AbstractIn recent years, many feminist theorists have expressed concerns that mediation places women at a disadvantage and leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. Mediators, in addressing these concerns, have developed methods of empowering women, in the mediation process. This author argues that empowerment in mediation disadvantages a woman in the long term because it creates the illusion that she now has an equal voice in the relationship but does not provide skills or supports for her to use in negotiating with her exhusband in the years to come. The author suggests alternative procedural safeguards that acknowledge and utilize the authority of the mediator.