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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Appendix B

Frameworks of Women’s Empowerment

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

TABLE B-1 Frameworks of Women’s Empowerment

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
CARE (2006)	Uses the Narayan-Parker (2002) definition of empowerment: “the expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control, and hold accountable the institutions that affect their lives” (p. xviii) and the Kabeer (1999a) definition.	Carrying out one’s own analyses, making one’s own decisions, and taking one’s own actions.	Choice involves the critical components of agency, resources, and achievements.	Practical consciousness is not normally accessible to agents: it is unconscious. Discursive consciousness is precisely what people can articulate about their own actions and motivations. The discrepancy between practical and discursive consciousness is critical to structures of power within society.	Personal (power within, power to) self- and other-images, skills, capabilities, and resources. Interpersonal (power over, power with) visible (organizations, rules/processes), hidden (agenda-setting), or invisible (meaning-making through socialization and control of information).	Allocative resources are those capabilities that command control over objects, goods, or material life. Authoritative resources refers to control over people. Resources include social relationships through which women negotiate their needs and rights with other social actors, including men. Both agency and structure are mediated through relationships between and	No definition given but references Kabeer (1999a).	Routines, conventions, relationships, and taken-for-granted behavior. Institutions that establish agreed-upon significations (meanings), accepted forms of domination (who has power over what or whom), and agreed criteria for legitimizing the social order. Structure includes culture, legal/judicial, market/economic,

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
						among social actors while, at the same time, forms and patterns of relationships are deeply influenced, frequently in hidden ways, by agency and structure.		political, bureaucratic, and organizational.
Caruso et al. (2022) and Sinharoy et al. (2023) [based on Gates and applied to WASH]	The expansion of choice and strengthening of voice through the transformation of power relations so women and girls have more control over their lives and futures; a process of ongoing change.	Women and girls pursuing goals, expressing voice, and influencing and making decisions free from violence and retribution. Agency includes decision making, leadership, and collective action.		Women and girls identifying and questioning how inequalities in power operate in their lives, and asserting and affirming their sense of self and their entitlement.		The tangible and intangible capital and sources of power that women and girls have, own, or use, individually or collectively, in the exercise of agency. Resources include bodily integrity, critical consciousness, and assets.	The possible outcomes of exercising agency. This framework is focused on water and sanitation outcomes (WASH).	The social arrangements of formal and informal rules and practices that enable and constrain the agency of women and girls, and govern the distribution of resources. Institutional structures include formal laws and policies, norms, and relations.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Donald et al. (2017, 2020)	Empowerment includes components such as resources (preconditions) and achievement (outcomes); agency is the process that binds the two, although wellbeing outcomes and resources can themselves affect agency (based on Kabeer, 1999a).	Agency is the ability to define one’s goals and act on them (based on Kabeer, 1999a). Agency includes goal setting, the ability to achieve goals, and acting on goals, and can be exercised at the individual, household, and community levels. To achieve agency, individuals have to define goals that are in line with their values, to perceive a sense of control and ability, and to act on goals.	Choice and goal setting are precursors to and part of agency. Observed choices may be based on expectations from others or one’s own preferences.			Resources are preconditions to agency, and resources can be internal or external to the household and are affected by informal institutions, formal policies (including laws on inheritance and marriage), and the interaction between them.	Achievement by choice is equivalent to an outcome.	Norms and institutional barriers prevent achievement of goals. Institutions can act as resources in the empowerment process.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Edmeades et al. (2018) [USAID funded]	The ability to assert one’s opinions, desires, and interests in ways that shape discussions and decisions, to make and influence decisions, and to challenge and change individual and community circumstances. The result of the interaction of individual and macro-level or structural factors, such as social norms or the legal environment.	The capacity for purposive action that draws on social and material resources at multiple levels to realize preferences and choices, enhance voice, and increase power and influence. The three components of agency are choice, voice, and power.	The ability of individuals to make and influence decisions that affect their lives.	Individuals can observe and critique cultural and social norms around reproduction and conceptualize alternatives to these.	Power and its exercise by individuals toward and from others plays a central role in constraining or enabling voice and choice. Various forms of power may be more or less relevant at different social levels, but power is decidedly present in all social interactions and plays a critical role in the ability to express voice and choice.	Enabling factors that serve as catalysts for empowerment within the context of specific relationships and societal levels. Resources are multilevel and include the individual, the immediate relational (family and peers), and the distant relational (social institutions and structures).	Outcomes include decision making, leadership, and collective action. This framework is focused on sexual and reproductive health outcomes.	Social and cultural norms, available infrastructure, and social institutions.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Galie & Farnworth (2019)	Empowerment through: a person’s ability to exercise agency (or not) rests to an important extent on processes beyond their personal control. Changes in the empowerment of individuals are mediated by the empowerment status of significant people associated with them (parents, siblings, spouses, children, and other relatives), the way personal characteristics	The ability to define goals, have meaningful choices, and act to achieve desired outcomes (Kabeer, 1999a definition).			Power through: individual power won and lost through changes in the empowerment status of others, or through relating to others.	No definition given but references Kabeer (1999a).	No definition given but references Kabeer (1999a).	No definition given but discusses the influence of social norms that lie outside the immediate control of individuals and can greatly influence individual choice; alongside political and economic constraints.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
	are considered to affect how an individual relates to others, and the judgment by the immediate community within which they live.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2018); Van Eerdewijk et al. (2017)	The expansion of choice and strengthening of voice through the transformation of power relations so women and girls have more control over their lives and futures; a process of ongoing change. Transformation of power relations occurs through women and girls exercising agency and taking action, through the redistribution of resources towards women and girls and through shifting the institutional structures that shape women’s and girls’ choice and voice, and ultimately, their lives and futures.	Capacity of women and girls to take purposeful action and pursue goals, free from the threat of violence or retribution. The model highlights three specific expressions of agency: decision making, leadership, and collective action.	The ability of women and girls to make and influence choices that affect their lives and futures.	Women and girls identifying and questioning how inequality in power operates in their lives and asserting and affirming their sense of self and their entitlements.	Power can enable and constrain action and agency. It operates in visible, invisible, and hidden terms. Expressions of power include power-over, but this includes positive and generative forces; power-to, or a woman’s or girl’s ability to act and shape her life; power-within, or a woman’s or girl’s sense of self-worth, self-knowledge, and self-confidence; and power-with or collaborative power.	Tangible and intangible capital and sources of power that women and girls have, own, or use individually or collectively in the exercise of agency. Resources include women’s and girls’ critical consciousness, bodily integrity (health, safety, and security), and assets (financial and productive assets, knowledge and skills, time, social capital).	Achievement of choice is whether the choice brings the desired outcome. Achievements and outcomes are the results of the empowerment process. This framework is focused on sexual and reproductive health outcomes.	Social arrangements, including both formal and informal rules and practices that shape and influence women’s and girls’ ability to express agency and assert control over resources. Institutional structures include formal laws and policies, norms, and relations.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
	girls and through shifting the institutional structures that shape women’s and girls’ choice and voice, and ultimately, their lives and futures.				and self-confidence; and power-with or collaborative power.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Kabeer (1999a)	Empowerment is the process of agency that links the precondition of resources with the outcomes or achievements.	The ability to define one’s goals and act upon them. Agency is about more than observable action; it also encompasses the meaning, motivation, and purpose that individuals bring to their activity or sense of agency, or what feminists have called the power within. Agency is often operationalized as decision making but it can also take the form of bargaining and negotiation,	Choice involves the critical components of agency, resources, and achievements.	Practical consciousness is not normally accessible to agents: it is unconscious. Discursive consciousness is precisely what people can articulate about their own actions and motivations. The discrepancy between practical and discursive consciousness is critical to structures of power within society.	Personal (power within, to) self- and other-images, skills, capabilities, and resources. Interpersonal (power over, with) visible (organizations, rules/processes), hidden (agenda-setting), or invisible (meaning-making through socialization and control of information).	Allocative resources are those capabilities that command control over objects, goods, or material life. Authoritative resources refer to control over people. Resources include social relationships through which women negotiate their needs and rights with other social actors, including men. Both agency and structure are mediated through relationships	No definition given but references	Routines, conventions, relationships, and taken-for-granted behavior. Institutions that establish agreed-upon significations (meanings), accepted forms of domination (who has power over what or whom), and agreed criteria for legitimizing the social order. Structure includes culture, legal/judicial, market/economic,

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
		deception and manipulation, subversion and resistance, as well as more intangible, cognitive processes of reflection and analysis. It can be exercised by an individual as an individual or by individuals organized as formal or informal groups. Agency refers to the cognitive capacity for critical analysis, reflection, and goal setting; to the practical capacity to achieve these goals; as well as to a subjective				between and among social actors while, at the same time, forms and patterns of relationships are deeply influenced, frequently in hidden ways, by agency and structure.		political, bureaucratic, and organizational.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
		capability that reflects how women view themselves and their place in society, their “sense of agency,” self-worth, and personhood.
Karp et al. (2020) & Wood et al. (2021) [Gates funded; based on The World Bank/Kabeer, 1999a]	Empowerment represents a process for achieving specific development outcomes, as well as a goal in and of itself. Empowerment is defined by a transition from one state to another; this transition involves the enhancement of one’s ability to act on one’s	Agency includes existence of choice and exercise of choice (based on Donald et al., 2017). Existence of choice is a woman’s internal and external motivations for setting her sexual and reproductive goals (motivational	The existence of choice encompasses a variety of skills, particularly women’s self-efficacy and decision making. Once existence of choice has been established, the next step is for a woman to recognize that she can act on her		No definition given but recognize that power relations operate at multiple levels including couple, family, community, and societal levels, and include common discussions of power to, power within, and power with.	Opportunity structures like education, economic conditions, and employment.	Achievement by choice of a self-determined set of sexual and reproductive health outcomes. This framework is focused on sexual and reproductive health outcomes.	Opportunity structures (financial, physical, or educational) are included as part of resources.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
	preferences. Third, empowerment involves individual attributes of agency, or an individual’s ability to set goals and act on them. External resources and opportunity structures play a fundamental role in one’s pursuit of their goals. Power relations are key in achievement of goals. Define sexual and reproductive health empowerment as the progression from the existence of	autonomy). Exercise of choice is encompassing a variety of skills, particularly a woman’s level of confidence in acting on her choices (self-efficacy), her negotiation abilities with her partner (negotiation), and her capacity to make decisions (decision making).	preferences, also described as having “power to” act. When both existence of choice and exercise of choice are met, an individual can achieve their goals.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
	choice through the exercise of choice to the achievement of choice.
Kumari (2020) [based on Kabeer, 1999a]	Uses Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development definition: “women’s economic empowerment is the capacity of women to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in a way that recognizes the value of the contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits	Agency provides access to resources as a necessary precondition of empowerment (based on Kabeer, 1999a).			The ability to influence decisions that affect one’s life, both private and public domains.	Resources are the preconditions for the process of agency. Resources enable but do not guarantee empowerment because of the broader structural and normative environment for women and girls.	The consequences of choices made. This framework is focused on economic outcomes.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
	of growth” (p. 34) and the Kabeer (1999a) definition. Women’s economic empowerment increases propensity of savings, accumulating investment, and financial well-being, and paves the way for inclusive growth. Financial literacy and inclusion are central to women’s economic empowerment.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Longwe (1995a,b)	Describes women’s empowerment as the process by which women achieve increased control over public decision making. The five levels of empowerment in this model are welfare, access, conscientization, mobilization, and control.	Agency is not a term directly used in this framework, but the levels of empowerment described in the model align with agency measures from other frameworks, specifically, (1) access or use of welfare services or opportunities made available for advancement, and (2) mobilization or collective action to create social change to advance women’s equality.		Uses the word conscientization to describe the awareness building among women that women’s equality should be their right.		Welfare is defined as the foundation for empowerment, inclusive of the resources that are made available for women to advance their social position toward equality.	The highest level of empowerment in this framework is control, which would be the stage at which women have control over their lives and equal positioning in society.	Focus of this framework is on women’s equality in government structures that hold decision-making authority over society.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Mosedale (2005)	Describes women’s empowerment as the process through which women redefine and extend their possibilities to be and do what they choose and prefer, individually and collectively, in spheres where they have experienced restriction relative to men; these efforts can be for the woman herself or for women collectively regardless of whether she personally benefits. Disempowerment is the process by which women’s gendered identities restrict their ability to be and do in both public spheres and in their households.	Agency in this framework focuses on women’s actions, individually or as a collective, to achieve their goals. Actions are based on women’s decision making to act upon their goals toward achievement.	Choice is the extension of possibilities to be and do in the empowerment process.	This term is not used, but the framework references the participatory process in which women can reflect on their circumstances, identify constraints to their opportunities, and develop awareness of their own interests and options to secure those interests.	Power-over: who has control over women in ways that maintain constraints; power-with: who allies with women to support their empowerment; power-within: inner strength or self-efficacy to act.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Raj et al. (2024)	A process of transformation for oppressed individuals and groups or collectives to move from critical consciousness to agency to self-determined goal achievement for self-actualization.	To act on choice and achieve self-determined goals. Agency can result in backlash or retaliation from those with power over a person, and resistance from that person in the face of backlash. Agency includes the elements of can-act-resist.	Critical consciousness and choice: gain consciousness of choice, for a choice beyond what a person is allowed or expected based on social characteristics such as gender. Aspire and goal set one’s choice, creating a plan for how to achieve it. Feel conviction in that choice, as there may be many barriers or costs to working toward the choice; it is reasonable to vacillate in the decision. Acting on the choice is easier when a person has confidence in the choice they are making.		Power is defined as authority, with emphasis being on “power structures” that have control over vulnerable or marginalized groups.	Comprised of the social and capital assets and opportunities that can meet people’s needs. These exist in the context in which empowerment can occur. Resources are an input into the empowerment process.	People self-determine goals and gain self-determination and self-actualization.	Discussed as part of resources that may be used for empowerment or may be held back from use by power structures that seek to impede empowerment.
Sharaunga et al. (2019) [based on Kabeer, 1999a]	The multidimensional process of increasing the capacities/	No definition given but references Kabeer (1999a).	Making choices and transforming choices into desired			No definition given but references Kabeer (1999a).	No definition given but references Kabeer (1999a).	Structures include levels of government and the

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
	capabilities (e.g., resources and agency) of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Empowerment includes economic empowerment, social empowerment, empowerment in agriculture, and civic forms of empowerment.	Agency is depicted as the process that links the resources (preconditions) to achievements (empowerment outcomes) (Kabeer, 1999a).	outcomes are distinct pieces of empowerment. No further definition of choice provided.				Outcomes include more income, increased well-being, reduced vulnerability, improved food security, self-reliance. This framework is focused on sustainable livelihood outcomes.	private sector as well as processes like laws, policies, culture, and institutions.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Yount et al. (2017) & Singh et al. (2022a) [based on Kabeer, 1999a]	Follows Kabeer (1999a) definition: resources, agency, achievements. Both an individual process and a collective process of facilitating transformation of gender norms and relations through building collective agency, shared ownership of resources (collective resources), and developmental outcomes (collective achievements).	Agency is the capacity to articulate preferences and to make decisions.				Resources include human resources such as schooling attainment, skill development, and self-efficacy; social resources such as participation in organizations, access to peer networks, and access to role models outside the family; and economic resources or material assets such as earnings, property, and land.	Includes both individual- and community-level or collective achievements. Some examples include perception and awareness about gender norms and roles, community ownership of assets, political representation, women’s nutrition, and children’s nutrition.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
Yount et al. (2020)	Inspired by Freire’s conscientization approach, or the process by which oppressed people move from dominated consciousness to understanding and action; and Kabeer’s (1999a) resources, agency, achievements framework. Multidimensional process by which women claim enabling resources to enhance their agency.	Ability to make strategic choices under constraints; multidimensional construct involving internal states of being, ways of acting, and ways of being and acting with others. Intrinsic agency (power within): critical awareness of one’s rights and aspirations, confidence in one’s capabilities, and motivation to pursue self-defined goals. Instrumental agency: creative power to exercise one’s capabilities; make one’s own strategic choices; pursue	Defines “choice” as strategic and exercised under constraints.	Defined as critical awareness of one’s rights (part of intrinsic agency).	Rejects notions of power as exerting control over others in favor of experiencing power within to overcome internalized oppression, creative power to achieve one’s aspirations, the collective power with others to advance change.	Human resources may entail schooling or skills-based training; economic resources may entail work, income, property, or other assets; social resources may entail nonfamilial networks of solidarity and support.	Emphasizes women’s broader well-being.	Includes prevailing gender norms and institutional constraints; process of empowerment differs for diverse women.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
		one’s rights, goals, and aspirations; and affect desired change in one’s life (e.g., express views opposing prevailing norms/power relations, influence household decisions, move freely in public spaces historically reserved for men). Collective agency: engagement in or leadership of groups/networks with shared goals, confidence

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.

Framework	Empowerment	Agency	Choice	Critical Consciousness	Power	Resources	Achievements/Outcomes	Institutional Structures
		in group’s/network’s ability to act on shared goals, and influential joint actions in pursuit of shared goals; agency can arise in all spheres of life and across the life course.

SOURCE: Created by the committee based on existing frameworks.

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix B: Frameworks of Women's Empowerment." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Women's Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27955.