The Economic Empowerment of Disempowered Women: Mediating Competing Definitions of Reality

This paper analyzes the concept of women’s economic empowerment in the field of community economic development in Israel. The concept, which has become widespread among a broad range of agents—including state officials, politicians, donors, professionals, project coordinators, group moderators, and “disempowered” women—suggests a key scenario by implying modes of action for correctly and successfully living in a culture. On the basis of longitudinal ethnographic research I show that “women’s empowerment” is a concept in constant flux that is used simultaneously in radical, liberal, and conservative circles across the political, social-activist, professional, and consumerist social fields. I argue that its ambivalent character renders it a lingua franca, allowing it to mediate competing definitions of reality, to facilitate unusual social encounters between people with different socioeconomic standpoints, and to promote diverse forms of social action on a scale between resistance and adaptation.