Seeing empowerment as relational: lessons from women participating in development projects in Cambodia

ABSTRACT

This article explores how empowerment is understood locally, and whether low-income Cambodian women perceive they are empowered in that sense. Interview data from 120 participants in empowerment projects show that although some forms of empowerment as defined by donor agencies occur, such as through increases in knowledge, self-confidence, and decision-making ability, empowerment is rarely understood by the women themselves in individual terms. Instead, empowerment is seen as contributing to and gaining respect from others, including partners, family and community members, yet not always in line with traditional gender roles. Recommendations are provided to acknowledge these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society – NGOs
• Gender and diversity
• Labour and livelihoods – Poverty reduction
• Aid – Development policies
• East Asia

Introduction

Much has been written about empowerment in different contexts, about ways to measure it and what constitutes empowerment. Yet we find that there is a gap between conceptual discussions of empowerment that tend to take a more critical examination of the concept and its merits (empowerment as “buzzword”, as Cornwall (2007) would put it) and the more practical assessments that are usually based on a pre-defined concept or criteria for measuring its reality and strength (as with the Gender Empowerment Measure or the Hunger Project’s Women’s Empowerment Index). More specifically, when the term is used in the context of income-generation projects, empowerment is often conflated with income, which ignores ways income can, in certain contexts, disempower or simply not translate into gains for the woman bringing new income into the household (Schuler et al. 1996; Vyas and Watts 2009).

For a concept that is difficult to define and translate, we asked in an earlier publication whether conceptions of empowerment were too rigid, imported from abroad, or not always compatible with ways authorities and other institutions interpret or understand empowerment (Doane and Doneys 2015). This led us to ask, to what extent do discussions of empowerment, often derived from Western discourses regarding human rights that focus on autonomy and independence, reflect the reality of everyday life for low-income women in many parts of Asia (or other parts of the world).

This article draws from qualitative data obtained in Cambodia as part of a larger Australian Aid-funded project (2013–2017) on the empowerment of low-income women in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (including Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam), which used both qualitative and quantitative methods. The amount of data collected, just through the qualitative phase, was extensive (about 15,000 pages of transcripts), and we decided to focus on Cambodia for this article.

We first discuss and present a literature review that explains our understanding of and dilemma with the concept of empowerment, which in turn informs the methodological approach adopted in this project. The methodology section presents a short profile of research sites, followed by findings on different forms of empowerment. A few of the findings regarding “empowerment” as perceived by those interviewed will be presented first as they relate to the individual herself and her family, and then to empowerment at the community level. The conclusion discusses the relevance of the findings to our research problem regarding the applicability of empowerment as a concept in the context of projects targeting low-income women in Cambodia.

Background and literature review

There is no lack of discussion of empowerment as a concept and as a component of development projects that focus on low-income women. Cornwall, for instance, has long discussed the benefits and shortcomings of using such buzzwords in the development lexicon and resulting activities (Cornwall 2007). Part of the scepticism we find in the gender and development literature is linked to a neo-liberal appropriation of the concept by mainstream development agencies, which often removes or ignores in the process the more emancipatory understandings of empowerment – for instance, one in which a reordering of gender power relations needs to take place in order for empowerment to be effective and sustainable (Rowlands 1997; Bacqué and Biewener 2015; Cornwall 2016). Another dimension of this criticism is the way empowerment activities are seen to serve as another platform for the market integration of low-income communities and individuals as an outcome rather than a means to empower (Mohanty 1995). This becomes especially clear when income is construed as the principal determinant of success in economic empowerment measures (Garikipati 2013). However, this fails to draw from gender and development research that shows how market integration can in some cases actually disempower low-income women, for instance if the revenue increases a husband’s resources and power, or even leads to violence by husbands who view the breadwinner’s role as one that belongs to men or are jealous or fearful of their wife’s new role in the public sphere (Vyas and Watts 2009; Hidroboa and Fernald 2013). Similarly, many income-generating activities that were first done by women became monopolised by men when they generated substantial revenues (Li, Gan, and Hu 2011).

Another criticism is the lack of an understanding of context that helps explain ways in which empowerment can succeed or fail (Malhotra, Schuler, and Boender 2002). This is important in two ways: first, to understand how, according to Cornwall, the choices a woman can make are constrained by a specific environment and context. This is often not recognised, as Cornwall and Edwards argue, noting that “ … the very nature of empowerment is something far more contingent and contextual, and ultimately far less predictable, than allowed for in the quick-fit solutions purveyed by development agencies” (Cornwall and Edwards 2014, 11). Second, context is important to how one understands, experiences and seeks empowerment. This is essentially the argument of standpoint feminism since context explains not only women’s differentiated experiences but it is also important for knowledge production at the local level, as Harding suggested in her seminal book Sciences from Below (Harding 2008). Consequently, in a previous research project we conducted in four Mekong countries, we found that context was key not only to make sense of how empowerment was understood by participants, but, connectedly, to understand factors that can promote or undermine empowerment as defined by them (Doane and Doneys 2015). This becomes important, we would argue, as empowerment measures and programmes are often designed or influenced by Western development agencies and international organisations. These efforts are often informed by research in the West that sees independence and autonomy, and individual agency, as a sine qua non of empowerment. We do not disagree that in many cases and contexts these approaches can produce forms of empowerment. However, research is already showing that autonomy is not only difficult to assess and compare across cultures (Ghuman, Lee, and Smith 2006), but that in certain contexts (especially with regard to healthcare) the push for autonomy may undermine positive changes in health and other social and economic indicators where a strengthening of social bonds is needed (Mumtaz and Salway 2009; Thapa and Niehof 2013). Additionally, the focus on measurements underpinning much of this research, driven mostly by policy-making interests (Kabeer 1999), explains to some extent the lack of context in empowerment assessment research. Given that such a view may not be considered to be empowerment in many country contexts, our current research starts from the participants’ own understanding of empowerment, and then considers whether it is taking place, what contributes to its realisation, and in what ways.

Gender relations and women’s empowerment in Cambodia

In Cambodia, gender relations and the roles and freedoms women and men exercise are influenced by the traditional Code of Conduct (Chbab Srey) that has been passed down through generations. For women, Chbab Srey sets rules of behaviour that tend to be more invoked than those written for men (Pearson 2011) and they include behaviours in relation to one’s partner, whereas those for men are more focused on the individual himself (Gender and Development for Cambodia 2010). Written as a mother’s advice to her married daughter, these rules stress obligation and respect to one’s husband and family, as well as humility and modesty. In discussing this background, a report on gender and development in Cambodia noted, “A woman must accept the authority of her husband, yet is entrusted with the fate and well-being of the entire family” (Gorman, Dorina, and Kheng 1999).

The family in Cambodia, as in most of Southeast Asia, is generally understood as an extended family, with households often being multigenerational (Heuveline and Hong 2017). Within this living arrangement, traditional norms place expectations on women who are married to be responsible for reproductive and care work such as doing household chores, rearing children and looking after the elderly. Although women in Cambodia also have a strong role to play in market activities, expectations regarding women within the domestic sphere contrast with expectations regarding the importance of men’s role in the public sphere. For this reason, women’s participation in community governance still tends to be limited. Although the decentralisation drive that started in the 1990s has contributed to a slight increase in the number of women elected as commune chiefs, the rate remains below 10%, based on the 2017 commune elections (COMFREL 2017, 11).

In an earlier and much smaller project, we inquired about the meaning of “empowerment” at different levels and with regard to different stakeholders in Cambodia (Doane and Doneys 2015). We found some interesting gaps. National government agencies were reluctant to use more politically sensitive definitions adopted by international NGOs that borrow the English terminology and its problematic use of the word “power”, as it is often seen as implying a redistribution of power away from men (in addition, the idea of “empowerment” – for example, on the community level – that might not be in line with government policy would need to be avoided). For this reason, government agencies tend to use an expression that is more about “being able to make improvements for women” (bang keun pheap angach dol satrey) (Doane and Doneys 2015, 72). Although these national government-level initiatives included the promotion of CEDAW, they could also adopt a more conservative meaning where empowerment is equated with women supporting their partner, and more “in line with the national culture”. At the local level the word empowerment is usually translated differently by different agencies, some stressing the ability to do things, while others were more willing to discuss an increase in influence and voice. This makes an assessment of what empowerment means to low-income women problematic. In the first research project, since we were examining “empowerment initiatives” we asked participants about their views of positive changes generated by these projects. The answers ranged from greater market access, being part of a group (including the socialising dimension), greater self-confidence, and a change in behaviour with more support from their husbands (respondents were married). The difference between agencies’ and local women’s interpretation of empowerment, and the benefits noted to their families and in terms of social relationships, were also highlighted by Pearson who remarked that the “give power” (awee omnach) translation of empowerment was unhelpful to women in her study, who preferred a definition of empowerment as “gaining self-confidence”, a term she noted that “ … would undoubtedly attract critical comment from feminists in other cultures” (Pearson 2011, 402).

Women’s low economic status is often a reason given by agencies to focus empowerment initiatives on income generation. With rapid economic growth Cambodia succeeded in reducing national poverty rates from almost 50% of the population in 2007 down to 20% in 2011 (Asian Development Bank 2014, 4). Yet a large segment of the population in Cambodia remains low income, with 2.66 million people living on less than US$1.20 per day (Central Intelligence Agency 2016). As an Asian Development Bank study points out, this makes people highly vulnerable to shocks and crises, and women particularly so because of a lack of employment opportunities and access to resources (Asian Development Bank 2015). Although women’s participation in the labour force is high at 70%, their work is often precarious and poorly paid, and women-headed households are particularly vulnerable as they are more likely to have less access to land or be landless (United Nations Development Programme 2012). In this context, empowerment measures are clearly needed, and both public agencies and NGOs have prioritised empowerment activities to increase women’s status and opportunities, as well as to achieve gender equality.

The Cambodian government has moved toward reducing poverty and achieving gender equality in the past decade. Its last two National Strategic Development Plans (2009–2013, 2014–2018) have strong provisions on gender-related issues and gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially with regard to employment, social protection and health. It also had a Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan from 2009 to 2013, and it is worth noting that Cambodia is one of the only countries in Southeast Asia with a ministry fully dedicated to women’s affairs. The Ministry has also instigated a five-year strategic plan, the Neary Rattanarak IV 2014–2018, focused on empowering women (Ministry of Women’s Affairs 2014).

In Cambodia, NGOs have notably often used a comprehensive and diversified approach to empowerment, attempting to bridge economic and security concerns. For this reason, the present study examines empowerment initiatives from the NGO sector and specifically projects focusing on low-income women in both urban and rural settings.

Methodology and research sites

This contribution focuses on qualitative findings from Cambodia as part of a greater research project that lasted from 2013 to 2017, which involved both quantitative and qualitative data from four Mekong countries (including Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam).

Our qualitative research in Cambodia focused on five development projects involving different NGOs that have the goal of empowering low-income women. Three of these projects focus primarily on income generation and secondarily take improving security/social protection-related priorities as a goal (e.g. through helping the women and their families gain greater access to health care). The three projects’ income-generation efforts emphasise agriculture and animal husbandry in one case, and craftwork and related activities in the other cases. The last two projects focus primarily on the security side – particularly violence reduction as a main focus of women’s empowerment, as well as promoting access to children’s education, health care, sanitation, and disaster response, depending on what is needed – but they also offer some guidance and support for saving and income-generation activities as a secondary concern. In each of these projects, the empowerment of low-income women is a main goal.

Interviews were carried out primarily in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Ratanakiri, based on the locations of specific projects with the aim of empowering women. The low-income women and their families generally resided in challenging locations, ranging from urban slum areas threatened by periodic flooding and other critical social, economic and infrastructural problems, to remote rural locations that face substantial poverty as well as serious health, sanitation, and other land and environmental concerns. For this contribution, which is not in any way an evaluation of specific projects, the initiatives and associated organisations will not be referred to by name, but rather by the relevant empowerment-related activities and research findings.

This article is based on 120 in-depth interviews with 78 female participants and 42 men; the latter including 18 male participants in the projects in order to get their perspectives on the empowerment process, together with 24 husbands of women project participants to capture ways in which men can support or undermine women’s pathways toward empowerment. The research team also conducted three focus group discussions (FGDs) for a total of 20 female participants, with six women in Phnom Penh, six women in Ratanakiri, and eight women in Siem Reap. There were also 27 key informant interviews with NGO workers and management-level employees from six different organisations. We first asked respondents what empowerment means to them, and then to what extent their participation in project activities generated positive effects based on their view of empowerment.

It is true that this is a very difficult concept to convey both in Khmer and in ethnic minority languages of Cambodia, but the responses below (drawing from interviewees from all five projects) illustrate some of the main contributing factors that the women discussed as making them feel positive about themselves and their achievements through participation in the projects. It is important to note that not all of the project activities led to a feeling of empowerment in this sense; within each project, respondents stated that some activities or aspects had positive benefits whereas others were said to have had neutral or negative outcomes. Moreover, this increase in a feeling of empowerment was not always sustainable beyond the project period. Although these forms of disempowerment were also studied in our research, here we are interested primarily in what empowerment is, thus in exploring the nature of empowerment as positive changes experienced and identified by low-income women in the five projects selected for study.

Results and discussion

Empowerment on the individual and family levels

We start with evidence regarding women’s perceptions of empowerment on the individual and family levels, and then discuss their perceptions of empowerment as the concept applies to women at the community level involving new roles beyond the family and neighbourhood. Four areas in particular relate in significant ways to the women’s feelings of empowerment: new knowledge and skills, changes in decision-making ability, new social recognition, and changes in gender roles and relations.

New knowledge and empowerment

Access to new knowledge, skills and information was consistently mentioned in income-generation and security-oriented cases as inherently a form of empowerment. This has practical implications, and women’s empowerment associated with new knowledge generally is tied to the fact that external circumstances now appear to be more under the women’s control, both individually and collectively.

In the case of income-generation projects, technical knowledge was viewed as particularly important, as seen in the case studies of agricultural or craft-related projects. As an example, one 52-year-old woman participant in a craft-producing project noted:

I get skills regarding marketing, communication skills, and benefits of participation. My income has increased as well after joining the project … When I see myself as knowledgeable I am happy … My husband is very satisfied when he sees me having [a new] face and earning income.

Similarly, applying the right technical processes for farming and animal husbandry helped many women farmers obtain greater agricultural yields. One 48-year-old woman participant underlined how, through acquiring knowledge, she has become a better farmer by using techniques taught by the organisation: “Since I joined the project, my savings have been increasing … I have changed since joining because I gained knowledge and I can grow vegetables for my own consumption”. Moreover, in a context where women may not have access to enough land in order to grow crops, technical knowledge on how to raise animals is key to increasing income, as the following quote from a 33-year-old woman participant suggests:

I don’t have land to grow crops, but I learned techniques to raise animals. I received a lot of benefits [from the project] … Before, I raised ducks with little profit. In one season my profit would only be 1 million riel (US$250), but now my profit amounts to over US$3000 per season. And pig raising also didn’t provide me much profit; before, when I raised pigs, most died, but now I can sell one pig for about 230 thousand riel (US$57.50).

Another income-generation project participant, who received money management training, raised an interesting point in the way empowerment works when she said: “I know how to calculate and prepare documents and I also transfer knowledge to others as well” (50-year-old woman). This stresses how the women are able to contribute back to others around them, who can then further disseminate the knowledge that was acquired through training or other activities. The benefits of being able to teach others were clear from the interviews, both as a source of personal pride and as a way to strengthen bonds.

In security-oriented projects benefits often included knowledge regarding laws such as those regarding domestic violence or land rights, and which authorities they can contact when difficulties – violence, threats of eviction, or other problems – occur. This has helped protect women from being threatened or injured, as illustrated by a widow who stated: “[The men] can’t use violence against me because I know clearly about the law. If we can’t come to an agreement, I will call the lawyer to help  … I know the regulations, and I am not afraid … ” (50-year-old woman). In such cases, learning what to do and whom to contact provided a great deal of new self-confidence and self-esteem.

This underlines the idea that empowerment is in part about increased self-esteem. One 50-year-old woman mentioned the aspect of knowledge as empowerment, and in some cases the concrete monetary gains that can be of key importance to poor women: “Because I am braver [with this new knowledge] they ask me for work, and then they give me money”.

We found that new knowledge also helps low-income women make greater contributions within their family with regard to welfare, education or health, and that has been a common theme across several countries of the umbrella project. As one key informant, a project manager, put it:

We provide them with knowledge so that they are strong and they can help their families because a woman can be in charge of many things. They become role models in the family and also contribute to leading their family. So, when they are knowledgeable they can take the right decision and they can advise their husbands. They can manage their family and children, and allocate money including saving money for future use.

Some, such as this 43-year-old woman participant, report that new knowledge allows women to have a larger positive influence on their children:

After joining the project, there are some changes within my family such as the knowledge I gained, plus we are able to have money so that we can expand the business. When I installed my rice milling machine, I borrowed US$500 [from the project]. Apart from this, I can also teach my children to walk in the right path.

This could be understood as simply reinforcing traditional expectations (carrying out the expected role of mother or partner), but the interviews support instead that one’s sense of self-worth is intimately related to one’s ability to effect change, including in close relationships.

Changes in the decision-making process

Many of the women interviewed underlined their capacity to make decisions, or having an increased voice in decision-making; however, that newfound power, as an individual, was often utilised to contribute to the well-being of others, such as family members and others around them, in ways that were not possible beforehand. This is an important point since much of the discussion on decision-making is focused on greater autonomy rather than social cohesion or increased family well-being.

In the case of income-generation projects, this decision-making capacity is usually attributed to a new source of income that provides the respondents greater freedom to decide, as it is perceived as the woman’s own income even though the expenses are often for family-related purposes. In many cases, the money she earns gives her a voice she did not have before. As a 43-year-old woman who joined an income-generation project stated:

Now I have rights in speaking with my husband when we make any decision. In the past, when I spoke he did not listen to me. When he spoke about something, I did not have the right to speak … Now, he follows me when I explain the reason to him.

One woman, discussing her newfound income, said: “When I wove for them [an NGO buying weaving products], I earned money to give to my children so they can buy something, and I don’t need to ask my husband anymore” (33-year-old woman). The quote is short but telling, since before the project permission would be needed from her husband even though his income is also treated as family income.

It is important to note that in this social context, relying on a husband as a primary decision-maker is often problematic to women in terms of the woman’s need to justify expenses, as a 50-year-old woman participant in a credit scheme suggests, referring to women in her community:

If she spends all the money, the husband will blame her and ask why the money is now gone. Some men do not blame their wives but some men do. Some men may blame their wives because she used the money he gave her.

This reliance on partners in decision-making related to expenses comes out even more clearly in the following quote from a 25-year-old woman, suggesting the importance of the freedom that comes from one’s own income as opposed to relying on their partner’s income:

If it is my own money, I can buy anything. Sometimes I don’t have money, and I don’t dare ask him even if I do not have enough clothes to wear; or I can [now] borrow from him and pay him back whenever I have money.

Many of the women reported on the ability to make decisions that were previously the preserve of their husbands or partners. Earlier, even if decisions were described as joint decision-making, husbands were often seen as final arbiters. Now, many women take decisions on their own, as the experience of this 43-year-old woman shows:

Before joining the project, I hesitated and depended on my husband, but now I clearly take decisions … I can buy as many pigs as possible if I have money. Before, I did not have money, so I hesitated to take clear decisions.

Interestingly, this newfound ability is not just for what are considered livelihood-related and household items, but also for more expensive luxury items, as this 36-year-old woman respondent suggests:

Before joining the project, my husband was the one who took decisions. For example, if he wanted to buy a motorcycle he took the decision on his own. I bought this motorcycle after joining. I told him about my idea and argument for buying it.

Another 43-year-old woman is particularly proud of her own ability to support their children, and more specifically her decisions regarding ways in which she can support her children’s education, which was a consistent theme in the interviews:

Since I joined I can earn a good income so that I can support my kids with their studies … my kids are happy when I can earn money because of that reason. When I can sell well, I always give my youngest two daughters each US$2.50 and even sometimes up to US$5 so that they can spend this money toward their studies.

An increase in decision-making ability is also noticeable in security-oriented projects. The new knowledge of rights and what to do if threats arise, for instance, allows a woman to set terms and make decisions more easily within the household, as a quote from a 43-year-old woman suggests: “I am not afraid of domestic violence anymore because my husband has had to stop drinking. If he starts drinking again, he has to walk out”.

Social recognition

One of the most important aspects of empowerment we found in Cambodia, which is often missed in empowerment research, is the role of social respect and recognition. This did not necessarily match traditional expectations of motherhood or marriage; in fact, much of the social recognition women mention is linked to their ability to perform tasks that were often seen as men’s preserve, such as being a main income earner or providing for the family.

In a context where social bonds are defining of everyday relations, how others view project participants was seen as important to the respondents. One 50-year-old woman said:

They admire me, and the fact that my children can get a higher education and a job. They can see that I can get out of poverty and have better living conditions. I am 100% better off compared to before.

The respect or admiration coming from people around them is a common theme. One respondent said: “People in the village admire us [project participants] when they see we can sell a lot to the project. We can earn 300 thousand riel a month (US$75)” (33-year-old woman). Although this amount may not seem large, it is needed additional income for the respondents, and people around them can see the impact of this change.

The social recognition that came with new abilities was in some cases tied to women taking on entirely new roles. For example, one 50-year-old woman remarked how she has become very busy after being trained by the project: “We learn how to castrate pigs [traditionally a man’s job], provide treatment to cows and pigs, or learn how to do proper injections”.

The social recognition of being tied to one or more organisations that allow project participants to be exposed to new ideas and new opportunities is particularly important for those have been marginalised in the past and have suffered from social exclusion. One 34-year-old blind woman respondent, who was the victim of an acid attack, highlighted this well:

People around me know that I am a member [of the organisation] and they value me … My neighbour said that even though I am handicapped I can travel to every province and district. They think that because she has a job and an organisation that takes care of her, she is able to travel, she has value … they admired me because I am more capable … My mother is happy with me because I can travel.

Low-income women also say they have gained recognition from not only their families and immediate neighbours, but also local leaders in their neighbourhoods who never paid them any attention in the past. As an example, a woman who had lived near a village leader all of her life was asked to participate in political meetings and election campaigns after she joined a craft-producing organisation and became a group leader; this new attention presumably came because of her ties to a nationwide organisation as well as her new ability to speak in public meetings and her greater mobility as a result of her project work.

Changes in gender roles and relations

Women reported seeing changes in men’s behaviour, and often in their own behaviour and that of their children, as a result of participation in projects. This appeared to be particularly true when income-generation efforts and security-oriented training were combined.

One respondent thought that the positive changes in gender relations in their household was due both to an increase in her economic contribution and the fact that men were trained by NGOs to understand the importance of women’s participation and the need for their support, while learning about the negative impacts of violence and conflict. Regarding an income-generation project that incorporated training on conflict reduction attended by men as well as women, one 53-year-old woman stated:

We avoid violence and causing arguments in our family. Before he [her husband] joined the programme, sometimes I went to the field without eating because I was much too busy. When I came home I had to cook and also feed the pigs. But, after my husband attended the training he helps with cooking and washing if I come late from the field.

This is important in a context where men are often discouraged from taking part in household chores. One 40-year-man explained what happened when he helped his wife:

[Previously] if any husband helped his wife, they would say, ‘Don’t you feel ashamed to help your wife?’ In my case, I helped my wife, so people said: ‘There, you are the only man who helps to crush rice and collect water.’

When women engage in activities that bring in an additional income, men may have to adapt by taking on new responsibilities. One 62-year-old man said the following of his wife who is often travelling:

When my wife went out for her work, I looked after the house and did household chores. It was fine for me … I have seen how through these years my wife has grown in herself with confidence in her work.

In security-oriented projects as well, activities that support better gender relations were seen as key to making the initiatives work and be supported by men. One 36-year-old woman described not only how she changed, but also how her husband has changed since she became a project participant:

Since I joined the project, my husband sees me in a different way compared with before. He said that I am more knowledgeable because before I didn’t know how to talk. But, since I learned about domestic violence, I am able to tell him about what I understood such as when we have arguments our children cannot study because they see their parents fighting, and they keep this in their brain. I advise him and he listens to me. He behaves in a better way towards me … He admires me.

Husbands mentioned being pleased by the positive changes they saw in their wives after the women engage in project activities or take on new roles outside of the home. One 31-year-man said: “I feel proud of my wife when I see her create new things from recycled materials. I admire her in the way she can do that”. Similarly, a 62-year-old husband of a woman participant noted how his wife changed in positive ways:

Before and after joining this organisation, my wife now seems to have become more confident and independent. She has made a lot of important decisions. There are a lot of changes in her for a good reason. This is the result of her increased income, I think. She decides on her own a lot, including purchasing machines and hiring workers.

Many of the projects were able to strengthen a woman’s ability to negotiate with her husband. As one 43-year-old woman participant mentioned, this can also take the form of increased mobility:

The project raised awareness that women do not only stay at home; women can also travel outside their homes. Women can express their own opinions in meetings.

Many respondents also thought that participation in projects may have contributed to reducing conflict with partners because they have fewer financial problems compared to the past. As one 56-year-old woman respondent said about another couple that she knows:

Due to poverty, the husband drank. When he would arrive home, they would both be upset so they ended up arguing and becoming violent; but since then they became better off, and they have had no violence.

It is important to note that as part of this training, particularly in projects with security emphases, women were also encouraged to improve gender relations by reducing their own contribution to conflicts in the household (and, by example, teaching their husbands to do the same). As a 43-year-old woman project participant stated:

I joined meetings and training that made me understand that domestic violence does not benefit us; it only ruins us. And it affects the feelings of the children very much … So now when I get angry with my husband, if I speak, I do not speak as I did before.

In this sense, beyond positive changes noted in their husband’s behaviour and recognition of them, women tended to feel more empowered if they felt they had greater control over the way they communicate with family members, using what were referred to as “sweet words” (or “soft words”) instead of angry outbursts.

Empowerment at the community level

The new knowledge and abilities gained through participation in projects can also empower women to be of greater use to their communities as a whole than in the past. As an example, one 39-year-old woman participant mentioned how acquiring knowledge resulted in her gaining greater recognition from a community leader who in turn relies on her for different tasks:

When I joined community meetings, they taught me about health care and the environment, and I feel that I gained more knowledge. When I acquire knowledge like that, the community leader always calls me for help when she has any activities. If I were not knowledgeable, she would not come to me. She always calls me to help her.

This new self-esteem also helps these women advocate or ask for change in their communities, something they would rarely have done in the past. One 29-year-old woman participant noted her greater understanding of community affairs:

Our standard of living has not gone up that much, but it makes me understand and follow what’s happening in our community … the project makes us know how to advocate. When there is anything that comes up, we can ask the village chief or the commune.

Empowerment at the community level was very often tied to women’s participation in groups, organisations and networks, including those established by NGOs and other organisations through projects. These structures can give women benefits that go far beyond what they might be able to achieve as individuals – benefits that can be economic, social or political in nature.

On the economic side, many of the women involved in income-generating activities in this study benefited from using group ties to improve the production and sale of goods and services. New knowledge and information about sources of supply, new ways of organising production, new designs and new markets were found to be in many cases available to low-income women through group, organisation and network ties. As one 50-year-old woman participant noted, regarding agricultural activities:

We can expand our markets – besides buying machines and fertiliser, we can expand our farming activities by selling agricultural supplies and seeds while buying vegetables from our group members to sell to outsiders.

Successful craftwork also clearly depends on information about changes in market demand (e.g. the need for new designs and colour schemes), and participation in trade fairs and other ways to market products. Producer groups – and particularly those with ties to wider networks – were shown to help women in low-income communities overcome barriers to production and distribution, and help them respond effectively to new opportunities.

Organising into groups can also improve the sustainability of income-generating activities that are implemented. When NGOs withdraw from a specific community, income-generation activities often stop or slowly wither. Groups can provide a structure that lasts beyond a project’s timeframe. In some cases, projects initiated successful ongoing saving groups; as one 48-year-old woman participant suggests, “If the project stops, I will still save money with other group members and they also said that they would still save money”.

Beyond the practical purpose of forming groups for economic reasons, the social and security-related benefits offered by association with group members can also be very important. In contexts in which social protection mechanisms are not formally implemented, group activities reduce isolation while increasing forms of social support in the community. In the case of one security-oriented project, for example, group members contributed to funeral funds, which is an important way of enhancing mutual support. The formation of group ties to reduce isolation and enhance security is particularly important in communities that no longer have “traditional” modes of support, for example in urban slum contexts in which residents – newly arrived or relocated – remain isolated from one another and are not able to develop the ties of mutual assistance that might have developed over time in a long-standing village or neighbourhood context. On the political side, participants who were given leadership training and became representatives of important groups within the community, or of communities as a whole, were able to work with authorities in a way that was far more effective than what they as individuals – no matter how brave – could ever hope to achieve.

In the case of both income-generation and security-oriented projects, social recognition at the community level often came as women emerged as leaders who were able to work with local authorities. These women were seen as working not just for themselves, but also for others around them. As one project manager who worked for her organisation for nine years noted:

In the past, they [the women] were afraid to speak with local authorities. They felt shaky when they used a microphone to speak but now they dare to even threaten the local authority [if nothing is done]. So, it means they have power now. And the local authorities respect them. I mean that before, when they spoke, their words were seen as valueless … Last time, when they went to claim [the community’s need for] water and electricity connections no one would listen to them. Now, they are empowered and they have water, electricity and a road.

The women who were trained and encouraged in this way, and were supported by their organisations and networks, found that for the first time they were able to advocate with authorities regarding the serious problems they faced.

Conclusion and recommendations

In this study, we found that women’s empowerment can in some sense be seen as the “process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or to control what happens to you” (Cambridge University Press 2018). This was the case, for instance, when women can make decisions they could not make before. However, women interviewed for this study rarely referred to their empowerment solely as individuals, but rather in terms of a change in their interactions with family members, neighbours and others around them, and with the community as a whole. This also applies in a context where women have more ability to make decisions – although a form of autonomy is generated (including the power to negotiate with partners), its outcome is essentially a greater sense of contribution and recognition. That husbands perceive their wives more positively was important, and for the most part in Cambodia the partners were supportive. However, the wider respect received from family and community members combined with a greater ability to contribute at these different levels was a large part of how the women reported being empowered. In this sense, the meaning of empowerment to the respondents appears to be more strikingly the “process of working with others to help control what happens to you and others around you”.

This is why relational dynamics seem so important. In their book introduction, Cornwall and Edwards (2014, 10) underlined this point: “In the process of reducing empowerment to measurable outcomes, the relational dimensions of empowerment disappear and with them that which is constitutive of the concept itself”. Evidence is therefore available from our project to support the argument that social relations, group formation and other relational factors are crucial to the empowerment of low-income women in contexts where social norms and bonds are defining features of everyday life.

For all of these reasons, we would argue that care must be taken in designing empowerment projects to focus on the context-specific dynamics of these associative bodies – families, groups, and communities – as well as on the empowerment of women as individuals. In this context, the establishment of a family and community environment that supports the women’s new roles and, in some cases, the formation of well-functioning groups, organisations and networks that aim to benefit all members equally, appear to be critical components in helping ensure that gains in women’s empowerment will not only be achievable, but can also be sustained long after the project has ended.

Acknowledgements

We thank our project sponsor, Australian Aid; team members Chan Sokdine, Chea Pisey, Yeth Savuth, Ouk SamAth and Phok Sokuntheary for their help in gathering and interpreting the qualitative data; and the assistance of Daralux Poothong in gathering background material for this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Philippe Doneys is Associate Professor in Gender and Development Studies at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand. He is a political sociologist with a focus on South-East Asia.

Donna L. Doane has been working with Gender and Development Studies at AIT in Bangkok, Thailand, most recently for Australian Aid-funded research project on “Empowerment and Security for Low-Income Women in Four Mekong Countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam)”.

Sina Norm is an independent consultant and researcher in gender and development, and has been working as the country-based (Cambodia) Research Coordinator and Lead Researcher for the AIT-led project on “Empowerment and Security for Low-Income Women in Four Mekong Countries”.

ORCID

Philippe Doneys http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1705-7789

Donna L. Doane http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7527-1049

Sina Norm https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0111-0183

Additional information

Funding

This article is based on work funded by Australian Aid, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Australian government [grant number 66458].