Energy for empowerment: the role of energy in women’s organising and empowerment in urban and peri-urban South Africa

Gender and women empowerment approaches: Interventions through PRIs and CSOs in Northern India

Women play an essential role as producers of food, managers of natural resources and caretakers of household food and nutrition security. Despite this, due to low status and lack of access to resources, women are also among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable to food insecurity. This is a result of inequitable global economic processes that govern food systems, as well as cultural gender norms that shape women's empowerment. In response, place-based initiatives around the world, including 'fair food' initiatives in Australia, are working towards addressing food insecurity through implementing food justice elements. However, how food justice as a concept is being used to address gendered inequalities facing women in Australia is largely unexplored. Using feminist narrative inquiry and semi-structured interviews, this study investigates three women's experiences of empowerment in a local ‘fair food’ initiative in Brisbane. Three key insights emerged, each with broader lessons for creating more equitable food futures. While economic empowerment was the initial driver for women's participation in ‘fair food’ initiatives, their ongoing employment also strengthened women's social capital and social/political empowerment. Finally, working at a ‘fair food’ initiative has expanded women's engagement with food justice, highlighting the positive connection between food justice and gender empowerment that is useful for informing local and global food policy.

The majority of work in FemTech has focused on menstrual tracking apps but menopause apps are growing in popularity potentially offering greater empowerment for peri and post-menopausal women. Surprisingly little is known about women's actual experiences of using these apps, and how they relate to the epistemic injustice often experienced in relation to menopause. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the role menopause apps play in women's experience of empowerment and epistemic injustice. We collected qualitative data, through an online reflection exercise and interviews, from 29 peri and post-menopausal women in the United Kingdom who had experience of using menopause apps. The analysis identified two themes (1) Acquiring more knowledge on menopause and (2) Apps as a tool for communication. Women used apps to find out more about menopause symptoms and to track their personal health data. 'Armed' with evidence, the apps were used as a tool to combat epistemic injustice often experienced by women in healthcare settings. Women felt empowered by using the apps with an increased sense of confidence and knowledge about their own menopause experience. Our findings add to the discussions around empowerment in women's health and the potential role of digital technology in supporting knowledge and decision-making. The findings also shine a light on the current debate around the medicalisation of menopause and suggest that understanding how healthcare professionals engage with menopause apps will be important in developing a more holistic picture of FemTech in healthcare.

This study investigates the lived experiences of Afghan women refugees in Kohat camps in Pakistan. The objective of the study is to understand women’s everyday experiences of discrimination and/or empowerment while living in these camps. Using the thematic analysis (TA), the major themes extracted in this study relate to submissiveness and docility, gender equality and empowerment, and structural inequalities culminating in discrimination. These themes were found to be influential in the lives of Afghan women refugees. Drawing from the discussions surrounding human security, gender security, SDGs 5 (gender equality) and 10 (reduced inequalities), the key findings suggest that women in camps have cocooned lives, and their patriarchal cultural set-up perpetuates gender-spatial segregation which consequently limits women’s opportunities to access and traverse spaces other than their immediate residential location (camps). In addition, they are deprived of seeking education outside the radius of the camps and are not allowed to have mobile phones. Consequently, this limits their worldview. Given these circumstances, it is pertinent to extend facilitation to refugee women in Pakistan within a holistic framework.

Introduction Māori have poorer sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes compared to non-Māori New Zealanders. Patient experiences of SRH services affect how they access, utilise, and benefit from services. Learning about how wāhine Māori (Māori women) experience care related to SRH could inform improvements in how services provide care for wāhine. Aim This study aimed to explore the experiences wāhine have when accessing SRH services. Methods This qualitative study utilised semi-structured interviews to explore the lived experiences of wāhine when accessing sexual healthcare. Inductive thematic analysis was performed to generate themes from the data. Results Twelve wāhine were interviewed. An overarching theme, Te Hāpai i te mana wāhine, te takahi i te mana wāhine (empowering women, disempowering women), was identified. This theme had four subthemes: creating comfortable spaces; manaakitanga (kindness and respect) overcomes barriers to care; patients are people, not numbers; and the importance of mana-enhancing care. The data showed that wāhine benefit from services and care that make them feel comfortable and respected and that dehumanising care can impact further engagement with services. Discussion Wāhine have variable experiences when accessing sexual healthcare, and although some of those experiences showed how positive interactions with healthcare staff facilitated effective care, many experiences demonstrated how dehumanising clinical care can sometimes be. Such care risks perpetuating health inequities indirectly by eroding the trust wāhine have in healthcare services, and directly by limiting the effectiveness of healthcare encounters. Recommendations are made to improve care provided to wāhine in sexual health settings.

The article addresses the question of representation by highlighting some of the methodological challenges I encountered in the field during a study on women's experiences of empowerment and change in northern Pakistan. I trace positionality of a researcher within the wider context of reflexivity, which is important for feminist and other research on gender. I argue that engaging with my own identity during the fieldwork and the writing stages allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of the intimacies of the participants' worlds and assisted me in drawing an intricate interpretation of empowerment from their narratives in their unique social situation. It was also useful to maintain balance between the responsibilities associated with being a researcher and a member of the community returning home. Through the comparison of my life history with the women informants, I hope to present autoethnographic presence as an alternative way of understanding representation. The process defines positionality as a significant component of the trajectory of contemporary feminist experience and its description.

Women carry the primary responsibility for family planning in most parts of the world, and should be afforded the power of decision-making and control over their fertility. This study seeks to gain insight into Iranian women's perception of the meaning of empowerment in family planning. Using a qualitative study, seven focus group discussions and five individual interviews were conducted with 35 married Iranian women of reproductive age. The data were analysed using a conventional content analysis approach, in which themes and categories were explored to reveal women's experiences of empowerment in family planning. The results demonstrated four main categories: control over fertility plan, participative family planning, maintaining health and access to optimal family planning services. They viewed knowledge of family planning and autonomy of decision-making in fertility issues as essential elements for control of their fertility plan. Participants felt more empowered when joint family planning decisions were made with their partners in an atmosphere of agreement. Therefore, family planning policymakers should plan services with new approaches that focus on women's health and empowerment.

Empowerment beyond resistance: Cultural ways of negotiating power relations

s screened (n = 3498) Records excluded (n = 3136) Full-text articles assessed for eligibility (n = 362) Full-text articles excluded, with reasons (n = 257) Studies included in qualitative synthesis (n = 11) Studies included in quantitative synthesis (n = 23) Refined screening of remaining 107 full-text articles; 74 excluded with reasons

Empowerment is a concept of growing importance in cancer care, but little is known about cancer patients' experiences of empowerment during follow-up. To explore this area, a qualitative systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. A total of 2,292 papers were identified and 38 articles selected and included in the review. The thematic synthesis of the papers resulted in seven analytical themes being identified: empowerment as an ongoing process, knowledge is power, having an active role, communication and interaction between patients and health care professionals, support from being in a group, religion and spirituality, and gender. Very few articles explicitly explored the empowerment of cancer patients during follow-up, and the review identified a lack of attention to patients' own understandings of empowerment, a lack of specific focus on empowerment during follow-up, and insufficient attention to collective empowerment, as well as ethnic, social, and gender differences.

In the field of positive youth development programs, "empowerment" is used interchangeably with youth activism, leadership, civic participation and self-efficacy. However, few studies have captured what empowerment means to young people in diverse contexts. This article explores how youth define and experience empowerment in youth-led organizations characterized by social justice goals: high school Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs). Through focus group interviews, fifteen youth leaders of GSAs from different regions of California explain what they think empowerment means and how they became empowered through their involvement with the GSA. Youth describe three inter-related dimensions of empowerment: personal empowerment, relational empowerment, and strategic empowerment through having and using knowledge. When these three dimensions are experienced in combination, GSA leaders have the potential for individual and collective empowerment as agents of social change at school. By understanding these youth's perspectives on the meanings of empowerment, this article clarifies the conceptual arena for future studies of socially marginalized youth and of positive youth development.

Vadose zone conditions are becoming increasingly important in site investigation, including, for instance, (1) the protection of the phreatic zone from surficial contaminants (aquifer vulnerability), (2) surface water–groundwater interaction and biodiversity, (3) water influencing infrastructure development and (4) problem soil behaviour resulting in surface expressions of subsurface volume change. This multidisciplinary paradigm involves a wide range of specialists, but at the root of issues pertaining to the vadose zone is the geological regime in which it occurs. A conceptual model should include all fundamental branches of geology, viz. stratigraphy, mineralogy and petrology, structural geology and physical geology. The importance of a proper geological model is addressed at the hand of selected case studies in urban and peri-urban South Africa. In all instances, the sites were developed with subsequent issues arising due to inadequate vadose zone investigation. To evaluate, geological models were compiled based on available geological and geomorphological information. Physical properties such as detailed soil profiles and grading analyses were inferred to address vertical and spatial material variability. Mineralogy of the various soil horizons was used in conjunction with bulk dry densities to determine porosity and to address pedogenetic and eluviation processes. Hydrological data include percolation tests and Atterberg limits and were inferred onto the model to clarify anticipated hydrological behaviour. The additional geological data improve the understanding of the case studies incorporating ephemeral hillslope wetlands, constructed fill and water addition through leaking pipelines and irrigation, through the addition of knowledge overlooked by hydraulic testing exclusively and accentuate the importance of proper geological understanding prior to hydrological interpretation. The major issues arising, apart from damage to infrastructure and contamination of water resources, are excessive rehabilitation costs, decrease in aesthetic value and general discontent of land owners and proximate residents. The geological model is imperative and should not be excluded or overlooked due to increasingly popular alternative methods of investigation.

The introduction engages urban theories both global and local, including Mumford’s urban scenes, Lefebvre’s structures of enchantment, Weber’s de-enchantment, Certeau’s pedestrian enunciations, Soja’s post-metropolis, Simone’s people as infrastructure, Robinson’s ordinary city, Bremner’s insurgent urbanism, Foster’s socio-nature, Titlestad’s pyscho-geography,Landau‘s tactical cosmopolitan, and Mbembe and Nuttall’s Afropolis to define the edgy city. “Edgy” applies not only to pervasive nervousness about crime, change, and disorder in a divided city, but also to the history of capital speculation on the boundaries of districts, and on property values that have created boom and bust cycles since the gold mining camps of 1886, and which have deepened disparities of wealth and access in present-day urban and peri-urban South Africa.

This article brings to light multiple manifestations of colonial power relations and the interplay of religion and indigenous culture by analysing Sámi women’s experiences of empowerment and subjectivity at the intersections of Firstborn Laestadianism, a conservative religious movement, and Sámi culture. The article argues that if we are to develop culturally sensitive research approaches and practices in social work, it is important to understand and take into account the complexity of religious and ethnic commitments and structures. The article thus deepens the cultural and communal knowledge needed to better inform social work practices and research with indigenous and religious communities.

Pregnant and young mothers' stories often go untold within community social and health service policy, planning and practice. Consequently, there is a significant gap between young women's experiences of motherhood and current service provision. This study was undertaken in response to a paucity of observational and contextually rich research that explores young women's experiences of pregnancy and motherhood, including the role a community service played in scaffolding their motherhood journeys. Fundamental to this study's purpose was the premise that to improve planning and delivery of more appropriate services for this group, we need to listen, consult and consider what life is like for young mothers. The purpose of this paper is to describe the role a community service played in scaffolding young women's experiences as they transitioned to motherhood. Using a narrative approach, this study draws on data collected from contextual observations of 31 informants and 11 in-depth interviews over 7months of fieldwork in 2010 at a community service in the Peel region of Western Australia. The integral role a community service played in the young women's transition to motherhood was analysed thematically and captured in three metaphorical themes, finding a circle of friends, weaving a tapestry and turning the page. The young women's storied experiences of motherhood present a strong argument for radical re-visioning of community and social health policy, practice and service delivery for young mothers. The findings revealed that judgement-free services that foster social and supportive relationships were integral in developing positive motherhood identities. The power of narrative and social learning when working with young mothers suggests that social models of health that foster a relational, narrative approach to practice are fundamental to young mothers finding their own voices and solutions and becoming active agents in re-authoring future narratives of hope, autonomy and agency.