenthem in practical programming. These concepts providethe conceptual structure for the report, and enable theanalysis of the very different experiences of women inthe three diverse research contexts.

1.4 Methodology

The research used a qualitative methodology that wasdesigned to enable women and the partners to identifythe issues of greatest interest and concern to them, andto speak in their own words about their experiences ofparticipating in different spaces. They were encouragedto explore how this engagement affected both theirability to negotiate with decision makers, and their widerlives. In order to select the partners, communities andwomen to participate, the research process started bymapping Trócaire’s gender and governance programs,focusing on those creating spaces for women to cometogether to improve their position in governanceprocesses or build their awareness and confidence forfuture action through gender focused programs.

The mapping involved a global review of programs,which was then used to select three countries workingon Governance and Gender programs, based on agreedcriteria. The selection of partners within each countrywas done by the relevant staff taking into accountespecially those who were interested in the research,were working on women’s participation in decision-making spaces, and showing a clear commitment toparticipatory principles. Financial, distance and otherpractical constraints were also taken into account.

STAGE 1

STAGE 2

{{

Spaces

Barriers

Performance

Successes

Changes

What participationmeans for women

Figure 2 Research framework

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Once the partners were selected and inducted into theresearch approach, a mapping of the communities theyworked with was repeated at the country level. Througha careful development of criteria undertaken with partnersand running a set of ranking exercises, using thesemultiple criteria, 1-2 communities with clearly differentcharacteristics and contexts were selected in eachcountry. This careful process of sampling continuedthroughout the research process at each level, to ensurethat those involved in the research spanned the diversityof the groups and the women involved in projects.

The partners were chosen as the main researchers,supported by the researcher, local consultants andTrócaire programme staff. Their knowledge of theprograms and of the communities was critical for reachingthe women and gaining their trust, essential for research.In some cases the partners knew the women very well,in others less so because of issues such as distance tocommunities and language barriers; nevertheless, comingfrom Trócaire did enable the research to reach deep intocommunities. The research methodology tried to mitigatethe risks of bias by conducting the research over a longperiod of time, so the women had the chance to developtheir confidence to speak out freely. Also themethodology itself, focused on their voices, by enablingwomen to speak out through audio, video and diaries etc.that they controlled themselves.

A lot of time was initially focused on training the partnersin a range of different Participatory Rural Appraisalmethods such as mapping, ranking, and focus groupdiscussions. Initially it was thought this method wouldprove relatively easy for staff, as they used participatorymethods in their work; in practice, all of the partners wereunfamiliar with PRA and lacked experience in participatoryprinciples and techniques. Trócaire has heavily investedin results based management and one unforeseenconsequence has been prioritisation of quantitativemeasures and a lack of investment in qualitativeparticipatory methods.

In each context the partners chose to use the approachesthat they found most interesting and relevant to thewomen they worked with and to ensure a level ofconsistency an overall research framework guided themethodology.

The research was a continuous process of building uptheir participatory skills as well as of data collection. Thisprocess involved ongoing communication between theresearch in situ and Trócaire in Ireland, with the partnersand between the researcher, the partners, localconsultants and the women. The researcher visited eachcountry two to four times and the research took placeover three years, with 11-14 months spent working ineach of the communities. At each stage, the involvementand agreement of all those participating was essential tomoving the research process on, learning from andanalysing the data, and identifying what issues were of

most importance to the women, to partners and toTrócaire in its programming.

Understanding of the issues and activities changed overthe course of the research; it was action research thatenabled those involved to learn and to change. One of thebiggest changes that partner staff experienced was adeeper understanding of and commitment to genderequality. The majority of the partner organisations werenot gender specialists, and the (mainly male) staff did nothave a background in gender when the research started:This lack of knowledge and expertise was apparent intheir project strategies and implementation. Throughoutthe course of the research, partner staff reported a deeperunderstanding of the needs and barriers that women faceat both a personal and professional level.

“I was listening to one of the women talk about herhusband denying her permission to participate, and howshe would get so upset she would be crying on her bedand her young daughter would comfort her. I realised thatthis is how I was with my wife, I didn’t like her to visit herfamily and I was just like her husband. I knew I had tochange things in my own life.” Partner staff member, Nicaragua

1.4.1 Challenges

There were of course many challenges. Distance, andstaff changes at all levels, affected the work in manyways. The challenge of language was significant, requiringtranslation across two languages in some places and theuse of translators, who are not always easily available ineach context and may not be familiar with developmentconcepts. A lot of the work was recorded and then hadto be transcribed; this ensured accurate reporting, but itwas a very time consuming task and again often involvedtranslation. Inevitably a lot of richness risks being lost intranslation.

While partners and staff know the context andcommunities, and were essential for that knowledge,their own perceptions may have influenced some of thefeedback from the women at times. Staff supporting thepartners in the research were not always familiar withparticipatory methodology, others were not trained ingender issues and some required a lot of support toensure the research stayed on track. Staff are pulled inmany directions by the demands of running complexprograms, and this was additional work for them.

1.5 The three country contexts

Each of the three countries studied in the research arevery different with unique political and cultural histories.In each location different socio-cultural factors shape thewomen’s lives and the opportunities and barriers forparticipating. Two issues emerge as the most dominantforces: the political context and the patriarchal nature ofeach of the countries.

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All of the societies are patriarchal with rigid gendernorms that limit women’s role in their communities tolargely domestic and productive tasks. Women’s rolesand responsibilities are tightly circumscribed and upheldthrough socialisation from birth. They are marginalisedbecause of their inequality, which is widely accepted byindividuals and communities, and in every country aremore likely to be in poverty, illiterate and have fewerassets than men. This continues despite nationallegislation that theoretically provides women with equalrights to property, education and work. Additionallyalthough each country has laws criminalising, at leastsome forms of, violence against women it remains aneveryday reality for many women as demonstrated byhigh levels of femicide, rape and domestic violence.Men often exercise psychological forms of violencearound controlling women’s behaviour and mobility,ensuring that their wives and daughters follow theaccepted rules that govern what it means to be a goodwoman and a good wife.

The opportunities for women to participate are alsoheavily influenced by the wider political context in eachcountry. The concepts of decentralisation and citizenparticipation exist in each of the three countries but inreality only India has comprehensively rolled out adecentralised system of governance. India hasimplemented legislation giving citizens the right to electrepresentatives from the village level right up to thenational level and also enshrined their legal right toparticipate in local government decisions right down tothe village level. While the spaces for interaction withthe state have been established for engagement atevery level the nature of the decisions to be made ateach level are quite limited and focus more on accessto government entitlements for the poor rather thandecision-making as such. Participation in thesedecentralised spaces is accepted and used, thoughusually by men, for ensuring access to basic rights asoutlined by the state; decisions are usually made andhanded down in these forums however. Getting womeninto these governance spaces is hard in remote areas ofIndia, in spite of quotas, and in the places where Trócaireworked, in the Koraput region of the state of Odisha, thiswas a new initiative for women.

Nicaragua has also made a commitment to citizenparticipation through legislation and has initiatedprocesses of decentralisation, bringing decision-makingdown to the local level. Citizens legally have the right toelect municipal authorities and influence municipal plans,however, there is no overall legal framework guidingdecentralisation, meaning that the responsibilities ofnational and local governments are not clearly laid out.Additionally central government edicts have createdvarious community based governance structures whichhave been heavily criticised for being partisan andpromoting the Sandanista party.

Democracy has been blighted in DRC throughauthoritarian rule and ongoing conflict. Decentralisationis planned but the roll out has stalled and no localelections have taken place; instead a political system ofappointed leaders exists in place of electedrepresentatives and no official space exists at the locallevel for citizens to meet with them to influencegovernment plans. This lack of open and availabledecision-making spaces for citizens to engage with localgovernment, on key issues affecting their lives, meansthere are few official spaces for women to participatein; these political realities limit the opportunity forwomen in DRC to participate formally and they alsoaffect the women’s perception of participation.

Overall these country contexts shape what is possiblefor women and men and how they can or cannotengage with the State around decision-making andpolitical participation. The DRC is relatively unstable,even in the Bas Congo region where the research tookplace, with limited decentralisation as yet, and fewpolitical opportunities for women to engage with.Nicaragua has more decentralisation in place but it issomewhat piecemeal and decisions may be handeddown to the local level leaving, limited room forparticipation and negotiation to influence decisions.

Women in the literacy centre in Matadi, DRC, completing apaired ranking activity. Photo: Emma Newbury.

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India provides many more structured and embeddedopportunities for people to link to the state, but in theareas of India where the research took place womenare doubly marginalised and usually excluded from suchspaces by virtue of being tribal/dalit and being women.Citizen –state relations are very different in eachcontext, shaping the opportunities for participation andinfluence.

The situation of the women themselves is also diverse.Access to services is very uneven, with those in ruralareas worse off than those living in or close to towns,as the DRC participants did. However, health care forwomen was limited in all areas and access wasinfringed either by the lack of facilities, or because offees for medical services, which are a major barrier forthe poor. The detailed data needed to understand eachof the sites where the research took place was notavailable, so the very specific local realities on health,education, social welfare provisions were not known;however, women did talk about their lack of access toservices, especially health and most of the communitieslacked access to reliable basic services such as waterand electricity.

Levels of education differed in the contexts greatly. InIndia levels of illiteracy were very high and the womenwere almost all illiterate. In Nicaragua and DRC themajority of women had primary education and some hadsome secondary. In Nicaragua women had theireducation in Spanish and this was their mother tongue,making communication beyond their local context easy.In the other countries language barriers are a challengeto development because of the multiplicity of languageand the need for translation. Women often do not speakor understand the lingua franca.

Religion was a critical factor influencing beliefs andbehaviour in each context. In Nicaragua this wasCatholicism along with evangelicalism; in DRC therewas a mix of religions including both Christians ofdifferent denominations and Muslims, while in India thesample sites were either Hindu or Animist. Religiousleaders and teaching were very important in shapingpeoples’ beliefs about themselves and their place in thesociety.

Poverty is rife in every single community sampled andalthough some of the women’s families may haveowned small plots of land for subsistence overall theirassets were minimal and very unlikely to be in thewomen’s names. Most women in the research werenot employed outside of the home and were reliant ontheir partners’ income. In DRC most of the women inthe research sample worked outside of the home, in avariety of jobs ranging from market seller to civilservant. They were used to being out and engaged inpublic spaces and many of the women had greatereducation than the other two countries. In India 81%worked in their family fields and 19% were engaged inpetty businesses such as tea selling and snacks. InNicaragua 65% of women did not work outside thehome while 45% worked in agriculture either as daylabourers or involved in the informal market sellingvegetables or washing clothes. Most of their time wastaken with domestic responsibilities. These differencesin time-use and employment affected women’sexperience of working outside the home and shapedtheir opportunities to participate in public decisionmaking spaces. Mobility was an issue that differeddramatically between countries, with women in DRChaving the greatest freedom and mobility while womenin Nicaragua had the least freedom, many rarely leavingtheir communities.

Contextual differences shape the possibilities ofwomen’s actions. An educated woman in an urbansetting in DRC is likely to have more choice in her lifethan an illiterate tribal woman in India. However, thewoman in India has legal rights to influence governmentdecisions regarding her communities’ development inways denied in DRC; this in theory gives her morepower over decisions. It is essential in reading thisreport to keep in mind the wide differences in context,in history and in location, the opportunities and barriersin each place, and the very different starting points forwomen joining groups and embarking journeys ofparticipation and empowerment in terms of theireducation, levels of poverty, mobility, and workexperiences.

2. The key researchfindings across thethree countries

Women of the SHG, Kharaguda, India. Photo: SEARCH

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Section 2 The key research findings across the three countries

The detailed findings and case studies for each countryare presented in each of the country reports. Thefindings presented here are a synthesis of the mainthemes and issues that emerged from these detailedcountry case studies. This overview is intended tohighlight the range of experiences and the diversity ofcontexts to draw out the main trends that are emerging,which can support future programming. In every case,the findings are supported by many case studies andexercises that brought out women’s own experiencesand challenges, but these are not included here. Theanalytical framework was used to bring out the keyissues around participation, the spaces for participationand the lack of power that shaped and affectedwomen’s opportunities.

2.1 The Trócaire gender andgovernance programs that shapedwomen’s experiences

The projects run by the Gender and Governance teamsstructured much of the women’s experience ofparticipation at the local level, and so provide anessential part of the overall context.

2.1.1 Governance and human Rightsprogramme and projects

In the Governance and Human Rights Policy andStrategy, it is stated that “participatory, rights bearingforms of citizenship will contribute to more accountableforms of governance, which in turn will be pro-poor.”(Trócaire, 2011 p12). Therefore the governance andhuman rights global programme intends, as one of itsoutcomes, to empower women and men to demandthat states are more participatory, accountable andresponsive. This outcome is mirrored in each of the fourlocal organisations in the research that were deliveringprojects under Trócaire’s governance programme. Theprojects’ objectives all aimed to increase theparticipation of women and men in local governanceprocesses, in order to improve service delivery orpromote more accountable governance. WithinTrócaire’s Governance Policy and Strategy, people must

be empowered before they can demand that statestructures become more participatory, accountable andresponsive. However, neither the Governance Policyand Strategy, nor the project documents, explain ordefine the term empowerment, or address what roleparticipation plays in supporting it. It is not clearlyexplained what changes to women’s empowermentwould actually look like, and this lack of clarity hasimpeded the development of well-defined aims andmethods to actively support women’s empowerment.The focus is often more on the citizen than on the realitythat people enter political spaces as gendered actorswith very different opportunities for accessing andworking in public spaces.

Trócaire’s overall Governance Programme Policy andStrategy does place gender equality as central toachieving their objectives, and emphasises the need toempower women to participate alongside men:

“Work with both men and women to promote changesin attitudes, behaviours and norms in order to achieve amore equitable participation of women in decision-making. Support women to be effective andrepresentative leadership roles in decision-making atcommunity and higher levels.” (2011 p24)

However, not all the projects articulate clearly how orwhy this is needed. Although the projects identifyunequal norms around women’s participation in publiclife as a specific barrier to women’s participation, theyhave not developed specific strategies to address thesenorms. Instead, the projects have tended to focus ondealing with women’s own deficiencies through tacklingissues such as illiteracy and lack of knowledge. Therehas been training on rights for women and work tosupport people, including women, to organise bycreating community-based organisations. Theassumption underpinning these strategies is that ifwomen know their rights and are provided with acollective space to identify problems, they will then beable to claim those rights. However, this assumptionfundamentally ignores the specific barriers, highlightedin the Governance Programme Policy and Strategy,

2. The key researchfindings across thethree countries

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which negatively affect women, and the roles thatunequal power and existing gender norms play inunderpinning the barriers to women’s participation.

2.1.2 Gender equality programme and projects

Trócaire’s Gender Equality Policy and Strategy coreapproach and focuses on the transformation of powerrelations between men and women through addressingthe underlying beliefs, practices and power imbalancesthat drive and sustain inequality. Within this Policy andStrategy, supporting women’s empowerment is one ofthree approaches used to address the unequal powerrelations, along with gender mainstreaming andaddressing gender based violence. Empowerment isregarded to be necessary within the personal, political,social, economic and legal spheres. The outcome of suchempowerment for women is that their vulnerability todisadvantage, exploitation and violence is reduced.However, again the concept of empowerment is notdefined within the Gender Equality Policy and Strategypaper and there is no detail about the specific processesneeded for contributing to women’s empowerment.

The two gender projects in the research are specificallyfocused on addressing gender-based violence (GBV)through supporting women’s empowerment. Theobjective of these projects is to transform relationsbetween men and women, in order to reduce genderinequality and gender-based violence. Following theoverall Gender Equality Programme strategy, the projectsspecifically try to tackle the underlying attitudes andbehaviours that perpetuate gender inequality. Workingwith men, women and community leaders, issues suchas male control, the division of labour within thehousehold, violence and women’s rights are explored asways to change attitudes and behaviours whichperpetuate gender inequality.

These projects have worked with women especially onpersonal empowerment, but beyond rights awarenessthere is no articulation of how their empowerment will besupported in the political, social, economic and legalspheres. The lack of clarity about the process ofempowerment within the Equality Policy and Strategypaper is then reflected in the projects. The projects’theory of change assumes that the project interventionswill empower women and lead them to be able toparticipate in public decision-making spaces, and throughthat participation address issues of violence at a structurallevel. There are no specific strategies beyond rightsawareness to facilitate this process, and it is an untestedassumption that once women are empowered toparticipate in public spaces they will automaticallyprioritise addressing structural impediments to endinggender violence and promoting gender equality.

Both the governance projects and the gender projects failto adequately address the power imbalance betweencitizens and the state, and between women and men, and

the affect these have on constraining participation. Theprojects have limited strategies for supportingmechanisms to ensure that women have the power tohold governments to account, despite this being a keyaim of the governance projects and an assumption in thegender projects. The projects assume that as long aswomen are empowered to participate this will lead toimproved governance, disregarding the fact thatparticipation can be tokenistic and sometimes evendisempowering, especially when the governancesystems themselves are weak. Without strategies tosupport people to redress the power between citizensand the state, women and men, a fundamental ingredientof empowerment, (i.e. power) is missing.

What is striking is that, depending on whether Trócaire isfunding a governance or a gender project in a community,the work done with the women can be very different. Thelack of a coherent understanding of what empowermentmeans and what can be achieved by promotingparticipation means that very different strategies can befollowed to achieve different aims. There is a lack ofconsistency in approach to promoting women’sempowerment across programs, which was reflected inthe challenges of developing a shared approach andframework for the research. Bureaucratic silos do have adirect impact on the work being done on the ground, andthis research experienced this at all levels.

2.2 Spaces for influencing decisionmaking

Women’s participation is shaped by the spaces that existfor them to participate in. These spaces are not neutralbut embedded within the complex power structures ofthe society; they can support participation that leads toempowerment but they can also impede it.

When considering the spaces, Andrea Cornwall’staxonomy of closed, invited and organic spaces helps todefine and explain them. In each context the spacesavailable are different, determined by the political, social,and legal structures in each country and region. Thiscontext then shapes the existence, type and purpose ofspaces, as well as the access that different groups haveto them.

As the diagrams show, the type of spaces that womenmapped out as being important in their lives variedsubstantially. To understand these differences, it isimportant to consider the socio-political issues discussedin section five. In both Nicaragua and India, the majorityof spaces that were explored are invited; they were eithercreated by the government or NGOs. In both countries,decentralised structures exist and there are official invitedspaces for citizens to engage with the government. InDRC, because the plans for decentralization have notbeen rolled out yet, there are no official invited spaces forcitizens to interact with state institutions. Therefore in

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DRC the only invited spaces were created by Trócaire’spartner organisation, and the closed spaces were run bythe local authorities selected to govern the area. Theprevalence of organic spaces needs to be understoodagainst the historical context: during the Mobutu years,corruption and a dysfunctional state meant many basicneeds remained unmet and organic spaces appear to haveemerged to fill the gap, providing alterative solutions formen and women to address issues of concern to them.

This taxonomy provides a useful map of the opportunitiesavailable for women’s participation in different spaces, butin order to understand how w essential to analyse thecomplexities of the power relations that shape women’sparticipation and their journeys of empowerment withinthese different spaces.

2.3 Participation and empowerment:women’s journeys

As a result of the women’s participation in the differentspaces, they have all entered into journeys ofempowerment. An overall schematic model of theprocess of empowerment, as it relates to women’sparticipation, has been developed from the evidencecollected across the three contexts. The different parts ofthe journey are not steps in a linear model; each stageinteracts with the others in the journey, some womenmay skip steps, others may have additional steps, andsome may only reach the first steps. However, this overallmodel helps to track and understand women’sexperiences by highlighting the barriers and enablers towomen’s participation at each stage and how these affecttheir empowerment. Some women face greater barriers,others have more support and are better able to exercise

Figure 3: Different types of spaces identified for study in the research

DRC NICARAGUA INDIA

Invited

Organic

Closed

Women of the SHG, undertaking a social mapping, Kirsal, India. Photo: SEARCH

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the power that they have gained. These different factorsthen intersect with the opportunities and limitations of thespaces to define what is possible through individual andcollective participation.

It is important to recognise that women may be takingrisks when they take steps in the journey, and that therecan be a backlash when they challenge social norms orexisting ways of doing things. This can push somewomen back home and out of the spaces; for others itcan lead to more male control of their activities andpressure from the community to conform to gendernorms.

2.3.1 Overview of the Journey

In the home The first stage, within any of the women’sempowerment journeys, is leaving the house. This maynot be the direct result of Trócaire’s partners’ projectinterventions; a number of women had already takenthis step before they joined the project. However, it isthe critical first step in the journey and may represent amajor change in the women’s lives. Many women areonly active in the domestic realm, where they undertake

productive and reproductive work; for many, movingbeyond this sphere is difficult because of acceptedgender roles and responsibilities. Until they leave thisprivate space, they have little or no involvement inpublic decision-making spaces, and for many womenthis can be a huge step, one that can require courageand real commitment to getting involved beyond thehome.

Within each country context, there are many issues thataffect the likelihood of women being able to take thisfirst step, leave the home and enter into public decision-making spaces. Issues such as the social norms aroundwomen’s mobility, women’s access to education,whether it is acceptable for women to work outside thehousehold, and government policies around promotingwomen’s participation outside the home, are allrelevant. In each country context, these factors playeda role in how easy or difficult it was for women toparticipate. Two of the most critical issues that affectedwomen’s ease of leaving home in order to participate inpublic spaces were:

Figure 4: Women’s participation and empowerment journey

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- The labour context: in DRC, the majority ofwomen in the sample are working outside thehome and receiving financial reimbursement forthis, with many engaged in the formal labourmarket. In Nicaragua, in contrast, most womencontacted are only involved in domestic labourwithin the household, while in India most of thewomen met were providing agricultural labourwithin family fields and not receiving financialcompensation for their work. Within Nicaraguaand India, even if women worked outside thehome in agricultural or domestic labour, they werenot part of the public decision-making spaces intheir community. Patriarchal norms excludedwomen from decision-making spaces in thecommunity; these were male domains whichwomen did not enter,

“We wouldn’t go. They used to say women wouldupset men if they came to the meeting.” Female Participant, Kirsal India

- The availability of spaces: as shown above inDRC, there are countless organic spaces forwomen to participate in, because of the politicalcontext and the differences in opportunity withinan urban environment. All the women were partof at least one of these public spaces, although itis not regarded as acceptable for women to be indecision-making roles regarding community-wideaffairs. In India and Nicaragua, a significantnumber of the spaces studied in the research areformal government forums where women aretraditionally not present and few organic spacesexisted, limiting the opportunities for women toparticipate before Trócaire’s project interventionsstarted.

In DRC, the first step was not such a difficult shiftbecause there were many different organic spaces forwomen to participate in. In India and Nicaragua, takingthis first step was much more dramatic, since mostwomen are not involved in the public space; the gendernorms are that a good woman is modest and workswithin the home to support her husband and children.For many women, this exclusion from public life leftthem with low self-esteem, often experiencing violentintimate relationships and having very little control overthe decisions that affected their lives or communities.

“I didn’t participate, apart from my housework; I didn’tgo out, I didn’t have a relationship with anyone. I didn’thave friendships because I didn’t go out” Maribel de Socorro Soto Lopéz, Los Mangles, Nicaragua.

The women have to take the decision to change thissituation, to choose to participate. The women can onlymake this step themselves and they must havesufficient ‘power within’ and ‘power to’ to make thismove. The decision to do so was generally prompted

by a request to join an invited space by an NGO; mostof the women in India and Nicaragua started theirjourneys after the invitation to join a Trócaire project.Taking the decision is one step for women; a secondis that to successfully leave the house, they mustnegotiate with their partners. This is often an ongoingnegotiation; it can be very fraught and continuethroughout their journeys, and is one reason for somewomen giving up. Permission is not a one-offagreement, and may have to be repeatedly discussed.

Entering the first invited spaceThe women said they generally gained confidence andskills by participating in informal safe spaces, often butnot always invited spaces set up by NGOS that arewomen only. These spaces play a vital role insupporting the women to overcome the barriers thatprevent them from entering more formal public spaces.

Nearly all the women reported gaining confidence fromparticipating within these safe spaces. This confidencecomes from the experience of participating itself, andalso from new knowledge that they gain in thesespaces; this knowledge varied depending on theparticular space created. Women use their new foundknowledge and confidence to express themselveswithout being timid;

“When we formed the village development committee[VDC], it helped us to overcome the fear and shyness.In the VDC meetings, we learnt to speak.” Female Participant, Khatapada, India

For some of the women in DRC and Nicaragua, theirnew knowledge and experience combined to raisetheir awareness of the oppression they experience aswomen, specifically in relation to making decisions inthe home. Many individually started to demandchanges in their homes and relationships, challenginggender expectations.

“Now it’s, maybe, a little less than half of what it wasbefore. But before, God forbid, the power of men, themachismo of men... It’s different now, because mostof us women are organized. The culture of the man hasbeen, ‘I’m the man, and I’m the one who decides’. Butto that I say, ‘Wait a minute, so you’re the one thatdecides, but about what? The cows? The oxen? Thosethings might be your iron (role), but that doesn’t meanyou can treat me like some doll, taking me here, takingme there’. Now I can say no to this. I don’t accept it.” Maria Delfina Oviedo, Campirano, Nicaragua.

In India, although the women felt that their confidenceto express themselves had changed throughparticipation in these invited spaces, the majority of thewomen did not report changes in their criticalawareness of the power of men over their lives. Theknowledge they gained was centred on working withlocal governance systems and accessing their benefits

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and entitlements; this did not spark a criticalconsciousness of how their lack of power (rooted ininequality) limits their choices. The only change in theirhome lives was that they could get permission toparticipate in meetings, but this change had mainlycome about because of the local organisationsinsistence that women were needed to accessentitlements, rather than through their ownawareness.

”Nowadays we have to include women, otherwise nowork can be done. Besides, if women do not come tothe meetings, each man has to tell the woman athome about what happened in the meetings”.Male VDC members, Kirsal, India

Some women may never go beyond the initial safespace, it may provide what they personally need andthey may have no interest in greater levels ofparticipation. Others might get stuck at this stepbecause of a number of barriers, discussed later in thissection. In India, most of the women have remainedwithin the initial informal space because there are toomany barriers preventing them from entering the otherspaces, and the opportunities to participate in otherspaces are limited; the only other spaces open tothem in India were invited formal government spaces,operating at the inter-community level. In the othercontexts, there were a number of different invited andorganic spaces within the community that womencould move into.

Entering other public decision-making spaces Using the confidence they have acquired in the initialinformal spaces, some women then move to activelyparticipate within another space, including formalgovernment created spaces. In Nicaragua and DRC,the experience of participating in a group generallyleads to more participation in other spaces, witharound 80% of those in the groups being involved inother spaces (with the exception of women in theliteracy groups in DRC, where only 1-2 from eachgroup move on to participate elsewhere). In DRC, dueto the lack of formal spaces, the women go on toparticipate in other grassroots organisations, while inNicaragua many move into local level governmentinvited spaces. In India, only 20-30% of women fromeach community go on to participate in other spaces(i.e. those set up by government to access localopinions) and this participation is largely confined tophysical attendance.

“When I started to attend meetings of thesubcommittee DF, I became smart, I have no shame andI’m not afraid anymore. So, through this training, Ibecame more courageous, and I started directing moms(women) and I became President of the gardeners.” Perpetie Muanza, Matadi, DRC

In Nicaragua the women participate in different invitedand organic spaces in the community such ascooperatives, water committees and municipalassemblies. In India, the women go on to participate inthe formal government spaces called the Palli Sabhaand Gram Sabha.

A few women in every one of the communities haveemerged as leaders, by being elected or selected tohold official positions within the various spaces. In India,around 10% of the research sample emerged asleaders. In DRC, due to the project strategy of workingwith already existing leaders, around 65% of theresearch group emerged as leaders. In Nicaragua,around 35% of women emerged as leaders. Throughleadership, they gain greater confidence and experienceof negotiating and debating their ideas with others.These women, while being the exception, have agreater sense of their ‘power within’, and a belief thatthey have the ‘power to’ take action; they go fromchallenging the gender norms that keep women in thehome to speaking out and leading in public spaces, ahuge change for many women.

“Power is a right that I have. Power is to decide, thepower to decide, the power lobby, the power toparticipate. It has a lot to do with participation, I think,because if I do not have the power, that is if I’m notempowered regarding my thoughts, what I want, if I ‘mundecided, I have no power or a sense of myself.”Magdalena Nicolasa Perez Salgado, Los Mangles, Nicaragua

Women emerging as leaders are much more likely tohave had experience in other invited or organic spacesbefore becoming involved in the Trócaire project, andhad therefore already built up some of the experience,knowledge and skills needed to enable entry into newspaces, with an expectation of being included andheard.

Lobbying authorities for basic needsSome of the women have moved from participatingwithin community spaces to actually lobbying the localgovernment for improved access to services for theircommunity. In Nicaragua and India, there are officialgovernment spaces to which citizens are invited so theycan, (at least in theory) influence community plans.

In India, as discussed above, only very small numbersof women are participating in these spaces. This ispartly because the system set up by Trócaire’s partnersto enable women to access decision makers resultedin the demands of the village being collectivelypresented in these spaces. Consequently, manywomen rely on their community representatives toattend and speak for them, rather than participatingthemselves. In contrast, in Nicaragua the approach usedby the Governance partner developed theunderstanding and skills of all the women to enablethem to participate in the formal spaces; consequently,

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most of the women in the research sample in two ofthe villages were actively involved in lobbying thegovernment in these formal spaces. Not all the womenhave actually spoken in these forums, but they believein the importance of collectively attending.

When the women in Nicaragua and India have not beensuccessful in being heard or achieving a good responsein these official invited spaces, groups of women havetried to tackle the unequal power relations betweenthem and the state by directly targeting key localauthorities who have the power to make decisions. InNicaragua, this authority resided in the mayor, whopresides over the Municipal Assembly; in India it is theBloc Office. In DRC, there are no official spaces forcitizens to influence government plans, but through thecreation of an invited space set up by Trócaire’s partnerthe women have been able to directly lobby thegovernment.

For all the women who participated in these spaces, theact of doing so further strengthened their confidencewhen they found they were able to express themselvesin front of officials or large groups. This marked asignificant change from their initial shyness andreticence to speak out, and a real break with theposition and norms expected of them within thosecommunities.

“The other day, I could talk to the Member of theLegislative Assembly. We have the courage now. If wehadn’t got this knowledge, our body would be shakingwhile talking to anybody. We are not educated, wehaven’t learnt the printed letters, but we have got theknowledge.”Female participant, Khandiguda, India

In each of the three countries, the issues that womenhave lobbied for publically have related directly toaccess to services such as water (all countries),electricity (Nicaragua and DRC) and roads (India andNicaragua). Women in each community have had somesuccess with their advocacy. These successes havereinforced the women’s confidence, knowledge, andbelief in their power to influence decisions that directlyaffect their lives.

“There are things that we have not been able toachieve, but we have to have the conviction, the rightto say, ‘I can and I am going to do it.’ Some advocacywe have managed to succeed… hen the lobbying thatI have fought for has been successful, I feel that I havegained power, I feel ‘I can do it,’ I achieved it; it ispossible because I fought for this to be possible.”Maria Delfina Oviedo, Campirano, Nicaragua

These successful actions were always undertaken bythe women collectively, and many noted their strengthin numbers. This solidarity gave them greaterconfidence in turning individual power into collective

power, which they found much harder for decision-makers to ignore.

“If we meet as a group of organised women, if it is anecessity of the group or better of all the region, it ismore positive because unity brings the strength, andthe more united we are, the more they hear us. Whatcould I achieve alone with an institution, an NGO ormayor? Because they won’t listen to one person; theywould say ‘what is this crazy woman doing?’ If theyreceived me and wrote down my idea, they would onlyput it in the bin.” Maribel de Socorro Soto Lopéz, Los Mangles, Nicaragua

Women play different roles during the various lobbyingprocesses they get involved in. A few take on the roleof leadership and instigate new advocacy actions,bringing women together with the decision-makers torequest changes. Others join the process asparticipants, but do not take the initiative; they provideessential support to those who organise and speak out.This ensures that the community, and those they arelobbying, see that this is collective action born out ofgroup discussions and joint selection of which issues topromote.

Mobilising other women This evidence shows that collective action is essentialin order to get a positive response from those in power;it is an integral part of the overall journey to achievingreal change for women. Most of the women who haveundertaken collective action have become aware that‘power with’ others enables them to have greaterleverage in negotiations, so that the greater thenumbers of women participating, the bigger impactthey can have. For most of these women, this meansgiving active support when the leaders organise actions;for the leaders themselves, this involves personallymobilising other women within the community not onlyto join them, but to start their own journeys ofempowerment. This has proved very challenging; manywomen do not find it easy to challenge society’sexpectations of them and the gender norms that shapetheir behaviour, and so do not easily respond torequests for change.

“The only thing that I could not have is the power tohave more women organised. I wish there were morewomen organized. As I have the power to lobby, makechanges; I wish there were more organized women thatcould have that power, which they still do not have, asthey are not organized.” Maria Delfina Oviedo, Campirano, Nicaragua

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In India and Nicaragua, very small numbers of womenhave started mobilising others, usually only the 1-2women per community that have become leaders in thedifferent spaces. In contrast, many more of the womenin DRC were working to mobilise the support of otherwomen. One of the project groups (the women’s sub-committee) was specifically encouraged to raiseawareness in the community about women’s civic andpolitical rights, through mobilising women in organicgrassroots organisations as a core strategy. However,in all of the countries, the women have struggled toengage other women in the community, beyond thosealready involved in the invited spaces created byTrócaire’s partner. Bringing other women on board towork collectively for change is challenging and timeconsuming, and involves many activities fromawareness-raising through to encouraging activeparticipation in a lobbying group. However, the very actof trying to mobilise other women marks real progressin the process of building a collective voice to influence(sometimes resistant) decision-makers.

The experiences confirm the iterative relationshipbetween participation and empowerment; they are in amutually reinforcing relationship. At each stage, the actof participation requires breaking with social norms andexpectations, and leads to gains in the threetransformative types of power (‘power within’, ‘powerto’ and ‘power with’) through building confidence andawareness, the experience of joint working anddecision-making, and the taking of actions. The knowledge and skills gained often lead to furtherparticipation. As women build their experience andbelief in what they can do, taking more control overdecisions that affect their lives, they can become moreempowered. This empowerment can also lead to moreengagement and participation. This is a process thatworks well for some while others stall along the way.

Once women start this journey, they are not necessarilycontinuously compelled onwards and progress is notlinear; there remain many barriers blocking their paths.For example, by gaining more power, some womenhave started to challenge the dominant social normsthat limit their opportunities and voice; this can causesconflict, which leads to a backlash that can push thewomen backwards, sometimes all the way back intothe home.

2.3.2 Case studies of individual women’sjourneys

These steps present a schematic of the possible differentstages in women’s journeys of participation andempowerment. However, these journeys can only beunderstood through the lived experiences of the women.Given the very different contexts, the individualexperiences of women are very diverse; in order todemonstrate these complexities, a number of journeysare presented. The following section uses three casestudies, one from each of the countries, to highlight thebarriers and enablers that characterise their journeys.Each journey is unique, but as it is not possible to presentall of the women’s experiences here, the case studiesselected represent different types of experiences.

Figure 5: Relationship between participation and empowerment

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Césarine is 55 and lives in Kinzau Mvuete. She has twoadult children who no longer live with her, and shelooks after her brother’s son and daughter. She is themost active research participant from DRC, being anactive member or leader of six organic organisationsand two invited spaces.

Césarine reports always having had a desire toparticipate, even when she was at school. Beforebecoming involved in Trócaire’s programme Césarinewas already the leader of a grassroots associationwhere she was thrust into leadership at the suggestionof others, but lacked the confidence to actively lead.Through her participation within the invited spaces setup by Trócaire’s partner she gained the confidence toactively participate within this role.

“The biggest thing that I had to improve in myself wasbeing able to speak in public. I was fearful of speakingin front of… mainly men who had a higher intellectuallevel than me, why? I felt a complex about my inferioreducation as a woman. This improved as I took onresponsibilities in different grassroots organisationsand especially because of the training by CDJP Matadion civil and political rights of women, and women’sleadership etc.”

Césarine’s new confidence allowed her to openlycontest leadership roles. In one organisation shesuccessfully defeated a number of her male colleaguesfor the post of vice-president. However, her electionwas not accepted by all the members but Césarinewas able to overcome this resistance through usingher knowledge on rights.

“During my first meeting on planning, the mencommented that I was the only woman amongst all ofthe administrators. When I’d speak, I’d notice that themen weren’t entirely convinced. They even had a songthat they’d sing about me to show how they felt, but Istood up to them by quoting articles from theConstitution. I’d say to them ‘Refer to article 14, whichsays that there should be no discrimination. I have theright to equal representation. We have the right toequal representation in every institution. Article 23:women’s right to expression. ‘After I said that, therewas silence.”

Césarine feels empowered to also question decisionswithin her extended family. Her new confidence hasbeen critiqued by a number of male family membersbut she has continued to participate and there is nowa level of acceptance of her participation.

“Now when they speak, if I am not satisfied I tellthem, ‘No, it’s not like that, it’s more like this.’ Thenthe cousins began to say, ‘And you, as you havebecome chatty! How did you become so talkative?You were not chatty before!’ And I said ‘Yes I becametalkative! because before you didn’t take us seriously!Now we have opened our eyes. Our eyes are opennow, you will no longer dominate us…’ Becausepeople are not used to seeing women speak up infront of men, they thought that I had become rude.Some said, ‘You are too high-mighty, how is it youcompete with men like that!’ So in our families, somepeople began to think it was negative. But when theysaw what I started to do, sometimes they noticed thatI added some wisdom they themselves did not havebefore. Because of this, they began to understand.”

As part of citizens’ committee Césarine has beeninvolved in lobbying the authorities on a number ofissues, including the water and electricity supply in thecommunity. Césarine is now confident to talk to thosein authority and is no longer afraid.

“They asked me to come because the Minister andMfuka Lunzola were coming to deal with theinsecurity in our area. I was told that ten women wereneeded there. I said that we needed to go, to showthat we women of Kinzau-Mvuete are competent. Iwas afraid, but I had to go and get involved. When wegot there, I was aware of their level of education.When I took the floor, I created the sense that I wasa powerful woman from Kinzau-Mvuete. I spoke infront of the Minister, saying that the situation was notgood enough.”

CASE STUDY 1Césarine, Kinzau Mvuete, DRC

Maman Cesarine – Kinzau Mvuete, DRC. Photo: Eoghan

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María José Hernández Sánchez is 21 years old andlives in the community of La Bahiona, with her 6 yearold daughter and partner. She is a leader in a numberof invited spaces within the community.

Maria has always been interested in participatingwithin different initiatives, so when Trócaire’s partnersstarted working in the community she was the firstperson to join, and motivated other women to beinvolved. As one of her roles within the differentspaces, Maria has been involved in advocating formany different community issues.

“One time, I was involved in giving a letter to thecentre there in Piero Holgun in San Luis, so that theywould come and undertake a water sample becauseit was coming out contaminated. I went with othersfrom the Council to petition them. We have alsolobbied them for electricity. We also lobbied the mayor;we wrote a request for them to come and close a holethat was there, and they helped us to close it.”

Despite these successes, Maria reports three mainbarriers that impede her participation: The issue ofchildcare; criticism from community members; andresistance from her husband. Many people in thecommunity believe that a woman should not beinvolved in community decisions, because it is their jobto look after the household. A woman that isparticipating outside the home is regarded by many asat best lazy (for neglecting her domestic work), or atworst promiscuous (with her participation being aguise to find other men). Maria recalls that, when shewas first elected to a role within one of the communityspaces, it caused controversy in the community.

“I remember when they elected me to the Council,they said, ‘a woman doesn’t know about these things.’He said I had to ask permission from my husband; ‘youneed to take into account that you have a husbandwho is in charge, and if he wants you to join theCouncil, you can do it, and if not, you can’t’. I said tohim ‘I don’t have to ask permission from anybody’. Thisannoyed him, and he fought with the other man.”

Since this time, Maria has continued to face criticismfrom some men and women within the community,and many have questioned her motivation. Thesecritiques have not stopped Maria from participating,and through her experiences she has gained inconfidence and now she believes that she has asmuch right to participate as men.

“In the beginning, I heard many versions of thecritiques. However, now I am calmer because I seewhat they say is not true, so I don’t even hear whatthey say.”

At home, Maria also faces resistance. Maria’s husbandhas always struggled to accept her participation, andat first he flatly refused to let her attend. Over time, hehas given her permission only if she did not neglecther domestic responsibilities. Therefore, Maria mustfind childcare for their daughter whenever there is ameeting, which in itself can be a real barrier.

“I have to find someone who can look after her.Sometimes, when I can, I take her with me, but it isboring and she doesn’t like it. This is something thatsometimes makes me tired of attending meetings.”

Recently her participation has caused renewed issueswithin her relationship with her husband. He isincreasingly exercising violence in the form ofemotional and financial control to stop her fromparticipating.

“Once he told me to decide whether I want to be withhim or be in my meetings, in spaces in which Iparticipate; ‘Choose any of these things, if you staywith me or you stay in those spaces where youparticipate’, but I didn’t say anything… [He] is workingand I am here; I have no money, I have to rely on himto give me money to go to meetings, and he won’tgive me money for this. When I don’t have it, I can’tgo.”

Maria admits to harbouring dreams of running awayfrom the situation, but does not want to abandon allthe work that she has fought for through herparticipation.

“Sometimes I have a desire to leave and go far away,but then I start to think about the pig project and myrepayment; if I leave, it will look bad on me. I thinkabout a lot of things, like the cooperative; I would loseall of it, all they are helping us with. When the timecomes, I don’t know what I will do.”

CASE STUDY 2Maria José Hernández Sánchez, La Bahiona, Nicaragua

María José Hernández Sánchez – La Bahiona, Nicaragua.Photo: APADEIM

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These three case studies provide examples of differentjourneys and show how different experiences alter thisjourney. Each of the case studies presents a specific typeof experience:

• Césarine’s case study exemplifies the journey forthose women who have emerged as leaders.These women feel most able to use their powerto influence decisions that affect their lives. Theyhave often started to challenge their subordinationwithin their families, and also use their voice torepresent the collective concerns of others. Anumber of factors are likely to support womenwho emerge as leaders, including: The length oftime spent participating; support from familymembers; and connections to existing leaders.There is no set formula to identify who willemerge as a leader and literacy or educationswere not always prerequisites.

Panmati Khilo is 55. She has 6 children aged 4-18,and she has been a member of the self-help group(SHG) for 5 years. Panmati only started participatingwhen she joined the invited spaces set up byTrócaire’s partners.

Panmati is able to attend village meetings withoutasking her husband’s permission. She attendswomen’s savings-and-loan group (SHG) regularly, butonly attends community meetings one or twice ayear. Panmati has not become a leader in any of thecommunity spaces, but she does feel that herconfidence has improved as a result of the thingsthat she has learned whilst in the invited spaces.

“Now we have no fear. Now we have learned manythings from the sirs/dids [Partner staff]. Now womenhave come forward. Even if a big officer comes, wehave no fear now. Earlier, we didn’t know anything.When sirs/didis came to us, they gave usknowledge.”

Panmati does not engage in advocacy, because shedoes not go to meetings outside the village; she seesthis as the responsibility of the leaders of the group,and feels that as a member she does not need toconcern herself with such things.

“I attend only village meetings. Our SHG groupmeetings are held in the village. I am only a member.If one is a president or secretary, then one has to goto meetings in Baipariguda and other places.”

If she did want attend to a meeting outside thevillage, then she would have to ask her husbandfor permission, which could be problematic.

“I attend all meetings of the village without askinghim. Outside meetings, I have to ask him. Hegenerally says yes, but sometimes if he is not in agood mood he says no.”

CASE STUDY 3Panmati Khilo, Khatapada, India

Panmati Khilo- Khatapada, India Photo: BKS

• Maria Jose’s case study illustrates the journeyas experienced by many women. Like her, theysupport the development of a collective voice inthe spaces and provide the leaders withnecessary backing. These women could lateremerge as leaders, but some may have nointerest or are constrained by difficult barriers(for example, as Maria is by her husband). Mariais very young, but her age did not emerge as abarrier in Nicaragua. However, in DRC all of thewomen leaders were above 40, and in Indiawomen with young children were absentactively participating in the different invitedspaces, suggesting that age is a barrier in manycontexts.

• The story of Panamati demonstrates the journeyfor women who have joined the initial safe space,and have started to feel able to speak andparticipate in group decisions, but lack the

the barriers vary and are very dependent on theirindividual circumstances. The way they impact onwomen’s ability to participate and address their relativelack of power varies also.

Legitimacy to be in the public space In each of the contexts, because of prevailing patriarchalsystems, women are not traditionally part of publicdecision-making. Women did not hold positions ofauthority, and were not even invited to or included incommunity discussions. Even where women aretraditionally involved in community spaces, as they arein DRC, women do not hold positions of authority. Inboth Nicaragua and India, it was a taboo for women toattend community meetings until the programmestarted; they would face ridicule if they dared to breakthis taboo. In India this was true despite local levelquota legislation, which has been in place for nearly twodecades. Assigned gender roles and concepts of whatit means to be a good wife or woman bind womentightly to the social norms, and can be hard to challenge;this work can take a lot of time and support.

There have been shifts to the social norms for womenin every country, but change is slow and there is stillclear resistance from some men and women. In everyresearch site, women were openly critiqued for tryingto participate, and intimidated with name-calling.

• Critiques were most frequently reported inNicaragua. Women who participated werescorned, by men and women, for being lazy andeven promiscuous because they should be in theirhouses and not ‘gallivanting’ in public. All of theresearch groups reported these critiques, but thewomen who left the community to engage inadvocacy faced the most criticism.

• In India, women entered community meetings atTrócaire’s partners’ insistence on their inclusion,claiming that women are needed if the men wantto access government benefits. Over time, themen came to see that the women could contribute,and women have come to feel that they should bein meetings, but some criticism persists:

“In the VDC meeting, men suppress women bysaying, ‘You keep quiet, you women don’t knowanything’. After this, one would forget to sayanything and even leave the place without sayinga word”. Female participant, Khandiguda, India

• In DRC, women did not face resistance to theirparticipation in general (partly because women areexpected to be in the public domain for work andtrade), but when they were running for or selectedto be leaders in mixed grassroots organisations,they faced derision. Gender norms are so fixedthere are even common sayings and songs usedto demonstrate women’s role is not to lead.

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drive/confidence/time or interest to participate inother spaces or collective actions. They may alsoface a range of personal and community barriers toextending their involvement, which they feelunable to overcome.

These differences are important to highlight, becausedifferent strategies are needed to support women at thevarious stages in their journey. Even if women do gainconfidence, knowledge and self-esteem, this does notnecessarily mean they will want to transform the widerworld around them. Women will play different roleswithin groups, and while it is very important to eradicatethe barriers that prevent women advancing, it is alsoessential to respect the women’s own desires andmotivations. It is also important in supporting women tochallenge their position and status, as well as to promotesocial change to recognise the risks that this can poseto some women. Their attendance, speaking out,lobbying in public or within their own homes, can resultin increased risks of violence or conflict with theirfamilies and communities. Many women spoke aboutthe price they had to pay for stepping beyond theexisting social norms; those working with them need tobe aware and work to mitigate the risks they are takingin participating and travelling this empowermentpathway.

2.4 Barriers and enablers to thejourneys

Women’s journeys are hindered by barriers that stemfrom the unequal power relations that causedisempowerment, rooted in the existing powerdifferences between men and women, as well ascitizens and the state. The women identified a numberof barriers and enablers that hindered or supported themin their individual journeys. These barriers impedewomen’s likelihood of being able to participate, and theirability to perform whilst participating. The women’sparticipation occurs within the spaces identified above.

The nature of the spaces also affects women’sparticipation, and the likelihood of their participationsupporting their empowerment by limiting or supportingtheir ability to influence decisions. These barriers werenot specifically identified by the women, but came froman analysis of their experiences in the different spaces.

2.4.1 Barriers that women perceive hinder theirjourneys

This section looks at the barriers which emerged fromwomen’s description of their experiences. All of thewomen face barriers in their empowerment journeysbecause of unequal power relations between men andwomen. Prevailing gender norms undermine women’spower to a greater or lesser degree, by delegitimisingtheir voices and right to participate. For every woman,

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“There are many men… many say ‘Oh! Tika Makambuwana (drop these ideas), Mwasi AKOTIKALA KAKAMwasi (A woman will remain a woman)’.” Sophie, Kinzau-Mvuete, DRC.

Male control over women’s mobility Within the rural contexts in India and Nicaragua, men heldalmost complete control over women’s mobility. To beable to leave the house, to engage in non-domestic tasks,they must seek permission from their partners, even ifthe activity is in the village. Men have to accept thelegitimacy of women’s participation for women to beallowed to participate. In both contexts, many womenhave managed to participate by gaining their husbandspermission. However, in each site, permission is mutableand may be removed at any point. In Nicaragua, somewomen have just decided to ignore the norms andparticipate even if they were specifically deniedpermission by their husbands.

Within the urban context of DRC, the women have muchgreater control over their mobility, but a number ofwomen still reported tensions between their husbandsdue to their participation.

“He’d like me to leave some of the things. That createstension at home. What I would like to change is his wayof pressing me to drop some of my activities. I’d like himto stop.”Bibi Aicha, Matadi, DRC

Where women are allowed to participate, they areexpected to show results from their participation, i.e. theirparticipation must bring benefits to their families. Thisexpectation is often explicit and a number of the womenin each context report increased tensions between themand their partner because their participation has not ledto anything concrete:

“In the last one year or so my husband is scolding mesaying, ‘you have been going to meetings for all theseyears. What have you got? Not even a house?’ So I havestopped going to meetings now. Earlier I used to go toevery meeting.”Bati Dhandga Majhi, Khandiguda, India

Even if permission is granted, some men have usedeconomic coercion to render that permission void. Thisbarrier is so powerful that it can affect women at everyturn; in each research country there is at least oneexample of a leader who has had to withdraw or limit herparticipation because of resistance from her husband.

Unequal division of labour In every context, social norms dictate that it is theresponsibility of women to undertake all the domesticduties within the household. The internalisation of powerrelations means that women are seen as caregivers andthey largely accept it is part of their duty as women to

undertake all domestic tasks. While they start to challengesome existing norms by participating in the public space,they nevertheless continue to shoulder the burden of carewithin the home.

“We are doing the housework now also. But men haveunderstood now. They have understood that womenwould prepare food for them after coming from themeeting.”Female participant, Khandiguda India

Adding new roles and responsibilities does not changethe existing gender roles in any significant way, andwomen have to juggle their external activities withfulfilling all their roles as carers, cooks, cleaners, waterand firewood collectors etc. Even in Nicaragua, where theprojects have actively tried to address the issue of thedomestic division of labour, and there have been someshift, most women’s days are dominated by their heavydomestic workload.

“Sometimes I feel tired. Sometimes I wish I could have aday to sit and relax with nothing to do, to be calm. A dayto do absolutely nothing because there are times whereI don’t have time for anything. He helps me to a certainpoint, but it is not that he is going to make the maineffort.” Aleyda Pérez Méndez, La Bahiona, Nicaragua

Domestic social norms are so ingrained that, in both Indiaand DRC, the women were unable to contemplate asituation where they were not entirely responsible for allthe domestic and reproductive tasks:

“One has to do everything. You cannot change any work.For women, all these tasks are important and one has todo it.”Bati Dhandga Majhi, Khandiguda India

Across the contexts, all the women reported usingvarious strategies (such as getting up even earlier everyday) to ensure they could participate in the various spacesand still fulfil their domestic duties.

Internalisation of those norms leading to low self-confidenceSocial norms are so rigidly entrenched that before thewomen in the research started participating, theyaccepted the fact that only men should hold leadershipposts and make community decisions. They were unableto question the status-quo, because it did not enter theirconsciousness that it was problematic; it was perceivedas normal and therefore became immutable.

“Most women in this community recognize only aman’s work, only men are the ones to walk in the street,only men should be involved in lobbying, that this is thework of a man, not a woman.” Magdalena Nicolasa Perez Salgado, Los Mangles, Nicaragua.

This inequality, even if poorly understood by the women,manifested itself in the low self-confidence and low self-esteem which all the women reported as an issue. Lowself-confidence came from the internalisation of women’sinferiority and an awareness that women are notsupposed to be vocal in public spaces. It manifests itselfin fears to speak in public and take on leadership roles.Low self-esteem was also expressed by women as a lackof knowledge and general feelings of incompetency.

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Unpaid care The burden of unpaid care work also limits women’sopportunity to participate and become leaders. In bothIndia and Nicaragua, the issue of childcare as an ongoingbarrier emerged. In Nicaragua, the women reported eithernot attending a meeting because they could not findchildcare arrangements, leaving their children alone, orattending meetings with young children (which inevitablyimpedes their participation). In India, women with veryyoung children were almost entirely absent from anydecision-making space, because of their carecommitments.

“We have small children and that is also a problem.Who is going to look after your small children, even ifone wants to leave them with somebody in the village?So we won’t go.”Female participant, Kirsal, India

In DRC, the majority of women were older and nolonger had young children to care for. Childcare was notmentioned as a specific barrier by many women, butthis could be because of the age bias in the sample;women with children were absent from the majority ofthe groups selected.

Women and their children of the Organised Women’s Group Tololar 2, Nicaragua

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“We women in general have an inferiority complex. Ingeneral, we are inferior, and that is the inferiority complex.We women have to suffer that.” Female participant, Kinzau-Mvuete, DRC.

Because these feelings stem from the unequal powerrelations, they do not just affect women at the start of theempowerment journey, but constantly impede theirprogress.

Although the women in the research (and some men)have accepted women’s right to participate and evenlead, there are many norms that remain unchallenged,such as the division of labour and the need for permissionto visit family members. In Nicaragua and India, even ifthe women are actively participating, they must seekpermission to visit their friends or relatives. In Nicaragua,many of the women have resisted their husband’sattempts to control their mobility, while others perceiveit as unequal but have not been able to overcomeit(whereas none of the women in India perceived thiscontrol as unjust or unequal).

“If there is work at home and he says no, then one hasto understand the situation and not insist on going…Besides, where I would have to go alone and otherwomen are not going, he would ask me not to attend.” Tulasa Khara, Kharaguda, India

All of these barriers are underpinned by the division ofgender roles within the societies, and the laws, beliefsand practices that uphold them. They interact with eachother to create the boundaries which shape women’slives and their participation. A women’s place is to lookafter the home and therefore she must do all of thedomestic work and care for the children; her role is notto make decisions about the community, and if she isgoing to participate in meetings then she must do so aswell as fulfilling her domestic and reproductive duties.Until these norms change, women’s empowermentjourneys will always be damaged or impeded with thesame barriers.

2.4.2 Enablers that women perceive supporttheir journeys

A number of general enablers emerged that directlyaddress the barriers, and support women to overcomethem by tackling both the internalisation of norms, aswell as the effects of the norms.

Knowledge of rights Training on rights is a fundamental part of all of theprojects studied in the research, and one of the two mainstrategies used by Trócaire in supporting women’sparticipation. Learning about women’s political and civilrights in DRC and Nicaragua helped the researchparticipants to question the status-quo of maledominance. They knew that they as women had the rightto participate in public life, because it was written in law,empowering them with a legal backing to startchallenging male dominance in public spaces.

In DRC, the training was approached from a governanceperspective; there was an emphasis on the rights laid outin the constitution, topics relating to governancestructures, and advocacy techniques. The citizens’groups received initial training on these topics when theywere set up in 2009, and then attended two days oftraining over the course of the year. For the womenmembers of these spaces, there were two constitutionalrights that particularly resonated and were repeatedlycited as the impetus of their newfound confidence toexpress themselves publicly: The rights to expression,and article 14 which addresses women’s equal rights.

“Thus, men and woman are equal because we aregoverned by the same Constitution and the same laws.” Cemua, Kinzau-Mvuete, DRC.

Feeling that they were equal citizens, with the samerights as men, allowed some of the women to break thecultural taboo of speaking in front of men and starting tolead mixed spaces. However, women that were part ofthe literacy centre (also set up by Trócaire’s partner) alsoreceived training about political and civil rights but manyfound the training had not supported them to challengethe cultural prohibitions on participation and leadership.

In Nicaragua, the women were less likely to namespecific rights that had supported their empowermentjourneys, referring much more generally to knowing theirrights as women. The training was much more frequentin Nicaragua, where the partners accompanied thewomen in meetings every two weeks. In the genderprogramme, the women received support frompsychologists, social workers and lawyers, dramaticallyincreasing their interaction with the partner organisations.The training in the gender programme was more broadlyfocused on women’s rights as a universal concept,explored against a background of violence andoppression. In the governance programme, although

“I took them because the truth is that this is how I feel in theOrganised Women’s group, joyous.” Photo taken by MariaAuxiliadora Miranda Varela, Tololar 2, Nicaragua as part of thephotovoice activity.

“Now after attending several meetings and interactingwith people like you, we understand many things.People like you are teaching us so many things. Thepresident and the secretary also tell us many thingswhich they learn from attending meetings. So now weunderstand.” Sukri Galari, Kharaguda, India

The only specific rights they mentioned were the rightto access schemes such as pensions or work. Theirknowledge about these schemes meant they couldmaterially improve their lives through participating in thespaces set up by Trócaire partners. It is however unclearif these material benefits supported theirempowerment journeys.

“People didn’t know about the benefits. They didn’tunderstand about the Palli Sabha… We had a bad road,now we have a good one. People who didn’t havehouses [have] now got houses, we have got electricity,we have got drinking water. We have got a little ofeverything. Whatever we had given in the Palli Sabha,we have got it... Now we got the right to go to the Blockand even to the collector. We have learnt all this onlyrecently.” Female participant, Khatapada, India

Training is not a magic bullet to women’sempowerment; the women do not simply go to acourse on women’s civic and political rights and startchallenging patriarchal norms. However, training isclearly part of a wider process of discussion, sharingand reflection, and can bring valuable new knowledgethat women find empowering. When this broaderprocess is lacking, the training has not proved to be anenabler to increase women’s power and support theirparticipation. This was seen where most women in theresearch sites in India and in the literacy centres in DRCstayed in their initial groups, not actively promotingsocial changes for women.2

Women-only spaces The other main strategy used across Trócaire’sprograms is organising: In each of the researchcountries, Trócaire’s partners have created new women-only spaces to support women’s participation. The actof collectively organising meant that the women havehad the chance to meet and discuss issues affectingtheir lives. These spaces provided women in everycountry with a ‘safe space’ to build their confidencewithout facing judgement from men.

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specific national legislation regarding civil and politicalrights was covered, issues such as violence andrelations within the home were also part of training.Knowledge of their rights has given many women theconfidence to speak in public meetings:

“I have changed the way that I speak and think a lot,because thankfully now that I have knowledge about myrights, I can speak without fear. This is because I knowmy rights and no one can rob them from me.” Yessica Fabiola Hernandez Narvaez, Tololar 2, Nicaragua

Living free from violence was an issue that resonatedwith many of the women in the programme; the onlylaw that was repeatedly mentioned by all of thecommunities was the violence against women lawpassed in 20121. The women in Nicaragua reportedpositive changes in their familial relationships as aresult of the knowledge and skills they learnt throughbeing involved in Trócaire projects, which was not thecase in the other two contexts. One of the big enablersfor women was learning that they did not have to beruled by their husbands in the home; this knowledgestrengthened the women’s self-esteem and manywere then able to question their husband’s dominancein the home and further negotiate their ability toparticipate in different community spaces.

“I love it when we discuss debate and talk about ourrights as women. This is how we have learnt our rightsas women. It is better now for women; if we see thatour partner is treating us badly, we have the right toleave them, because our life has value. We don’t haveto continue living a life of abuse, we don’t have tocontinue being victims to our husbands, ourneighbours, or anyone anymore, because we arewomen and we have value…I tell my sons that all therights that they have, equally their wives have thesame rights, to take decisions, as they are not therulers of their wives.”Maria Delfina Oviedo, Campirano, Nicaragua

In India, training on women’s rights was not somethingthat the women mentioned as an enabler; the formaltraining about rights was mainly given to the presidentof the invited spaces and sometimes the secretaries,so most people did not directly attend trainings. Whilethe partners did facilitate discussions during meetingswith larger numbers of people about the right toparticipate and the different entitlements that peoplecould access from the local government, the womendid not attribute this knowledge to helping themaddress the taboo of participating in public spaces.However, the women were adamant that they hadgained lots of knowledge from participating in thespaces created by Trócaire’s partners and this hadincreased their confidence, though they rarely referredto specific knowledge that had helped with this.

1 Law No. 779 Law Against Violence Against Women and Reforms tothe law No. 641, Penal Code

2 Women tend to reflect back on the rights that they have beentaught, with a clear bias in governance programs towards civic andpolitical rights and in the gender programs to issues of violence andto challenge the domestic division of labour. There is a need toexplore further what is contained in rights training and to ensure thata more holistic approach is taken to informing women about theircivic, political, cultural, financial, and social rights.

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“When there are only women, you are always goingforward. There are many men…many say ‘A womanwill remain a woman.’ So because of such people, asthe association is female-led, we would like it tocontinue as such.” Participant, Kinzau Mvuete, DRC

In Nicaragua, the women were able to share theirexperiences of violence, domination and control withintheir households and support each other in addressingthese issues.

“Because we didn’t leave our village, we had decided thatour problems only applied to us here, but this is not thecase. Now I know women from other communities, Iknow their stories and they mine. This has been asuccess because, through APADEIM, we have all got toknow each other, and when a woman we knew wasraped in Jiquilillo we got in the truck and went there. Thismeant a lot to me, because that day she was not aloneas we were all there with her.” Female participant, Campirano, Nicaragua

Through exploring these issues within a groupenvironment, the women went from seeing the violencein their lives as an individual issue between them and theirhusbands, to understanding it as a collective issue thatwas rooted in their gender identities.

In DRC, the alliances made between the women of thegroups allowed them to turn to each other for supportwhen trying to counter male resistance to theirparticipation, or address problems they were facing intheir private lives.

“I am president of a CLD [local development committee].Initially, in all CLD, presidents were only men. Thepresident had resigned, I was then unanimouslyappointed to take over for the ensuing term. It was hardat first, not everyone agreed with the decision. However,I am always encouraged by our secretary, mamaCésarine, who always tells me ‘my sister, stand firm!’” Female participant, Kinzau Mvuete, DRC

In India, the women had never had a space to meet aswomen. For most, being able to speak in meetings infront of men was a terrifying prospect. The women onlyself-help groups did provide the women with theopportunity to discuss issues and build confidence tospeak in a safe environment before they entered thelarger community committee meetings. The womenhave been able to raise issues that affect them in theirhome lives, and have been able to rely on the otherwomen in the group to support them in addressingthese. For example, the women collectively mobilisedto ban the production and consumption of alcohol in theirvillages, after the issue was introduced by Trócaire’spartners.

W: “We women of five SHGs sat together at this placeand discussed it.”F: Yes, women of five groups decided. But whose ideawas it initially?”W: “There is one Yasoda from one group. There wasalways problem in her family as her husband used to drinka lot.” F: “Then how did you proceed?”W: “She raised the issue in her group and they contactedus and we decided that all groups should join in this.” F: “Did you discuss it in your group? Did everybody agreeto take up this issue?”W: “Yes.”F: “Why did you agree to this as it was a problem inanother group?”W: “Alcohol is a problem for the entire village.” F: “So you agreed to join?”W: “Yes.”Female participants, Kharaguda, India

The learning and experiences within these ‘safe spaces’have supported women’s empowerment journeys byproviding them with collective strength, through allowingthem to meet, talk, and support each other to address thebarriers impeding their participation.

Self confidenceAn increase in self-confidence was the most reportedchange that women said they had experienced as a resultof their participation within the partner-created spaces,and was the most important enabler for progression alongthe journey. The majority of women attributed thechanges in their increased knowledge and experience toparticipating. The women described the change in self-confidence as enabling them to express themselveswithout fear.

“With low self-esteem, one doesn’t have the security tosay things; you think that everything you say, everythingthat you are going to say, is unnecessary and invalid. Thiswas the elemental change for me. With greater self-esteem, I now have the confidence and the security tosay things without fear, to say things firmly.” Magdalena Nicolasa Perez Salgado, Los Mangles, Nicaragua

Self-confidence not only supported women to negotiatewith their husbands and families for a greater say indecisions, but for many women it also meant they wereable to ignore the critiques that other communitymembers levelled at them. By participating, the womenare breaking the social taboos; therefore they need thisconfidence to continue in the face of criticisms.

“Another thing that has changed is that now I do not caremuch if people do not like me being involved in advocacy.If I feel that I am contributing to something that willcontribute to the community, I will continue to do so ifpeople do not like it.” Yessica Fabiola Hernandez Narvaez, Tololar 2, Nicaragua

“There are women, including some that are in thecooperative that have been influenced by him [thecommunity leader] and his misinformation, and when hecomes they start to fight with me.” Maria José Hernández Sánchez, La Bahiona, Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, women need to be able to exercise controlover their income this has to also be accepted by thecommunity if this is to be an enabler for their participationand empowerment.

Supportive families Having a husband and family that will encourage womento participate is also a clear enabler: The issue ofpermission and the tensions caused by some of thewomen’s participation demonstrates the importance of asupportive partner.

“Before, only he made the decisions; if he told me this isgoing to happen, that is what was done. Not today, as aresult of us both being involved in this programme, he hasrealised that I as a woman [have] the same rights as him”. Maria Delfina Oviedo, Campirano Nicaragua.

Domestic and reproductive responsibilities are a heavyburden that limit women’s participation; a partner orfamily-member that is able to support women with this isa strong asset and encouragement. This is especiallyimportant for those involved in lobbying local authorities,because their advocacy campaigns can take them away

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Independent incomes In both DRC and Nicaragua, it is common for men tocontrol the family assets; women are therefore reliant onmen for economic means. Consequently, transportationcosts become an issue when women have to participateoutside of the community.

“As I have said before, I lived on my husband’s wallet.Depending on what he wanted to do and if he wanted togive it, as long as he had plenty of booze. I will not bemillionaire, but I have the means to have a better life.” Female Participant, Los Mangles, Nicaragua.

If women have no independent income, then theirhusbands must be willing to support their participationfinancially. Having an independent income in Nicaraguaand DRC has enabled women to pay their ownparticipation costs, or allowed them to take familydecisions such as paying education fees. However, anindependent income is not a magic bullet to supportingempowerment; men can feel threatened by womenhaving their own source of income, and this can lead toincreased violence, something seen in one of thecommunities within Nicaragua. The women-ledcooperative in La Bahiona secured a tourism project forincome generation, which caused intense friction in thecommunity. This not only negatively impacted onwomen’s relationships with their partners, but causedfriction between the women of the group, eroding thesolidarity between the women.

“I feel that they are mine, I don’t ask permission if I want to eat a chicken I can, this is how my animals show my empowerment”Photo taken by Jenis Maryuri Ayala Lopéz, Los Mangles, Nicaragua as part of the photovoice activity.

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from the community and their domestic duties. Having apartner who is supportive and will also help with childcareor domestic work enables the women to undertakeadvocacy work more easily. However, this is rare and onlyone or two women in each context reported having apartner who would help with domestic tasks; thesewomen were generally the leaders, but not always. Evenif a husband does not share the burden of domestic work,their acceptance (and even in some casesencouragement) of a women’s participation is a bigenabler. Almost all of the leaders had supportivehusbands and families.

2.4.3 Barriers that are not being addressed incurrent programming

For the enabling factors to lead to sustainable change,they must address the barriers described above. Theenablers that have been promoted by Trócaire’s partnershave tended to support women by addressing thesymptoms rather than the root cause of these barriers.For example, women in each of the countries are stillfacing resistance to their participation from family andcommunity members, and none of the projects have yetsystematically worked to address the wider social normsthat perpetuate this resistance. Only the communitieswithin the gender programme in Nicaragua have tried towork with women’s partners and community leaders onunequal attitudes and behaviours that limit women’sparticipation. Violence is another issue that was clear inevery context (although expressed in different forms3),but again only in Nicaragua and mainly in the genderprogramme was this issue addressed. Without tacklingthe issue of unequal power and its oppressive influenceover men and women’s behaviour, these barriers willcontinue to challenge and undermine women’s journeys.

2.4.4 Characteristics of the spaces that affectparticipation

Within each space, there were different characteristicsthat affect women’s performance within the space. Thesecharacteristics interacted with the barriers identifiedabove to shape the boundaries of possible action for theactor’s within the space. Across the different contexts, anumber of characteristics emerged which were morelikely to promote the possibilities for women’sparticipation to support a process of empowerment.These were:

• Egalitarian

• Frequent

• Autonomy over decisions

Hierarchical vs flat structure All of the spaces have been designed to be run by anexecutive committee; within some of the governmentspaces, this committee is the elected local council of thearea. Those with the most hierarchical structures, wherepower is concentrated in the hands of the Presidents (inthe case of community spaces) or official representatives(in state spaces), have been more restrictive for womenthan spaces with more egalitarian structures.

The research in India found the most extreme exampleof hierarchy affecting women’s participation: In thecitizens’ committee set up by Trócaire’s partners thepresident holds the most power and is largelyunquestioned by the other members:

F: “Has there been any occasion when the presidentproposed something and you disagreed?”W: “No. The president won’t propose anything whichothers wouldn’t agree. We all agree to what the presidentsays.” Female participants, Kharaguda, India

Their power has been further entrenched because onlythe president received training on governance andadvocacy, leaving them as the sole authority in the group.All of the presidents in the research communities weremale, reinforcing the status-quo of men as decision-makers and limiting the spaces for women to contributeor emerge as leaders.

In DRC, the majority of organic and invited spaces are alsovery hierarchical; members that are not part of theexecutive committee do not generally contribute todecisions.

F: “Who is most involved in the decision-making?”Esperance: “In CLGP [citizen’s committee], it’s thePresident. When she makes a decision, she calls in thecommittee, that is, the two Vice Presidents, theSecretary, and the Treasurer, and they set a day for goingto see the authorities. When she makes the decision, shegathers together the committee and a decision is made.In the Legion of Mary, the President, along with thecommittee, makes the decisions. In the parishcommittee, when decisions are made, we bring them tothe parish priest, who has the final say.” Esperance Vewenda, Matadi, DRC

Many of the women have now become leaders in thesespaces, but they have emulated this structure. Thehierarchical nature means that there is little opportunityfor other women to emerge and the development ofskills and experience is limited to only a small numberof women, who are often leaders in three or fourdifferent spaces.

In contrast, in Nicaragua, although the organised women’sgroup was a space created by Trócaire’s partners and isrun by an executive committee, the whole group isactively involved in taking decisions about the action they

3 Violence against women is understood to include physical, sexualand psychological violence as well as the effects of coercion andcontrol exercised by men over women.

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are going to undertake. All the women, not just one ortwo representatives, received the training and built uptheir skills and confidence. Consequently in their case, itis the group and not an individual that decides.

“Maintaining the unity of being organised, because onlyby doing this will [we] achieve what we propose, throughorganisation and unity.” Jenis Maryuri Ayala Lopéz, Los Mangles, Nicaragua

The partner organisation has specifically encouraged anumber of women within the group to take the lead ondifferent initiatives. For example, the women of Tololar 2elected a ‘social control committee’ to monitor theimplementation of a government project to fix the road intheir community. The women in charge of this committeewere different to those on the executive committee ofthe organised women’s group. The more egalitarianstructure provided greater prospects for women to getinvolved, learn, express their needs and contribute todecisions.

Infrequent vs regular The frequency of meetings held as part of each of thespaces also affects the opportunity for participation todeliver transformation of power relations. In India andNicaragua, the official spaces for citizens to influencegovernment planning decisions operate only twice yearly.These meetings are for large numbers of communitiesand can attract hundreds of people. They are soinfrequent that the physical opportunities forparticipation are drastically limited.

This is particularly problematic for women, because ofthe gendered barriers mentioned above; for example,if meetings occur rarely, women may not be able tosecure reliable childcare. Meanwhile, speaking in a verylarge group is far more challenging than speaking in asmaller space.

All the partner created spaces meet very regularly,either monthly or every two weeks, over the period ofa five year programme. This is a significant amount oftime, and the opportunities to learn and grow withinthat time are therefore much greater. Repeatedly thewomen cited the partner-spaces as the places wherethey had learned knowledge, confidence and skills thatcould then be utilised in other spaces. In Nicaragua, theinvited spaces, created by Trócaire’s partners meetevery two weeks; this regularity has supported ongoingtraining, reflection and bonds of solidarity, although itinevitably reduces the scale of the programme.

Tokenistic vs meaningful control over decisions Invited spaces are created by external agents whodecide on the rules of the space, and some of thespaces are composed in a manner that limits theopportunity for participation to lead to meaningfulinfluence over decisions. This is especially true in invitedspaces created by governments, where decisions arebeing externally controlled and can serve to legitimizepolicy agendas from somewhere else and offer minimalopportunity for the women’s participation to influencedecisions. In these instances, the decision-maker’shands are already tied.

Women at a Gram Sabha in Koraput India Photo: BKS

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In DRC, despite the fact that women have lobbied theauthorities, there are no official citizen spaces and all thepower effectively lies in the local authorities’ hands. Thewomen have no power over the budget or influence overcommunity plans.

“We are on good terms [with the authorities]. Forexample, today we spoke for a good while. But we stillhave some difficulties, because now for example, withregards to budget control, we had requested an invitationfor us to meet them, but until now they cannot fixanything.”Female participant, Kinzau Mvuete, DRC

In Nicaragua and India, the women report beingdissatisfied with the official spaces for influencinggovernment planning because their requests are notalways granted.

Laxmi: We gave an application for a road and a tube-wellin the village. We gave it to the Sarpanch4.F: What did they say?Laxmi: He said yes, but then he suppressed it.F: Did you get what you had applied for?Lamxi: No.Laxmi Khara, Kirsal, India

In both the countries, the citizens’ needs are meant toinfluence the local governments’ plans for the year, andresources should be allocated based on the differentdemands. However, in reality the citizens present theirdemands and then the authorities decide what toprioritise. In Los Mangles in Nicaragua, the women recallthat even though they requested agricultural inputs, thebudget was spent on a roofing scheme, which themajority of the community had already benefited from.

“Here we depend on cultivation. You know that the firstharvest failed, there are a lot of people waiting for seed;waiting for someone to provide us with a loan to sow…But when the mayor came, he shut us down and said thatthe government have given strict orders not to supportagricultural production…they are going to spend the172,000 Cordobas on Plan Techo [a zinc roofing scheme],yet here only 10 families that have not received italready!” Urania de los A. Caballero, Los Mangles, Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, the community management structurecreated by the government is the worst example of anexternally controlled space. The Council of Family, is usedby the central government to distribute various poverty-reduction schemes. Decisions about beneficiary selectionare meant to be taken by the community and confirmedby the executive committee, but (in the communitiesstudied) decisions are often actually taken by governmentofficials. Women’s participation within the space thus

ultimately has no effect on the outcome of the decision,which leads to frustration.

“What is the point of forming this committee if we do notfunction? Just for signing things, ‘Look, you have to signthis paper’, not for anything else.”Participant: “They Just to ask us to sign.” Participant: “They just formed it and then nothing else.”Female participants, Tololar 2, Nicargua

However, NGO-created invited spaces can be equally asproblematic. In India, Trócaire’s partners tried toencourage women’s participation in the citizens’committee by telling men that, due to government policy,they need women to obtain entitlements. As a result ofthis, women repeatedly refer to being instructed by themen to undertake advocacy, rather than decidingthemselves that they wanted to address an issue.

“In the Palli Sabha, if we men explain, it doesn’t work. Sowe train our women, telling them what to say in the PalliSabha. We tell them to talk about all these issues we askwomen to present in the Palli Sabha. I tell these things tothe women who are in the committee, plus some otherwomen also. Unless we prepare them beforehand, theywill not be able to say anything in the meeting.”Male leader of the VDC, Kirsal, India

Therefore, in the government spaces, the women maybe just mouthpieces for the men. Given the hierarchicalnature of the space (mentioned above), it is likely that theideas presented might not be what the women want forthe community, but what the men have told them thecommunity needs. This kind of participation creates adisempowering framework where women are merelymen’s agents, giving their time to gain benefits that donot represent their needs or change the balance of power.

Spaces where the women have complete control overthe agenda and decisions have offered the greatest scopefor their participation to support an empowermentprocess. These are most commonly women-only spacescreated by Trócaire’s partners. In Nicaragua, the organisedwomen’s groups (created by Trócaire’s partner as a spacefor women to discuss their needs) decided what issuesthey wanted to address as a group based on what theyneeded.

“We make decisions in the way that as organizedwomen we say, ‘Let’s go and undertake social control(government project monitoring)’, as we know how todo it, we say ‘let’s go’ or ‘go’.”Female participant, Tololar 2, Nicaragua

In India, the self-help groups enabled the women todiscuss issues affecting their lives, and autonomouslydecide what they want to achieve as a group. Theydecided to address alcohol, as discussed above. InDRC, the women’s sub-group decided that they wantedto raise funds for a sewing centre, to provide poor

4 The head of the village council, the Gram Panchayat

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women in the community with marketable skills, anissue that was not directly related to the objectives ofthe space as set out by the partners.

The way that a space is constructed affects the abilityof women to participate, and for that participation tosupport an empowerment process. Spaces do not existin vacuums; they reflect the prevailing power-dynamicsin a community or society. An analysis of the role thatthese power-dynamics play is essential when newspaces are created, otherwise they can risk reinforcingexisting divides and entrenching power in the hands ofthe few, further marginalising others. Thesecharacteristics show that, although it is important to beaware of who created the space, both organic and

invited spaces can equally limit the opportunity forwomen to perform. The question of who decides isreally the central determinant of how women progressand engage: Whether it is due to a rigid hierarchy or alack of autonomy, if the women themselves have littlecontrol over decisions, then the space itself is unlikelyto support the kind of participation that leads toempowerment. Some of the government-invitedspaces, especially the official government-citizenforums, only provide opportunities for tokenisticparticipation precisely because the decisions are not inthe hands of the citizens; therefore, for participation inthese to support empowerment, the rules of the spacemust be fundamentally altered.

3. Exploring theboundaries for action

“She is Paula when she first entered in the organised women’s group her husband would not let her goout anywhere, but now she is studying and she is giving classes.” Photo of Juana Paula Miranda Varelataken by Maria Auxiliadora Miranda Varela, Tololar 2, Nicaragua as part of the photovoice activity.

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The vast inequalities in power which underpin thenumerous barriers to women’s participation determinethe boundaries of action. In some approaches, theempowerment process requires bringing women intoparticipate within the existing social, political andeconomic structures, which previously they have beenexcluded from. In others, the outcome ofempowerment requires a transformation of the powerstructures which are the cause of women’smarginalisation and inequality.

For Trócaire’s programming to support empowermentwhich challenges social norms and the structures thatuphold these, women’s participation and their journeysof empowerment must lead to a shift in the boundariesof power at the levels of the household, communityand wider society between both women and men andcitizens and the state.

These boundaries are tight, and women’s lives are socircumscribed that to push them even marginally isoften difficult. Much of the work done with women canreinforce the status quo. Bringing women into existingstructures or creating new spaces that enable womento participate is often not enough; citizens need powerto push the existing boundaries that prevent them frominfluencing decisions affecting their communities. Acritical consciousness is needed so that women areable to see the boundaries that exist and act to changethose boundaries. Participation within the availablespaces needs to promote the transformation of thepower-dynamics in women’s lives, or it can end upreinforcing existing divides and the authority of menover women and elites over ordinary citizens.

3.1 Including women withoutchallenging power structures

The many barriers discussed above can limit women’sparticipation so that their actions are merely upholdingthe existing imbalance of power within society. Thewomen’s participation can sometimes be tokenistic, orat worst manipulated by external players, and can givelegitimacy to existing inequalities in power, bothbetween citizens and the state, and men and women.

3.1.1 Between Citizens and the State

Women can end up reinforcing the status quo bybecoming cogs in the state’s service delivery machine,if they lack the power to ensure that their voicesinfluence decisions. If the structures themselves aredisempowering (i.e. if they provide no real opportunityfor participation which influences decisions), trainingwomen to engage with these structures withoutquestioning the structures themselves can merely leadto the creation of ‘good citizens’ whose participationlegitimises their own disempowerment. For example,in Nicaragua the water committees have legalrecognition and are encouraged by the governmentbecause they are seen as the best way to managecommunity water systems. However, no funds arespecifically ring-fenced for these organisations. Thestate has in reality abdicated its responsibility to providewater through the guise of participation. Also inNicaragua, the Council of Family is being used by theSandinista government to push party agendas andreinforce party allegiance through service delivery. Thewomen’s participation within this structure reinforcesthe power of the Sandinistas, making them agents forthe political party, reinforcing ideological divides andundertaking tasks such as collecting and distributingParty membership cards.

In DRC, the women have to fight for their voices to beheard in order to have influence over decisions affectingtheir lives. In trying to do this, they must placate thechiefs and have supported the collection of taxes frommarket sellers; although this initiative is the women’sown, it is merely helping the state to fulfil its functionswithout necessarily giving them greater control overhow those resources are spent and potentially erodingtheir independence as citizens.

In India the Gram Sabha (inter village assembly) is sohierarchical that there is almost no chance for femaleand male citizens to speak, let alone meaningfullyengage with their elected representatives and thedecisions affecting their lives. The rules are not beingfollowed and citizens have no real power within thespaces; for example, the women report signing theminutes before meetings begins. Their participationbecomes mere window-dressing, but their presencewithin the space legitimises the system.

3. Exploring theboundaries for action

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Section 3 Exploring the boundaries for action

Many of the government-created spaces themselvesoffer very limited opportunities to push the boundariesbetween citizens and the state. Decisions are entirelytaken by authorities, and the participation of citizenswithin these spaces reinforces the state’s power bylegitimising the process. Since participating withindisempowering structures cannot support the goal ofempowerment, resisting participation within someexisting structures may be necessary to promote new,more workable spaces.

3.1.2 Between Men and Women

Women’s participation can also reinforce male dominancewithin the home and the community. In India, althoughsome women are now participating in the citizen-stateassemblies and placing their demands in front of localrepresentatives, it is the men that send the women,believing that they are more likely to be positively receivedby the state. The women become the agents of men,increasing their work burden but not fundamentally alteringthe patriarchal norms that traditionally disenfranchisewomen from the decision-making spaces.

In Nicaragua, the women report that now women areparticipating, many men have stopped undertakinglobbying. The women perceive this as happening eitherbecause the men know that the women will do it for them,or that if men were to work with women this would be asign they were condoning women’s participation:

“Now it is the women that are more active than the men.I see that most of the men barely involve themselves, theyleave it to the women who are organised… I don’t know ifit is because of their machismo that they think ‘ah! That’swhere those crazy old women are involved’.” Yessica Fabiola Hernandez Narvaez, Tololar 2, Nicaragua

This abdication of responsibilities just places a heavierburden on the women, while the gender norms remainfirmly in place.

In DRC, the women are still undertaking all of thedomestic duties. Even if they are involved in numerousdifferent spaces, they just have to get up early or haveless time to themselves. Their acceptance of theirdomestic duties, and the fact that they don’t evenperceive them as a barrier to their participation, reinforcesthe existing gender division of labour in society.

3.2 Pushing the boundaries

As demonstrated in this report, the boundaries thatdetermine women’s action are so tight that to pushthem even marginally is difficult and may not result instructural change in power relations. Transformationalchange may be unachievable within a three- or evenfive-year programme but the research did find a fewexamples (especially where holistic approaches toworking with women have taken place) where thewomen have been able to take steps to start to pushthe boundaries of possible action making small changesto the power differentials between men and women,and citizens and the state.

3.2.1 Between Citizens and the State

In Nicaragua the Organised women’s group fought fora female-only municipal assembly, since mendominated the general assemblies. Therefore theylobbied the municipal government to institute a women-only Municipal Assembly where they had the space topresent women’s needs. This did not address thefundamental power differences between men andwomen, but aimed to create a safe space where thewomen would be able to change the power relationsbetween themselves and the state. The Women’sAssembly was instituted in Municipal Policy and wasexperienced as a real step forward for the women.However, since the elections in 2012, when a newmayor was elected, the Women’s Assembly has notbeen held, and at the last general Municipal Assemblythe women were told that there will be no moreWomen’s Assemblies. In this example the boundarieswere nudged wider, but just as the women cannegotiate new forms of power, so can the Mayor.Ultimately those with political power disempowered thecitizens, impeding their ability to actually implementchange in the existing structures.

In DRC, the citizens’ committees have managed tocarve out space in which to present their demands tothe local authorities. Given the political context in DRC,this is an important achievement that has slightly alteredthe power dynamic between the women and theauthorities. However, ultimately these spaces willalways be conditional on the goodwill of the local

“As I am part of the Council, they sent me, on behalf of theMayor, the party membership cards and I delivered them”photo taken by Lesbia Katalina Fletes Hernandez, Tololar 2,Nicaragua

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authorities until citizens have legal rights and propermechanisms for participating in decisions that affecttheir lives.

The available opportunities for influencing decisions aregreater in India, therefore the boundaries are muchwider; there are formal spaces for citizens to engagewith the state, but the spaces are very formulaic andparticipation within them is about accessing existingrights, rather than challenging power relations.Additionally, the gendered barriers to women’sparticipation are still very high. This means that thereare limited examples where the women have been ableto push the boundaries between citizen and stateinteractions.

3.2.2 Between Men and Women

In relation to the power that men hold over women,there have been two areas where the women havebeen able to push the boundaries in their individual livesand their position within the community. Some womenhave started to challenge the acceptance of existinggender norms by entering the public spaces and somehave been able to and challenge their positions withinthe home.

Participating in public space In Nicaragua, the women as individuals have pushed theboundaries in their homes. Through a process ofconsciousness-raising within the women-led spacescreated by Trócaire’s partners, the women have cometo question male domination within the household. Tobe able to continue participating, most women have hadto fight to change their position within the householdby claiming greater influence over their own mobility.Many women still face issues of control and dominationfrom their husbands, but they are actively trying tochange these through dialogue and negotiation withtheir partners; the majority of the women in theresearch had been successful in gaining acceptancearound their participation from their partners. Inequalityand violence within their personal relationships are nolonger accepted by these women as the norm, but theymay not be able to change their realities.

In India, the act of participating within the public spacehas altered the power dynamics in the communities;previously it was culturally unacceptable for women toparticipate in any decisions regarding community life.Despite the male control of space the very presence ofwomen in these spaces signifies a shift in gendernorms. In DRC, one to two women in each community

Figure 6: Power imbalance between citizens and the state

·

Figure 7: Power imbalance between men and women

·

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Section 3 Exploring the boundaries for action

have openly contested leadership posts within mixedorganisations. In doing this they have challenged thenorms about women’s roles and although they have facedresistance these women were elected and some haveeven undertaken second terms. The male members oftheir organisations have not only accepted, but come tovalue the leadership these women brought.

In every country, as a result of their participation, manywomen report being perceived differently in thecommunity. They are now known, respected and soughtout by other community members.

“When we have community meetings as the schoolcommittee, the others want me to take on differentpositions. This is something that gives me lots ofconfidence, and I am grateful for the faith that thecommunity places in me.” Ana Amparo, Tololar 2, Nicaragua

Despite these changes, there is still resistant to women’sparticipation, and the women in the research report beingverbally harassed as a result of participating in differentspaces. Despite some individual successes, theunderlying social norms regarding women’s positionwithin the home are still prevalent. Until women’sparticipation is truly accepted by men as a woman’s right,men’s acceptance will always be conditional, often basedon the women’s ability to bring material benefits to thefamily. Given the lack of control that women have toensure that the state acts on their requests, projects arepotentially setting women up to fail. Male acceptance oftheir participation needs to be much more actively tackled.

Changing their position within the family In Nicaragua, as mentioned above, the process ofentering into decision-making spaces required the womento actively fight for greater control over their mobility. Thewomen have also brought the concepts of genderequality into the way they bring up to their children, andhave discussed these ideas with extended familymembers. These discussions are starting to chip away atthe current dominance of the gender norms whichunderpin women’s inequality. They may not be able tochange social norms significantly, but these negotiationscould prove to be an enabling process for the nextgeneration.

In DRC, the women individually have started to push theboundaries of action within their families. They have takenaction to claim greater power over decisions, changingthe power balance between men and women. Althoughit is clear that this has not been accepted by all the familymembers, the women have been able to claim rightswhich would previously have been denied to thembecause of their gender. This individual action has notturned into collective action to change the unequal lawsthat place women as second class citizens, but small in-roads into norms dictating women’s role in society havebeen made.

The issue of reducing alcohol consumption to preventviolence against women is the closest example ofchallenging social norms that women have undertakenin the research sites in India. The women, through thisaction, are challenging accepted male behaviour andpushing to gain greater power, although they wereaddressing the symptoms rather than the cause ofviolence. Violence against women was not presentedas an unacceptable practice, just an undesired one, andthe fundamental belief that women should live freefrom violence was not part of their analysis in thisaction. Until there is an acceptance of this, theunderlying norms and practices which perpetuateviolence will continue, with or without alcohol.

In India and Nicaragua, the women have mostsuccessfully managed to influence decision makerswhen they have utilised numerous different spaces andmethods to achieve their goals. In Nicaragua and India,the women have rarely been able to alter theboundaries between themselves and the state byparticipating within the official spaces for them to‘influence’ development plans. However, throughdemanding meetings and creating temporary spaceswith decision makers, they have successfully managedto influence some decisions and have a numberdevelopment programs implemented.

In all three countries it is when women work withothers from different communities that they are mostable to push the boundaries, demonstrating theimportance of collective action for change to happen.Given the massive power difference between citizensand the state, even in official citizen participationspaces, transformational change will need to be drivenby mass movements. As discussed above, ‘power with’is an essential component for pushing the socialboundaries and building empowerment fortransformational change, yet this is an area where theleast progress has been seen.

From this analysis, it is clear that for participation tosupport women’s empowerment it is essential forwomen to have the opportunity to organise, discussissues affecting their lives, explore holistically conceptsof women’s rights and analyse how power operates intheir lives. Many women can then become aware of theunfair imbalance of power between men and women,and take action to challenge this by entering publicdecision-making spaces and demanding more controlover household decisions. However, even when thishappens, without more work on tackling the underlyingsocial norms that keep women unequal and often‘voiceless’ the women are left to fight the battle alone,which is unlikely to achieve long term structural change.

The programmes studied in the research focus most ofthe energy on addressing women’s personal barriers toparticipation especially by strengthening women’scapacities. They are generally not yet addressing the

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structural barriers that prevent women from participating.While building women’s skills and confidence isimportant, it places the burden on changing structuressolely in women’s hands. The vast number of barriersfound shows the need for long-term programming thatbuilds resilience in women to cope with setbacks andhostility, and that provides a range of spaces for womento enter and participate. It also highlights the real need towork with government officials and men on examiningand addressing the social norms and expectations thatkeep women unequal and excluded from participation indecision-making.

The work is difficult as it involves challenging individual,social and cultural norms that are instilled from birth andsupported through laws, policies, religious beliefs andlocal practices. It is unrealistic to expect massive shiftsin the short term. This might require a shift inprogramming to allow time for change to take place,become embedded and amplified. As the women’sexperiences demonstrate transforming power relationsis a non-linear process that requires a diverse response,‘one size’ does not fit all.

3.3 Recommendations for promotingwomen’s participation andempowerment

1. Empowerment journeys are unique:Empowerment is not a linear process. A ‘one sizefits all’ model is insufficient, instead nuancedstrategies are necessary to account for differentwomen’s needs and programmes should betailored to particular contexts.

2. Realistic expectations: Supporting womentowards more equal power dynamics is a complexprocess. Women’s empowerment journeys do notnecessarily correspond to the lifecycle of aprogramme. It is important to be realistic aboutwhat we can achieve.

3. First steps are important: Leaving the house is animportant first step often overlooked inprogramming. Strategies should considervulnerability and marginalisation and supportwomen at every stage of the empowermentjourney.

4. Clarity through specificity: Agencies supportinggender equality need to clearly operationalise thekey concepts of participation and empowerment.The analytical frameworks related to participationand empowerment need to be applied consistentlyin programming in order to develop well-designedinitiatives to tackle women’s exclusion.

5. Recognise barriers and address underlyingcauses: Addressing underlying gender normswhich perpetuate barriers to women’s participationis essential to enhance women’s equality andinclusion in decision-making spaces. Staff andpartners must have a deep understanding of thesedimensions of gender inequality and the barriers toparticipation faced by women.

6. Encourage communities to join the journey:Resistance to women’s participation can beaddressed through the inclusion of men and widercommunities throughout processes ofempowerment, to shift gender norms.

7. Recognise and prevent tokenistic participation:It is essential to develop a nuanced understandingof the spaces that exist within a context to avoidsupporting participation in disempoweringstructures. Participation must be understood in thecontext through analysis of who created the space,who makes the decisions, who can participate andwho is excluded. In some spaces, the onlyopportunities available for women’s participationare tokenistic. Participation in disempoweringspaces is not effective.

8. Support safe spaces: Women-only spaces areimportant enablers for women’s participation andempowerment. These spaces need to providewomen with opportunities to reflect on their lives,needs, and priorities.

9. Mitigate potential negative consequences.Supporting women to challenge gender norms canput them at risk of violence – psychological as wellas physical- identifying the risks and incorporatingstrategies to mitigate these risks can supportwomen to counteract the negative consequences.

10. Strengthen collective power. Collectivemobilisation has been shown to enhance thelikelihood of women achieving change. Supportingisolated groups is unlikely to result in profoundstructural change. When women work collectivelyacross communities they can more effectively pushthe boundaries of power. Programme designshould incorporate strategies for collectivemobilisation beyond target beneficiaries, potentiallydrawing on existing learning such as the ChangeMaker approach in Oxfam’s We Can Campaign orthe Community activist approach in SASA andexisting movements at the national and regionallevels.

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Bibliography

Hayward, C. (1998). De-Facing Power. Polity, 31 (1), 1-22.

Newbury, E., & Wallace, T. (2014). The Space between:an analytical framework of women’s particiaption .Trócaire.

Repila, J. (2013). Raising Her Voice: The power topersuade. Oxfam.

Trócaire. (2011). Promoting Governance and HumanRights. Trócaire.

Cornwall, A. (2002). Making spaces, changing places:situating participation in development. IDS workingpaper 170.

Dietz, M. (1987). Context is All: Feminism and Theoriesof Citizenship. Daedalus , 1-24.

Domingo, P. e. (2015). Women’s Voice and Leadership:assessing the evidence. ODI.

Ferguson, A. (2004). ‘Can Development CreateEmpowerment and Women’s Liberation? Paperpresented at the 2004 Center for Global JusticeWokshop ‘ Alternatives to Globalization’.

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RESEARCH OVERVIEW PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES · Wrenn, Deirdre Ni Cheallaigh, Farrah Kelly, Finola...

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