improve policies and address issues such as gender inequities in pay and land ownership, as well as gender-based violence (Calvès, 2009). Key outcomes included the establishment of the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (ratified by 170 nations by 1985) and the positioning of women in influential global and regional decision-making forums related to labor and land rights. Other outcomes included the development of the Commission on the Status of Women, which organized the first three World Conferences on Women (Mexico [1975], Copenhagen [1980], and Nairobi [1985]), and the addition of indicators of women’s inclusion and gender inequalities among key development indicators, such as literacy (Zinsser, 1990). However, many feminist researchers and activists criticized the top-down approach in these forums. Instead, they called for a radical transformation of the social, economic, legal, and political power structures that excluded women from planning and decision-making processes and demanded their involvement—with guidance via a gender-analysis framework—on policy formation (McFarland, 1988; Moser, 1989; Rowlands, 1995, 1997; Sen & Grown, 1987). Rowlands (1995, 1997) and Longwe (1995a,b) further spoke of women’s empowerment in terms of women’s ability to exert power over their lives and to resist and challenge those who have power over their lives, both individually and collectively, recognizing women’s capabilities and their entitlement to voice and influence in social and political spaces. Longwe (1995a,b) described the empowerment process as one of liberation, whereby women have to take the power to achieve gender equality.

These approaches and resultant calls for women’s mobilization and collective action, demanding their inclusion in vision setting and decision making, were influenced by empowerment principles defined by Freire (1978), a political philosopher and leader in the field of popular education. Freire described empowerment as the process through which oppressed groups cultivate a critical consciousness of their oppression to make demands (e.g., a recognition of self-determined choice as an option) and then move to action. Freire postulated that agency allows marginalized groups to gain freedom from oppression and to achieve self-determination. In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China. This conference established a progressive and comprehensive blueprint for advancing women’s rights that offered the first guidance rooted in Freire’s concepts of empowerment, to ensure participatory action of civil society and women’s movements for global decision making (UN, 1995). There is some divergence on whether this empowerment is a zero-sum game, as some would say those with power over women have to give that power up for women to have agency over their own lives, where others view empowerment as a process that involves women owning their power over themselves without others having to give up power in the process (Rowlands, 1995).

• 5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic, and public life.
• 5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.

Concerns regarding the lack of clear metrics on empowerment were identified first in the MDGs (Kabeer, 2005), with indicators focused on gender inequalities, such as gender gaps in wages or education, or experiences of gender-based violence, rather than empowerment. Many goals related to existing SDG indicators, particularly those related to empowerment, remain undefined, unmeasured, and untracked (Our World in Data Team, 2023). For example, indicators for monitoring sexual and reproductive health and rights focus on contraceptive access and use but tend not to address women’s reproductive choice and agency (Our World in Data Team, 2023; Raj et al., 2021). Researchers have argued that the world is not on track to achieve existing targets for these indicators, even as a post-2030 agenda for women’s empowerment is being developed. These concerns have given rise to theories and frameworks focused on women’s empowerment across disciplines, to help transform lofty goals into concrete indicators for monitoring progress.

REVIEW OF EXISTING FRAMEWORKS ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

To understand existing guidance offered by frameworks of women’s empowerment for socioeconomic development, the committee reviewed conceptual models and frameworks that were designed explicitly for research or the implementation of programs. The goal of this review was to evaluate how existing frameworks include and define empowerment and its subconstructs.

Our review found a shared recognition of empowerment as a transformative process contributing to self-determination, but there was divergence across frameworks, primarily in terms of purpose and intended audience, level of specificity of constructs, and development outcomes of focus (see Appendix B for a summary of frameworks reviewed). Purposes and anticipated audiences were varied and included global and key national program and policy constituents, organizational and system-change leaders, and researchers working in measurement and evaluation. The frameworks were largely designed to highlight elements of women’s empowerment and

pathways to increase it. In turn, the frameworks illustrated how women’s empowerment may influence women’s health and development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly among low-resourced and socially marginalized populations. Our review did not identify frameworks focused specifically on the role of population dynamics in the conceptualization of connections between women’s empowerment and global socioeconomic development. The remainder of this section outlines key findings regarding

• The conceptualization of empowerment by purpose of the framework (e.g., for theory synthesis or research application);
• Definitions of the components or elements of empowerment; and
• Specific outcomes or achievements related to women’s empowerment.

Conceptualizing Empowerment

Most of the frameworks we reviewed referenced Kabeer’s definition of women’s empowerment, encompassing enabling resources, agency, and achievements as described above (Kabeer, 1999b). Some frameworks also explicitly referenced Freire’s conceptual definitions of critical consciousness, oppression and backlash, and mobilization (Freire, 1978). Across all frameworks, and consistent with the theories of Kabeer and Freire, agency and critical consciousness to achieve self-determination were central to understanding empowerment. All frameworks and their theoretical foundations emphasized the role of women and girls as actors for self-determination, and many recognized the value of participatory action to create change at the levels of the individual and the collective.

Theoretical Frameworks

Frameworks developed for theoretical understanding of women’s empowerment have come from economics, political science, psychology, and public health. Women’s empowerment in the field of development economics has been led by the work of Kabeer, who defined empowerment as “the process by which those who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability” (1999a, p. 437), profiling resources, agency, and achievements as the key components of women’s empowerment. Conversely, Kabeer defined disempowerment as occurring when choice is denied due to past social, economic, or political inequalities (Kabeer, 1999a). Many of the concepts central to this work were originally built on Kabeer’s work in Bangladesh. Choice can be denied due to biased and discriminatory laws or policies, and inequitable social and gender norms (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018; Kabeer, 1999a; van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Hence,

Kabeer recognized the empowerment process as operating at multiple levels (Kabeer, 1999a; Sharaunga et al., 2019). Longwe’s (1995a,b) women’s empowerment framework also describes empowerment as the process or “route” by which women change the practices and laws that discriminate against them. Longwe developed this framework based on her work in Zambia and other parts of Africa, with an eye toward human rights and liberation processes. The framework describes five levels of empowerment: welfare, access, conscientization, mobilization, and control.

Frameworks for Measurement and Evaluation

Researchers have also produced applied frameworks for survey design and program evaluation, particularly in the fields of women’s economic development and poverty alleviation. The framework of Sharaunga et al. (2019), developed to guide research on food security and women’s economic agency, describes empowerment in the Kabeer tradition—as a multidimensional process of increasing individuals’ and groups’ capabilities (e.g., enabling resources and multidimensional agency) to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and economic security outcomes. Other women’s economic empowerment frameworks, also often guided by Kabeer, include indicators of agency as a combination of women’s economic decision-making power, control over income and expenditures, community leadership, control over time allocation, and confidence in handling one’s own financial well-being (Kumari, 2020). Empowerment programming frameworks from the field of economics focus on capacity building with women and accountability with institutions, to ensure structural equality of opportunity and support for women, again connecting agency and resources for empowerment, in the economic sector (Mosedale, 2006; Narayan-Parker, 2002).

The Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in Sexual and Reproductive Health framework applies Kabeer’s framework to reproductive health research (Karp et al., 2020; Wood et al., 2021) but also emphasizes agency in the form of motivational autonomy (e.g., the ability to act on choices; Donald et al., 2020) to support contraceptive choice and use. The framework of Edmeades et al. (2018) focuses on reproductive health and rights. For purposes of measurement and monitoring programs, they define empowerment as power-choice-act: the power to act on choice, freedom of choice, and the ability to voice and act on one’s choice as it relates to family planning and fertility practices (Edmeades et al., 2018). Raj et al.’s EMERGE framework (2024), designed for national survey data and measurement in health and development, merges Kabeer’s and Freire’s theories to elucidate elements of the empowerment process. They view Kabeer’s theory of empowerment as centralizing resources as the mechanism for agency and for prioritizing

policy and asset-focused interventions at scale; and they view Freire as centralizing collective action as the mechanism for agency, predicated on critical consciousness of disempowerment to achieve agency as empowerment, and emphasizing community-based interventions for change. Hence, Raj et al. describe these approaches as both complementary and overlapping, and they apply them in their EMERGE framework to describe the empowerment process as ranging from critical consciousness and choice to agency, with agency defined as a “can, resist, and act” dynamic, to achievement of self-determined goals (Raj et al., 2021, 2024).

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the development of a framework to guide their funding priorities and research and evaluation targets, and to document program and policy impacts for women and development. They define empowerment as an expansion of women’s and girls’ choice and voice through the transformation of gendered power relations, so women and girls have more control or autonomy over their lives and futures (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018; van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Their framework includes feminist theories from anthropology and sociology, as well as from economics and health, inclusive of Kabeer and Freire. The framework also emphasizes the importance of qualitative research for women’s empowerment, given its nonlinear process and context-specific concerns (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018; van Eerdewijk et al., 2017).

Frameworks Focused on Structural Empowerment

Some frameworks present empowerment as a process that exists in a context of pre-existing opportunities and constraints, and that thus requires focus on the preconditions in which women have or do not have the capacity to freely decide or act to improve their position or status (Galiè & Farnworth, 2019). Structures can include patterns of relationships and interactions, institutional and family norms and conventions, and policy environments that reinforce and legitimize social hierarchies, including those that devalue women and girls as compared with men and boys (Mosedale, 2005, 2006). The structures can vary by population and context (Richardson, 2018a,b). These frameworks emphasize policy and social change as well as the opportunities that can come from social movements, and they focus on societal-level structures of accountability.

Conceptualizing Agency

Definitions of agency show some variation across frameworks. Kabeer defines agency as the ability to reflect on and to self-determine one’s goals and then to engage in actions individually and/or collectively to achieve

those goals (Kabeer, 1999b). Donald et al. (2020) built on this definition by synthesizing existing elements of agency, including motivational autonomy (e.g., self-determined choice to achieve one’s goals; Deci & Ryan, 1991), perceptions of control, chosen decision-making authority, efficacy to initiate and engage in actions (e.g., bargaining or negotiation) to achieve goals (McElroy & Horney, 1981), and collective action. Karp et al. also use this approach in their framework (Karp et al., 2020; Moreau et al., 2020). Yount et al. (2023) elaborated a comprehensive, multidimensional definition of women’s generalized agency that more clearly defines and operationalizes some of its understudied dimensions, including intrinsic agency or “power within” (Miedema et al., 2018; Sinharoy et al., 2023; Yount et al., 2020), instrumental agency or “power to” (Seymour et al., 2024; Sinharoy et al., 2023; Yount et al., 2023), and collective agency or “power with” (Delea et al., 2021; Yount et al., 2020, 2023). Others hold similar definitions, with recognition of agency at the levels of the individual to the collective but using different terminology and emphasizing the role of safety and freedom from backlash (e.g., negative response from those who oppose the actor’s agency) as contexts facilitating agency (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018; Raj et al., 2021, 2024; van Eerdewijk et al., 2017).

Resources, whether human, social, or material, are described in some frameworks as part of the empowerment process (Edmeades et al., 2018; Leder, 2016; Yount et al., 2020) because they are seen as potentiating agency. In other frameworks, resources are described as inputs into the empowerment process (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018; van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Regardless of these distinctions, the frameworks recognize empowerment as a transformative process, and definitions of agency across frameworks focus on expansion of choice and ability to use resources and internal strengths toward achievement of self-determined goals. The increasing awareness of an expanded landscape of choice (e.g., critical consciousness) as part of the transformational process of empowerment is sometimes defined as a resource (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018), sometimes described as a precursor to agency (Raj et al., 2021, 2024), and sometimes considered part of agency itself (Donald et al., 2020; Kabeer, 1999b; Yount et al., 2020). Across these perspectives, critical consciousness is often described in terms of increased awareness of restricted choice or opportunity due to gender inequalities and gender-based oppression.

Conceptualizing Achievements (Outcomes) of Empowerment

Achievements are the outcomes or results of agentic actions. Empowerment frameworks were mostly created to target sector-specific outcomes such as health, water and sanitation outcomes, sexual and reproductive health and rights, agriculture, and nutrition (Caruso et al., 2022; Edmeades

et al., 2018; Karp et al., 2020; Sharaunga et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2022a; Sinharoy et al., 2023; Wood et al., 2021). Frameworks that specified achievements or outcomes often prioritized outcomes defined by the researchers and not necessarily outcomes defined by the populations of focus. Kabeer notes that adherence to an empowerment framework requires goals that are determined by those engaged in the process rather than by the sectors providing services or conducting the research; it is important to consider choice and preference of the populations of focus in measurement (Kabeer, 1999b). Outcomes are not characteristics of agentive acts; they are consequences of these acts (Bandura, 2001). It is important for outcomes to be recognized at the individual level, using measures of self-determined goals and self-actualization (Raj et al., 2021, 2024; Yount et al., 2023), and at the collective community, societal, or even global levels, using indicators such as political representation, shared assets, collective efficacy and action, and equitable social and gender norms (Singh et al., 2022a).

Visualization of Empowerment Based on Existing Theories

Based on the critical elements of empowerment that cut across disciplines, the following broad concepts emerge for consideration: resources and the enabling environment; individual and collective agency as a key element of empowerment; and achievement of goals toward self-determination, or in the case of collective agency, toward collective determination and universal human rights. At the national and global scales, equitable human development goals can be considered, in which all people experience security, well-being, dignity, freedom, and social inclusion in a sustainable environment (Figure 2-1).

Measuring Women’s Empowerment

Measurement of women’s empowerment varies across studies. Research to evaluate the validity and reliability of existing measures is lacking (Donald et al., 2020; Richardson, 2018a,b; Samari, 2019; Yount et al., 2018b)

though several new measurement initiatives are expected to yield results in the coming years. Currently, measurement of empowerment often focuses on selected indicators of resources and agency, with much of the published research on LMICs coming from publicly available, multinational surveys such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS; Croft et al., 2023). The DHS includes the following indicators of resources: schooling attainment, having a bank account, and ownership of selected assets (including a house, land, and mobile phone; Croft et al., 2023). The DHS also includes the following indicators of what researchers define as agency: decision making and freedom of movement, as well as attitudinal variables related to the acceptability of partner violence against wives (Basu & Koolwal, 2005; Ewerling et al., 2020; Gram et al., 2019; Jennings et al., 2014; Nahar & Mengo, 2022; Priya et al., 2021; Richardson, 2018b; Upadhyay & Karasek, 2012). These variables generally align with the field’s broad definition of agency as the ability to exert control over one’s life and to pursue self-defined goals (Alkire, 2008; Beyers et al., 2003; Poteat et al., 2018), aligning with Kabeer’s (1999b) prior definition of empowerment.

Views on the measurable aspects of agency can be somewhat divergent by field (Beyers et al., 2003; Steckermeier, 2019; Williams & Merten, 2014). In the fields of psychology and philosophy, agency is often described as having control over one’s circumstances, behavior, and behavioral consequences, aligning with the idea of agency as autonomy. Both social and community psychology include collective agency as operating in a similar vein but with the collective seeking control over their shared circumstances, behavior, and consequences. In economics, agency aligns conceptually with the concept of bargaining power, or the relative ability of parties to exert influence over each other for final decision making (Donald et al., 2020; Gammage et al., 2016). This is similar to the concept of autonomy, though social change is usually not emphasized as an outcome in the autonomy literature. Some scholars have conceptualized interpersonal agency as the relative bargaining power of individuals, such as between members of a household (Basu et al., 2006; Rangel & Thomas, 2019) or between employees and employers (Biasi & Sarsons, 2022), while others have focused on collective bargaining between groups (Folbre, 1995). Perspectives across these fields emphasize clarity on perceptions and goals, and offer insight into both individuals and collectives acting for self-determination. In terms of the role of bargaining in the context of agency, feminist researchers discuss subtle, implicit strategies used by women, such as reliance on kin networks (Friedemann-Sánchez, 2006) as well as covert behaviors employed to achieve goals, with the intention of avoiding potential or anticipated backlash, such as covert contraceptive use (Gibbs & Hatcher, 2020; Heck et al., 2018; Raj et al., 2021, 2024; Scrimshaw, 1978; Yount, 2011). Gram et al. (2019) and Raj et al. (2024) highlight certain key features that can

be considered to measure and understand empowerment: (a) operation at multiple levels, from individual to household to collective to societal; (b) influenced by internal psychological and emotional barriers as well as external interpersonal, community, and systemic barriers; (c) influenced by past experiences, current circumstances, or fears of the future; and (d) can be enacted independently (self-initiated) or externally (via resources, opportunities, or policies).

Understanding agency also requires an understanding of individual or collective preference to act. For some, the preference to act is described as a process of critical consciousness. This process is characterized by an emerging recognition of options in one’s life beyond what has been presented or is expected based on one’s social role, value, or positioning, along with the emerging aspiration or goal to select one of these options toward self-determination (Cadenas et al., 2022; Freire, 1978). This process can occur at the individual or the collective level (e.g., self-help groups, community coalitions, informal social networks; Zimmerman, 2000). For women’s collectives, this process has been operationalized as shared awareness of gender inequalities (Eger et al., 2018) and the development of shared goals or aspirations that can directly address structural sexism (Gurrieri et al., 2022). The process is affected by changes in sociocultural factors and in the resources available to women, which alter the conditions for preference to act. The process of changing conditions can also be applied at the societal level, via women’s autonomous social movements (Htun & Weldon, 2012). For example, #MeToo was a global movement of predominantly women who collectively chose to mobilize against sexual harassment, coercion, and violence aimed at women in the workplace, and to demand retribution from those who perpetrated those crimes (Lee & Murdie, 2021; Vogelstein & Stone, 2021). The consciousness raising and actions in #MeToo predicated change (Lee & Murdie, 2021; Vogelstein & Stone, 2021).

Surveys like the DHS include only a few variables related to preference to act, or choice, as part of understanding agency in empowerment (Basu & Koolwal, 2005; Ewerling et al., 2020; Jennings et al., 2014; Nahar & Mengo, 2022; Upadhyay & Karasek, 2012). Variables in the DHS prioritize preferences regarding fertility goals (e.g., ideal number and sex of children), desire for and timing of pregnancy, and access to and choice of contraceptives. The limited scope of the questions has been used to explain mixed findings regarding associations between “empowerment” indicators (e.g., decision-making agency, freedom of movement) and outcomes (Ewerling et al., 2020; Jennings et al., 2014). For example, a study using DHS data from Sub-Saharan Africa examined associations between women’s empowerment and men’s involvement in women’s antenatal care attendance and found mixed results by country. Authors noted that data on women’s desire for male partner attendance could clarify findings (Jennings et al., 2014).

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