World Development Vol. 66, pp. 762–777, 2015 0305-750X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.09.005
Innovative Grassroots NGOS and the Complex Processes of Women’s Empowerment: An Empirical Investigation from Northern Tanzania MARA J. GOLDMAN and JANI S. LITTLE* University of Colorado-Boulder, USA Summary. — We argue that women’s empowerment is an ongoing, incremental, and relational process that occurs across scales and pathways. Using a contextualized mixed methods approach, we measure empowerment processes unfolding across Maasai villages in northern Tanzania as related to the interventions of two innovative grassroots NGOs. Our results indicate increased personal agency in the household and increased political participation at the societal level as related to NGO involvement. Moreover, we show links between increased personal agency, and changes in beliefs regarding gender norms at the societal level. This highlights the transformative potential for change and the links across empowerment pathways. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Key words — empowerment, women, development, agency, Tanzania, Maasai
then measured as isolated outcomes, such as an increase in the number of girls completing school, women’s participation in the workforce, and female representation in government. These outcomes are isolated not only by the sphere of engagement (personal, economic, political), but also the scale of analysis (individual, household, community/society). 4 Similarly, scholarly analyses of empowerment processes have focused almost exclusively on one sphere and scale of engagement (Malhotra et al., 2002). However, empowerment is a multidimensional process that follows multiple pathways (personal, economic, political) through and across multiple scales: individual (mind and body), household (family), and community (society at large) (Mahmud, Shah, & Becker, 2012). Interactions across scales and between different pathways matter for determining the impacts that projects have on individual women’s lives and the prospects for transformational change at the societal level. To reinvigorate the term “empowerment” with ‘power’ and ‘process’—we highlight changes occurring across scales and pathways, through
“Self-congratulatory ‘feel good talk’ about empowering women—that pretends to put women at the forefront of achieving peace, prosperity, democracy and development—is no longer possible. There are no short-cuts to gender justice, but it is vital that we strive towards it, with honesty and conviction and without pretense.” [Harcourt, 2009: p. 202]
1. INTRODUCTION Empowerment has become a key aspect of women’s development agendas, featured as the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG). 1 Yet there remains a great deal of ambiguity and contestation over what empowerment means, how it is measured, and how it is best achieved. Initial efforts to conceptualize empowerment stressed that it was a sociopolitical process, involving shifts in political, social, and economic power between and across both individuals and social groups (Batliwala, 2007, emphasis in original). Feminist theorists and critical development scholars suggest that today “empowerment” has become just another development buzzword, perhaps the most widely used, abused, and hollowed out of critical political meaning (Batliwala, 2010; Parpart, Rai, & Staudt, 2002; Rowlands, 1998). 2 The transfer of the word into development lexicon, diluted or erased notions of power tied to original theorizing and strategizing behind women’s empowerment (Batliwala, 2010). This is common practice in development where ‘magic bullet’ quick fixes are sought for complex social, political, and economic problems. 3 The use of empowerment discourse within development isolates different aspects of empowerment processes for targeted intervention and measurement at different scales (Malhotra, Schuler, & Boender, 2002), often based on external assumptions of importance (Kabeer, 1999). A focus on personal empowerment targets girls’ enrollment schools (i.e., MDG #3); an economic empowerment focus leads to micro-enterprise development interventions; and a political empowerment focus promotes leadership training and quotas. Empowerment is
* This paper would not have been possible without the support and collaboration of Ndinini Kimesera Sikar and the rest of MWEDO, Sinandei Makko and the UCRT team and the men and women of Monduli and Longido Districts. To them we owe our sincere gratitude. Additionally we are especially grateful for the support and assistance provided by Sophia Parkipuny and Neema Laizer, Esupat Ngulupa as well as the Maasai enumerators who helped with the original survey. We thank COSTECH for supporting the research efforts in Tanzania and our funders in the US: the University of Colorado-Boulder Innovative Seed Grant, Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTS), and the Council for Research and Creative Work (CRCW), Grant-in-Aid; and the National Science Foundation collaborative research grant (NSF grant # 0921507). We thank Alicia Davis and Nicole Smith for comments on earlier drafts, and Nancy Thorwardson for help designing the figures and maps. The paper was greatly improved from comments made by three anonymous reviewers and the journal editor. All opinions and omissions in the paper are solely responsibility of the authors. Final revision accepted: September 13, 2014. 762
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rigorous measurement of empowerment-based development interventions using a grounded mixed methods approach with particular attention to local context. In this paper we discuss changes occurring in four villages across two districts in Northern Tanzania as related to Maasai women’s involvement in ‘empowerment’-based development interventions. We focus on the work of two innovative grassroots Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working across pathways and scales to address issues particular to Maasai women and men: Maasai Women’s Development Organization (MWEDO) and Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT). While our study provides only a snapshot of an evolving process, we suggest changes are happening that can be understood as part of the empowerment process. Women are gaining more access to resources and knowledge to challenge power dynamics personally, in the household, and at the community level. While there are other dynamics at play, we focus on the NGO work in particular as a new intervention bringing new kinds of resources and knowledge to these areas. Our study draws from qualitative and quantitative data collected over a four-year period (2009–13) as well as over a decade of ethnographic engagements with the communities by the lead author. Our analysis combines insight from feminist development work on empowerment, with Maasai understandings of what it means to be empowered, and changes Maasai women are seeking in their communities. 5 We illustrate the impacts across organizational and institutional scales, highlighting that different types of interventions work together and separately leading to different outcomes such as changes in personal beliefs or increased agency. Echoing Batliwala (2010: p. 115) empowerment (in a transformational sense) cannot be achieved by tackling any one element of social power. In the following section we outline our conception of empowerment and address the role that can be played by innovative grassroots organizations. We then provide background on the study sites and organizations under review, followed by a discussion of methods and our conceptual framework. We present quantitative and then qualitative results and conclude by reviewing how they reinforce our conceptual model to illustrate the multi-layered nature of empowerment as a process. 2. CONCEPTUALIZING EMPOWERMENT AND THE ROLE OF GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS Naila Kabeer suggests that innovative grassroots-based organizations are best positioned to adhere to the original tenets of empowerment in their project conceptualization and implementation. Such organizations can provide space for women’s voices to be heard, and are more ‘downwardly’ accountable than larger national and international NGOs (1994: 230). This is, of course, not always the case with grassroots NGOs (Hodgson, 2011; Igoe, 2003), and the adjective ‘innovative’ is used to differentiate NGOs that manage to truly make way for participatory women-led development. Kabeer’s analysis of “innovative NGOS” in India suggests they are more prone to recognize that no single magic bullet intervention is likely to succeed, and instead work across different categories of need. NGOs need to provide women with access to “new kinds of resources, thereby signaling new potentials and possibilities” (Kabeer, 2003, p. 261). Kabeer’s description of innovative NGOs reflects her conceptualization of empowerment as a process including agency, resources, and achievements (Kabeer, 2005). Agency refers to “the processes by which choices are made and put into effect;”
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resources set the context “through which agency is exercised;” and achievements refer to “the outcomes of agency” (2005, p. 14). Resources can be material, relational, legal, and/or knowledge, and are linked to institutional norms and a person’s position in society (Kabeer, 1999). Women’s ability to access resources is key to implementing change. Empowerment can thus be seen as a process where, with resources and through agency, choices are made by those normally not in a position to do so in a given situation. Achievements occur in the process, often measured as outcomes or proxies for empowerment (i.e., education, employment, political representation). Achievements can also be seen as resources for empowerment if empowerment is viewed as a process of sequential, and sometimes simultaneous stepping-stones— changes in one sphere leading to subsequent changes in other spheres. Drawing from Kabeer (1999, 2005) and Parpart et al. (2002) we call for an iterative, complex, and nuanced conceptualization of empowerment. Parpart et al. (2002, p. 4, following Rowlands 1995, 1997, 1998) argue that empowerment “involves the exercise rather than possession of power,” and includes both individual conscientization (power within) and politicized power with others, which can lead to the power to bring about change (Parpart et al., 2002, p. 4; see also Kabeer, 2005). Empowerment is thus, not just about the power of participation in decision-making, but the processes that lead individuals to believe they have the capabilities to make decisions. In other words, empowerment is about personal, relational, and collective processes, and includes changes in beliefs and attitudes as well as structural and material change. This conceptualization of empowerment reflects the views voiced by Maasai women themselves. In interviews with educated ‘empowered’ Maasai women working for change in the communities (often through NGOs), a common theme came up that was echoed in discussions with Maasai across the villages. People spoke of empowerment as having the awareness and confidence to achieve one’s goals, and the ability to share such knowledge and awareness with the larger community. One woman who worked for UCRT (and previously with MWEDO) explained what she thought constitutes an empowered Maasai woman: The one who has self-confidence, freedom of her own life and control of decision-making processes among other women in that particular village. She is the one who can work hard for her own activities and others follow her example. She can look after her children and her husband even if the man is a drunkard. She is the one who can participate in government, NGOs and traditional meetings, and can present her ideas in front of the people. She is the one who can do her own small business and not depend too much on her husband. 6
While most Maasai men and women we spoke with discussed the empowered woman as someone who drew from her internal strength to make due despite her circumstances, there was a sense that such a woman would need to know what she was capable of. Another educated Maasai women working for an NGO articulated this clearly by explaining that to be empowered requires, “knowing that you have this power. Because in a Maasai community you are regarded as a child, and so on, but you know what you are and you won’t let anyone take advantage of you, or keep you back because you know your purpose and can go forward.” 7 She suggested that this often means workers like herself need to bring awareness to communities, to bring them knowledge to give them the boost to empower themselves. In other words, NGOS can facilitate the resources needed for agency to be actualized.
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3. STUDY SITE AND ORGANIZATIONS We focused on the activities of two “innovative grassroots organizations” across two districts in northern Tanzania, dominated by people of the Maasai ethnic group. Here we discuss Maasai as a particular focus for the study, the specifics of the organizations under review, and the similarities and differences across villages. (a) The Maasai case study Maasai are often recognized in both academic and popular literature as one of the most patriarchal societies in East Africa (Lazaro, 2008; Mitzlaff, 1988; Spencer, 2003) with strong cultural norms legitimizing several forms of institutionalized gender inequality. 8 Maasai women are often discussed and treated as ‘children’ and historically were excluded from community meetings. Today women participate in meetings, though in some places for ‘traditional’ reasons they do not stand while speaking. As Hodgson (1999) has noted, the practice of referring to women as ‘children’ is used as a technique to keep women “in their place” and to reinforce structural inequalities in access to resources and control over production and social relations. Hodgson has also shown that women do maintain power in domestic as well as the public sphere in ways that often go unrecognized by outsiders (Hodgson, 2000, 2001, see also Talle 1987, 1988). Additionally, with increased diversification, Maasai women are taking on new roles and expanding old roles in relation to livestock production (Wangui, 2008), and market exchange (Brockington, 2001; McCabe, 2003; Smith, 2014). Recognizing these factors, we are concerned here with the structural and ideological contexts which keep women in a subordinate position relative to men within Maasai communities; as well as the work of NGOs targeting Maasai women for ‘empowerment’ development interventions.
MWEDO works on economic empowerment by registering women’s groups (20–25 people), with goals for enterprise development. Members pay dues, attend annual meetings, have a say in program planning and elect MWEDO board members. MWEDO helps groups find markets for products and with training on business development and group dynamics. Some MWEDO members have come together to form a women’s leadership ‘forum’, with representatives at the village, district, (except Monduli), and national levels, to address issues such as land and human rights; MWEDO facilitates the forum through leadership training. (ii) UCRT and the community forum (CLF) project UCRT is a community-based organization that works with indigenous communities in Tanzania to provide information and skills for improved resource management. In 2007, in collaboration with the Tanzanian Natural Resource Forum, UCRT initiated community leadership forums (CLFs), which work with customary governance for improved natural resource management and conflict resolution. Customary governing institutions, often more respected and effective than elected leaders, are limited in scope and often exclusively male. The CLF addresses this by providing training on national laws and facilitating a parallel women’s forum to work with customary male leaders. In 2009, UCRT established a women’s forum to work independently and then together with the men for a joint CLF at village, ward, and district levels. 14 In addition to improving local governance through increased women’s participation in decision-making processes, there was an objective to empower women through leadership training. At the start of research the women’s forum had just begun. Women had selected village leaders who began training on governance issues, women’s rights and empowerment, and national land laws. Women also learned leadership skills and gained confidence to speak in meetings with customary leaders. The CLF project works in Longido, but not in Monduli district.
(b) Innovative grassroots organizations
(c) Study site: villages
We focus on two organizations that we perceive as “Innovative Grassroots Organizations,” which are based locally in Arusha (the largest city in the area, see Map 1), were started by Maasai, and are staffed by Tanzanians.
Survey research was conducted in one village in Monduli district (Oltukai) and three in Longido district (Longido, Engare Naibor, Kimokowa). All villages are part of the Kisongo section of the Maasai, sharing similar cultural norms. All villages were part of the same district until 2007. Despite similarities, villages have had different exposure to NGO activity. This created a natural setting for a quasi-experimental study to help tease out differences in empowerment outcomes across a spectrum of NGO exposure (see Table 1 for village comparisons). In Monduli district, Oltukai is an hour drive from the main city (Arusha), and a one-hour walk to the main road and weekly market. The lead author has worked there since 2002. Due to district politics, very few NGOS work in Oltukai, especially those with political motivations. MWEDO started working there in 2008. 15 Oltukai thus provides for an ideal comparison where early changes coming in due to the work of MWEDO could be observed. Longido is a new district (2007), 16 with issues of land grabbing from Kenya and for new administrative buildings in the main town, Longido. There has been a growth of businesses along the main road in Longido town. Participants in the study vary in distance away from the main road (up to over an hour). Longido has benefited from the work of both MWEDO and UCRT, and from other NGOs, including another women’s organization, TEMBO. 17 Kimokowa is located just north of Longido on the main road, has only recently been involved with MWEDO, and is also
(i) MWEDO MWEDO works in four Maasai dominated districts in Tanzania, including Longido and Monduli. At the start of research in 2009, MWEDO had been working in Longido and Engare Naibor the longest, in Kimokowa for just over a year, and had just started in Oltukai village. MWEDO is a women’s organization, with a mission to support efforts that “empower women within their cultural traditions . . . affirm[ing] their right[s] to benefit both economically and socially through educational rights.” 9 MWEDO promotes a rights-based agenda (Hodgson, 2002) linked to specific programs (education, economic empowerment, health education/maternal health, and HIV/AIDS education). 10 MWEDO educates the community on the importance of education as a human right that has been denied to Maasai women and girls, and then gets support for girls education 11 and women’s adult education. Women members learn about human rights, women’s rights, and the right to own property, and are encouraged to request legal titles to land for their families. 12 Land ownership is also discussed at the village level, where support is gained for women to play a vital role in the process of obtaining titles. 13
INNOVATIVE GRASSROOTS NGOS AND THE COMPLEX PROCESSES OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
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Map 1. Table 1. Village comparisons Village
a b
Oltukai n = 58
Kimokouwa n = 60
Longido n = 68
Engare Naibor n = 27
NGO involvement Average # % in 2 or more % in TEMBOb
0.97 1.70 0.00
1.02 3.30 3.30
1.53 30.90 27.90
1.19 18.50 0.00
Wealth % Improved housinga Average # cattle % Breadwinner % Tap water in HH
0.00 8.80 47.30 0.00
11.60 12.40 27.60 35.00
13.50 9.10 50.70 11.80
7.40 7.20 32.00 0.00
Education % Completed primary
5.20
17.60
4.50
15.40
Housing construction beyond traditional mud and grass. TEMBO is a women’s based development organization.
involved but to a much lesser extent with TEMBO. 18 Kimokowa has a local female member on the district council. Engare Naibor is the most geographically isolated of all the villages. It is a 1–2-h drive on a dirt road to Longido town. Close to the Kenyan border, Engare Naibor is subject to cross-border land grabbing, but also active local politics with well-respected female representatives and an active forum of community leaders. 4. METHODS Data for this paper were collected over a period of 4 years. In this section we describe the methods used for data collection and analysis, and our conceptual model.
(a) Data collection The survey used was designed in 19 to explore women’s well being, drawing from similar models used by WHO and by Grabe in Nicaragua, with modifications made for cultural relevancy. The survey was translated into Swahili and conducted in Maa by trained Maasai women. Participants were women whose names were listed as MWEDO members. 170 surveys were conducted in 2009. We eliminated widows and un-married women from the quantitative analysis as their responses could not be used to judge husband–wife relations, reducing the sample to 152 women. Qualitative data were collected in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 for a total of 47 individual interviews with women
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(widows and married women), ten interviews with men, 11 group interviews with women, and over 150 hours of ethnographic observation including informal conversations with both men and women in all the study sites. Qualitative data were used to inform the conceptual and statistical models, to provide greater depth on context, attitudes, and processes of change, and to provide additional information regarding empowerment processes not apparent from the survey. (b) Conceptual framework and data analysis Our conceptual model draws from the work of Kabeer (1999) in understanding empowerment as related to three inter-connected dimensions: pre-conditions or context (resources and controls), personal agency (household level decision making), and outcomes (social norms and practices; see Figure 1). Following Kabeer we focus on empowerment as an ongoing and iterative process, rather than something that can be measured as a final outcome. We also see it as a process that follows multiple pathways across different scales simultaneously and in a relational fashion. We use the scale designations of individual, household, and community as units of measurement where social relations play out. 20 This is expressed in Figure 1 with the solid arrows referring to the different pathways of empowerment measured by our model, and the dotted lines indicating the iterative process of empowerment, with “outcomes” eventually leading to further change in time. We therefore discuss ‘outcomes’ as forms of transformational change measured as indicators of an on-going process of empowerment. Empowerment processes occur within particular contexts, which comprise both enabling resources and constraining controls. Resource context variables include: the level of formal
education achieved, the number of cattle a woman has, 21 whether she earns as much or more cash income than her husband (“breadwinner”), and her level of involvement in MWEDO. MWEDO involvement is a summative scale constructed from indicators of degree of involvement as a member of a MWEDO group, i.e., attending adult education classes, going to and talking at MWEDO meetings, and the length of time involved with the organization. 22 MWEDO involvement involves some choice and therefore it reflects the extent to which a woman is actively seeking to empower herself. Context is also defined by two variables that measure control or constraints on agency: a woman’s relative age (ageset), 23 and the degree to which her husband controls her movement and participation in household and village affairs. Older age is often empowering for Maasai men and women, with elder women earning more respect and often having more freedom and power over younger women (within households and society at large). However, age can inhibit changing beliefs and attitudes. Since older women who are seeking increased empowerment will likely have higher levels of MWEDO involvement, the remaining age effect will most likely be associated with preservation of traditional norms. Personal agency measures decision-making at the household and individual levels regarding topics normally outside of women’s control such as buying and selling livestock or deciding on sexual intercourse (see Appendix). Agency must involve not only making choices, but doing so in ways that challenge power relations (Kabeer, 2005). In our model, these remain in the realm of the household. Our outcomes, on the other hand, can also be seen as indicators of empowerment or ‘achievements’ in Kabeer’s language in that they challenge social norms and practices (Kabeer, 2005). The outcomes in the
Figure 1. Conceptual model of empowerment process.
INNOVATIVE GRASSROOTS NGOS AND THE COMPLEX PROCESSES OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
model include: participation in local meetings (political participation), belief in non-traditional gender norms, and lower acceptance levels of the use of violence by husbands as a form of disciplining their wives (non-acceptance of violence as discipline). Political participation measures the degree to which a woman participates in societal level meetings. This is specific to Maasai culture because it measures not only if the woman speaks at meetings (village wide and village government based), but also if she stands while doing so. Historically, according to Maasai custom, women were not allowed to stand while speaking, unless a man also stood at the same time. 24 Thus standing up while speaking at meetings is a culturally relevant indicator of change. The second measurement looks at culturally relevant indicators that suggest a woman has begun to uphold non-traditional gender norms, such as believing she should have freedom equal to a man’s and choosing whom she marries. Our final empowerment scale measures the degree to which a woman fails to accept violence from her husband as a necessary form of wife discipline. This scale reflects a woman’s acceptance of various reasons why her husband may beat her. 25 The failure to accept violent discipline should be viewed as an indication of both deeply personal (related to personal views of her body, and the rights of her husband), and societal empowerment. Domestic violence is incredibly prevalent in Maasai communities for reasons tied to both long-accepted customary beliefs and high levels of alcoholism. We do not include actual measurements of violence because the data were not reliable and had little variation. 26 This measure of non-acceptance of violence is thus a barometer of potential changes to come at the societal level as it challenges long-held social beliefs about gender roles and expectations. 27 In order for these different outcomes to have the impact we are suggesting as transformative forms of agency, they need to feed into eventual changes in context and agency. The regression models were unable to illustrate this, but our qualitative data do. 28 For instance, for women to actualize their personal feelings regarding non-traditional gender norms into societal change (to move from ‘power within’ to ‘power with’), they need to be actively participating in societal meetings, promoting such changes. While our data can show this is occurring (i.e. through increased political participation), qualitative data illustrate how increased political participation put beliefs regarding gender norms into action, exemplifying the transformative types of agency (Kabeer, 2005). Qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed both independently and in relation to the quantitative findings. Analysis involved looking for commonalities across interviews and observations, noting changes as discussed by women and as ethnographically observed over time (such as women’s increased participation in meetings), and looking for illustrations (through quotations and actions) of processes outlined in the quantitative analysis. 29 We now turn to our results, moving between qualitative and quantitative findings.
5. RESULTS: EMPOWERMENT PROCESSES UNFOLDING Here we first present qualitative data to illustrate the context and relevance of the variables used for measuring empowerment. We then present results from the regression models, which focus on MWEDO involvement as the primary facilitator and resource for empowerment. These results are intermingled with qualitative description to provide deeper
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explanation of the findings. Qualitative data appear again at the end to explain links and flows not articulated in the models and related to the work of UCRT. (a) Context examined: underlying conditions for change Qualitative interviews began with the open ended question, “what are the biggest problems facing women in this community?” The predominant response across villages was women’s lack of ownership/control of anything and therefore dependence on their husbands for everything. Some described this as needing to ask their husband for everything, even salt from the market, and not being able to help themselves because, “everything belongs to the husband.” 30 Some suggested that this situation often leads to arguments and violence. Others described this lack of control over anything as related to the very institution of marriage. As one woman explained, “when you get married you go only with a calabash (for storing milk) on your back. The cattle and children are all under the control of husband. If you want to be in charge at all, if you want to sell [cattle] your husband tells you to be quiet because you came with nothing but a calabash.” 31 This situation is often exacerbated by the marriage exchange, cemented through a bride price paid by the husband to the wife’s family. Women complained that this, combined with not owning anything, leads to a situation where their husband, for all intents and purposes, owns them. They explained that because they are caring for his cattle, his land, and even his children, he could and would beat them if they did so poorly. One woman from Longido explained the situation in general terms: We have problems because there is nothing to say that is mine. Even a child that you give birth to is not yours, but his. You do the work, but all of it is his. Cattle he says are yours but only in name because you cannot sell them or give them away, they are his (Elder widow Longido, May 26, 2009).
For this reason, we include in our measurement of personal agency, decisions that may be otherwise seen as within the realm of women’s work already, such as making decisions about purchasing food or children’s medical care. Women cannot make such decisions without asking their husbands for money, and the husband has the final say (i.e. if the child goes to the hospital or determining how much maize to buy). 32 In this context, women making decisions alone or together with their husbands regarding their children’s health and household economics does indicate increased agency, as does making decisions regarding cattle, land, and sexual intercourse. Women rarely named violence as a major problem impacting their communities, or themselves personally. This is not because violence against women is not a problem in these communities, but because it is so prevalent and accepted as a social norm. We did question women directly about violence they had themselves experienced and their thoughts on a man’s right to beat his wife. There was a standard list of legitimate reasons for a man to beat his wife that was repeated by nearly all women. This list was used to design the questions in the survey as well as to construct the scale used to measure the level with which a woman rejects violence as a form of discipline by her husband. Many women stated that it was necessary for a wife to be disciplined. When pushed, some suggested violence was not needed, though most did think that a beating was permissible in certain circumstances, such as erring with the cattle, or being caught having an extramarital affair. The most common complaint regarding violence was
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what women referred to as ‘beating for no reason,’ and that was nearly always associated with excessive alcohol consumption. (b) Change unfolding: models of quantitative change The processes of empowerment set out in the conceptual model (Figure 1) were operationalized and tested with path models that address the processes of gaining personal agency (Empowerment Processes I, Figures 2 and 3) and the processes that lead to empowerment outcomes (Empowerment Processes II, Figure 4). We hypothesize that resources are needed to enact personal agency which can then provide the ‘power to’ lead to more transformative forms of agency (our outcomes or empowerment indicators). All of the path models were estimated with linear regression and are summarized in Figures 2–4. The first model (Figure 2) summarizes the important resource and control measures that lead to personal agency. All the measures were included in the regression model, but only MWEDO Involvement, husband control, formal education, and breadwinner were statistically significant. Adjusting for all other contextual covariates, MWEDO Involvement shows the strongest effect on personal agency (beta = .25). Husband control and formal education are similar in the magnitude of effect, but, as expected, husband control has a restrictive effect (beta = .15); the effect of formal education is positive (beta = .15) and encourages personal agency. The breadwinner effect is positive (beta = .13) and demonstrates that a wife who generates as much or more income as her husband tends to have higher personal agency, on average. Research from various contexts around the world has shown the link between education and women’s empowerment. Improved education is the single pathway targeted in MDG#3 for women’s empowerment. MWEDO is clearly aware of the importance of education for women. The organization has always worked to support girls’ education through scholarships to needy families and recently established their own boarding school for Maasai girls. Figure 2 shows how specific resources and controls affect the total personal agency score, but it does not reveal how context impacts different components of personal agency. Figure 3 summarizes results from five different path models, each one treating a different personal agency subscale as the dependent variable. The pathways included are those that have statistically significant regression coefficients, with the sign of the
Figure 2. Empowerment processes I: resources and controls affecting personal agency. Note: Standardized coefficients, *p < .10, **p < .05.
coefficient reported on the path. (See Table 2 for specific results for all models.) Starting on the left side, the significant predictors of decision-making regarding land are husband control (negative) and MWEDO involvement (positive). A wife’s decision-making regarding cattle is positively affected by her wealth, i.e., the number of cattle she has, and by her involvement in MWEDO. A wife more often makes household economic decisions and decisions regarding children (healthcare, school, and marriage) if she is the breadwinner. Higher levels of husband’s control inhibit the wife’s decision making regarding the children. Decisions about sexual intercourse between husband and wife are more often made by the wife if she is more involved in MWEDO, and less often made by the wife if she is older. 33 MWEDO involvement is important for decision-making regarding land, cattle, and sexual intercourse, but not for issues involving household economics or children. The effects of formal education are not significant for any of the subscales although it does have a significant effect on overall personal agency. Husband control has a negative effect on decisionmaking regarding land and children. The processes of empowerment that lead to changes in social norms and practices are reported in Figure 4, which reflect the results of three different structural regression models. Each of the outcome measures (political participation, belief in non-traditional gender norms, and non-acceptance of violence as discipline) is the dependent variable in a separate path model that controls for the resources and controls variables, and the total personal agency scale is included in the model as a mediator variable. The significant pathways are reported in Figure 4 along with the signs of the regression coefficients. Coefficient values are reported in Table 3. The model results confirm that personal agency positively affects political participation, non-traditional gender norms, and non-acceptance of violence as discipline. Political participation is also directly and positively affected by wealth (i.e., number of cattle) and MWEDO involvement. Husband control positively affects changes in beliefs regarding the social norms of gender as well as violent discipline. While the model cannot prove directionality, qualitative data highlight that as a woman learns about her rights, she is more likely to react to what she sees as unfair treatment by her husband. This suggests that the more a husband tries to control his wife, the more likely she is to believe he does not have the right to beat her. How can we explain the positive relationship between MWEDO involvement and increased personal agency in the study area? The model cannot confirm causality because all measurements are occurring at the same time, nor are we able to show the impacts of the different MWEDO programs individually. However, we can see that differences in empowerment outcomes do exist across the villages and these correspond to the length of time that MWEDO has been working in each village (in ascending order of time—Oltukai, Kimokouwa, then Longido and Engare Naibor) as presented in Table 4. These differences across villages are likely leading to the corresponding differences in personal agency and empowerment outcomes that we see. Again, the tests for differences in means reported in Table 4 show that, on average, women in Oltukai have significantly lower levels of personal agency (total, cattle, land, and children); lower levels of political participation; and more traditional gender norm beliefs than the women in the other villages. For many of the same measures, the two villages with less exposure to MWEDO (Oltukai and Kimokouwa) have lower levels of personal
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Figure 3. Empowerment processes I: pathways to personal agency subscales.
Figure 4. Empowerment processes II: pathways to outcomes as mediated by personal agency.
Table 2. Standardized regression coefficients from models of empowerment processes I, pathways to personal agency (total and subscales)
Resources and controls MWEDO involvement Husband social control Formal education Number of cattle Breadwinner Age category R-squared
Total n = 147
Land n = 147
Cattle n = 147
HH Economics n = 147
Children n = 147
Sex n = 147
.25** .15* .15* .05 .13* .05 .15
.28** .14* .13 .05 .12 .12 .17
.18** .07 .09 .21** .06 .07 .10
.05 .01 .10 .12 .28** .00 .11
.08 .14* .08 .07 .25** .10 .11
.17** .11 .05 .08 .09 .20** .08
Probability coefficient equals zero: *p < .10,
**
p < .05.
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WORLD DEVELOPMENT Table 3. Standardized regression coefficients from models of empowerment processes II, pathways to outcomes Political participation n = 147
Belief in non-traditional gender norms n = 147
Non-acceptance of violence as discipline n = 147
Resources and controls MWEDO involvement Husband social control Formal education Number of cattle Breadwinner Age category
.24* .01 .01 .17** .12 .12
.02 .19** .16* .06 .01 .04
.09 .21** .09 .04 .32*** -.21**
Personal agency Total R-squared
.14* .16
.16* .09
.23** .25
Probability coefficient equals zero: *p < .10,
**
p < .05,
***
p < .001.
Table 4. Married women characteristics by village exposure to MWEDO Oltukai (1) n = 47
Kimokouwa (2) n = 47
Engare Naibor and Longido (3) n = 66
Resources and controls MWEDO involvement (0,6) Husband social control (0,6) Formal education (0,7) Number of cattle Breadwinner (0,1) Age category (0,1)
2.06 1.85 0.26 9.47 0.46 0.36
2.30 1.70 0.67 13.83 0.22 0.37
3.24 1.65 0.45 8.28 0.42 0.58
1 vs. 2, 3 and 1, 2 vs. 3
Personal agency (household decision making) Total (0,17) Cattle (0,3) Land (0,5) Household economics (0,3) Children (0,3) Sex (0,3)
4.68 0.28 0.04 1.53 0.94 2.02
6.64 0.55 0.57 1.64 1.57 2.40
8.04 0.76 1.81 1.86 1.41 2.23
1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2, 1, 2 vs. 1 vs. 2,
Agents of social transformation Political participation (0,4) Belief in nontraditional gender norms (0,3) Non-acceptance of violent discipline (0,1)
0.40 0.89 0.37
0.81 1.36 0.37
0.82 1.55 0.35
1 vs. 2, 3 1 vs. 2, 3 and 1, 2 vs. 3
agency and empowerment outcomes than the villages where MWEDO is more established (Engare Naibor and Longido). Other differences across the villages that could also be contributing to the different empowerment outcomes include formal education (with Oltukai having much lower levels than all the other villages) and age, with the Longido and Engare Naibor sample being older, on average, than the other two villages. However, given that age is often a deterrent to changing beliefs (see for instance Figure 4), we suggest that the main contribution to the changes we are seeing is involvement in MWEDO, as outlined in the next section. (c) Changes articulated: qualitative findings linked to MWEDO In Oltukai village MWEDO has been working for the shortest period of time and is the only organization working toward women’s empowerment. When asked which MWEDO project has been the most beneficial for them personally, women spoke unanimously about the adult education program. While the program did not necessarily succeed at making all participants literate, it did teach them the national language (Swahili, which most Maasai women do not speak), their political rights, and national laws regarding land, and women’s rights. Women explained that now that they know some Swahili they
Significant contrasts p 6 .10
1 vs. 2, 3
1, 2 vs. 3 3 and 1, 2 vs. 3 3 and 1, 2 vs. 3 3 and 1, 2 vs. 3 3 3
are able to travel more easily and do business without being afraid of being cheated. MWEDOs adult education program is turning Maasai female participants into ‘citizens’. The education program is acting as a form of ‘conscientization’ (Freire, 2000), creating spaces where women can challenge the belief systems that uphold their oppression. 34 They are learning to read and write, and at the same time learning their rights as members of society. As one woman from Longido village remarked “we have opened our eyes; now we know that [men & women] should be equal.” When asked if this was impacting her behavior, the woman replied, that yes, now “we educate our daughters,” and “we know that we feed our children, so everything that comes inside the house, we go to look for it so we have it.” 35 This highlights how the education process is leading to changes in how women think about themselves personally and about what it means to be a Maasai woman more broadly. 36 It also illustrates the continuous process of empowerment outlined in Figure 1, with involvement in MWEDO leading to changes in attitudes and beliefs related to social norms, which is leading to increased agency in terms of decisions about children and household economics, as well as linking back into transformative changes in beliefs in gender norms. One woman articulated these connections:
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If you are given to a man [in marriage] it will keep you from going to school and getting education. If a girl gets education it will bring her own decision [for marriage] and she will be happy in her heart and will come to get everything she wants.
we can see we have a benefit. No one can claim it [the land] or tell you what to do [with it]. [Q: even if the land is in the name of the woman together with her husband? He can’t take the profit?] No he can’t. He doesn’t know where it (the title) is because I went to get it myself! 40
Through the adult education programs women are also learning about the importance of land ownership, which seems to have opened up many potential pathways for change. Whereas cattle ownership is still seen by many women as culturally male, land ownership is a fairly new concept to Maasai women and men and thus easier for women to conceptualize as something they can participate in. Additionally, since MWEDO is promoting family land titles, which women seek out and have their names on together with their husbands, men were often quite receptive and supportive of the process. 37 When asked about the potential for land ownership to bring about change, women spoke at length about the possibilities, including the ability to grow their own food (or keep their own cattle), to feed themselves and their children, and as directly linked to knowing their rights. A widow dependent on her eldest son and living in Oltukai explained:
In villages where MWEDO had worked longer there was also more discussion about the benefits of the economic empowerment projects. Women explained they were able to make money through small business activities and this seemed to decrease beatings by their husbands. Several women explained that if they came home late, normally their husband would beat them, but if they brought food for the family then he could not beat them. Such shifts in economic power in the household are likely leading to an increase in a woman’s agency as she contributes toward the household budget (as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, and discussed above). This suggests that certain aspects of increased agency, such as economic decision-making, facilitated through involvement in MWEDO (indirectly by becoming a breadwinner), can have specific impacts on transformative processes of empowerment. Therefore, while the models may not prove direct links between MWEDO involvement and changing beliefs (in social norms and violence), change seems to be happening through increased personal agency in the household. Qualitative data highlight changing attitudes and beliefs among women participating in MWEDO, and these attitudes are much more visible in the villages where MWEDO has been working longer and where the CLF is also active. The rhetoric around women’s rights and land rights in these villages was stronger than in Oltukai village, where most women did not know the term ‘women’s rights’ and could not articulate what it meant. In Oltukai, women also spoke a lot more about the customary rules governing women’s participation, the only transformative outcome that our model shows MWEDO involvement is affecting directly (see Figure 4). Women in Oltukai in particular explained that they did not stand at meetings because it was not their place to do so. In contrast, in the villages where MWEDO had been working much longer, women were well versed on the discourse of women’s rights, and commented strongly and with pride, that of course they stand while speaking, why should they not! Though for some, this was only at MWEDO meetings. Speaking at village and government meetings was still a challenge. Change was seen as coming gradually, linked to knowledge of rights, access to resources, education, and the example of local female leaders. One woman from Longido village explained her view in response to a question about women speaking at village meetings:
[Land ownership] will bring big benefits because if I get my own land and house I can wake up and do my own business you can get 2– 3 days to do something. Long ago if you left for 2–3 days you would be kicked out of the boma [homestead]. . . . [With land] you can buy your own things and you won’t need to beg your husband [or son] anymore for everything—soap, clothes, even a spoon. 38
She also suggested that land ownership could reduce domestic violence against women, because women will know their rights and men will be afraid to violate that, Up until I get a land title, I will have received knowledge to get this thing that on my own I own. When men are used to being the only ones to own things, they will know that it is my right to own things so it is not just them [men] and they will be afraid of other things.
A young married woman with an abusive alcoholic husband argued that if she had her own land, she would make her own decisions to buy what she wanted and “not depend on or have to beg for everything.” 39 Furthermore, she suggested that land ownership would make it possible for her to speak at public meetings: If I had a piece of land that I knew was mine and was put aside for my purposes, I would be able to stand and speak at meetings. [Why? What is the difference?] It is just bitterness, that I don’t know how I will get my needs met [that prevents me from speaking].
In Longido and Engare Naibor villages, the process of obtaining land titles started much earlier, and while many women were able to articulate the benefits of land ownership, learned through MWEDO trainings, most were still without actual titles, and were frustrated with the process. As the quotes above suggest, it was the education about the process of obtaining land that brought knowledge of rights, even if the title to land was not yet actualized. In many cases the additional training in these two villages through the work of the UCRT Women’s Forums highlighted the larger political issues related to land, creating a political consciousness among women as elaborated below. Some women who did receive land titles articulated the benefits in a more political way, as linked to larger societal oppression and land grabbing by the government and outsiders, as well as freedom from their husbands. One woman with a title explained that land brought, Change. Because we won’t come again to be oppressed by the leaders. They can’t sell again a place where we live. Also we get benefits because if I sell anything, the benefit is mine, it is no longer my husband’s. So
Yes, women speak. But at meetings, many are ashamed to speak. Today, there are some women who are not afraid to speak, but others are still afraid. . . . It is not [because of fear] that if I say this I will be beaten, we just got used to being beaten, so today we are afraid to speak in front of the elders because of respect [enkanyit]. 41 So you can not stand, but some, these elected leaders, can stand. . . . But it is changing now. Those who have studied, they know how to stand up for our rights. . . .. Those who can speak at meetings can say that a woman gets her rights, gets her land and to stand in meetings. 42
We explain the impact of MWEDO involvement on participation as linked to education about rights, but also as related to “empowerment by example.” Recall that our measurement for MWEDO involvement includes not only participating in MWEDO projects but also attending MWEDO meetings and speaking at them. At these meetings women are encouraged not only to speak, but also to stand while speaking. When women come to Annual MWEDO Meetings in Arusha from villages where women do not stand at meetings, they see other Maasai women standing to speak. Women spoke at length in interviews about the power of such experiences.
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“These are women just like us,” they would say. “If they stand, why can’t we?” Many women begin by standing while speaking at MWEDO meetings, then take this behavior home with them exemplifying empowerment by example. (d) Qualitative findings beyond MWEDO: UCRT and the CLF In this section we show how the work of the UCRT CLF is contributing to women’s increased participation and changing beliefs in social norms, and through both there is increased action for change at the societal level. After the women’s forum was established in a village, women began to hold their own meetings to deliberate problems and set agendas. They also received knowledge about their legal rights through education and training from UCRT and partner organizations. One woman expressed the value of the CLF from a rights perspective: Long ago, women had no worth/value. We were just like children! Long ago, women were very badly oppressed and there was nothing you could say. If you spoke [at a meeting], the men would say, ‘oh these are only children’s issues you are speaking of!’ Today we know our rights; we have had our eyes opened from these seminars. So for me, I see that the oppression and exploitation of women has decreased.
The CLF also encourages recognition of women as leaders, able to participate in decision-making processes at the community level. This is changing perceptions of women’s role in social leadership and their capacity to contribute to meetings, as expressed by a woman from Longido: Now we have come out of the darkness, we have seen the light [kiti atwa ewang’an], because we can share a meeting with men. During discussions amongst men now they say to us, ‘women we want to hear your ideas.’ They [women] now stand and state their ideas.
Both men and women spoke at length about how the words of women are now more officially recognized as important because of the CLF. Men are not only asking women to speak, but they are listening to them and valuing what they say. It was the work of combining the male and female forums that facilitated this transformation. Male leaders in Longido suggested that having women on the CLF would help with leadership and unity within the community as a whole. One male leader stated, Together we will be able to work better to help the community. First, women work with society more than men. A man can decide to sell the farm, and the woman won’t agree because she knows she has children to raise. Also, if we meet together (as a joint forum), they will contribute more ideas regarding development. 43
When asked what the value was of bringing together the two forums, one elder woman explained that there was “a big benefit because women were given a chance to put forth their ideas.” A younger married woman explained that, “it is helpful because long ago we couldn’t stand in the middle of men, but now it helps me to become accustomed to standing in front of men, speaking and being heard!” 44 Here we see more than empowerment by example, but also empowerment through experience and changing expectations about the role of women in society. It does not presume that empowerment is always about resistance (Mahmood, 2005) but rather highlights the subtle ways that power plays out and can be transformed through social relations and individual behaviors. The work of the CLF is therefore doing more than teaching women their rights and capabilities; it is also creating an institutional setting where such knowledge can be transformed into action and the role of women in society can be re-thought. That women are officially given a seat at the leadership table means they are given the right to discuss certain issues with
the larger community in an official capacity. Women have always played an important role in mediating the decisions of men in Maasai society. Some explained the behind the scenes role that women play in decision making processes with the term, ‘olaigwanani lol-choni’ or the spokesman/leader of the bed. This refers to the words a man hears from his wife (or mother), when he goes home to think about an important issue, or to ‘sleep on it’ before presenting a decision to a larger meeting. The man will then come to the meeting the following day and state that he was advised in a particular way, suggesting that he dreamt or thought while sleeping, of what to say. All present will know that it was the wise words of his wife or mother that lay behind the man’s decision. 45 The CLF is bringing this important role of women into the open. It is also enabling other issues particularly important for women, to be addressed in official settings. In a group interview in Longido women discussed the work of the forum as: To join women with leadership and to persuade other women regarding education, and to teach them their rights. To teach women that they have political rights, to be a [ward level] counselor, etc. in government. To change bad traditions, regarding women not inheriting, and to keep those [traditions] that are good. And to know that women can own cattle, not only men. So if her children need something she can sell cattle, not only the men.
When asked if and how the forum was helping them, one woman spoke about the forum as being an important space to address issues that affect women, such as violence: I am really happy to have the women’s forum because women have, for many years now, been left behind, and the forum is a tool that will help us address the problems that affect women. For instance, long ago if you were beaten or exploited [by your husband] you had no place to go. Today we can solve our problems by meeting and discussing our concerns together.
Even though the CLF is still new, in Engare Naibor, where it has existed the longest, women have already begun working on specific issues at the community level. One member (who was also a counselor for the area) explained that the women’s forum was created to do the following things: deal with land rights, alcoholism, and to find the money to send children to secondary school. In fact, this particular forum succeeded at passing a local law banning the production and sale of homemade liquor, which is one of the main causes of increased alcoholism in the area leading to more incidences of domestic violence. They successfully fought for land that was acquired illegally to be returned to families/women and they were working on mechanisms to make such sales difficult to occur in the future. As one member stated, “we need to protect our land. If we sell all the land then where will we graze cattle? The main objective of the CLF is to protect land from being stolen.” They were also working to prevent unregulated use of pastures by Kenyans crossing into Tanzania. In places where the CLF is working, women spoke of it as the most powerful ‘empowerment’ intervention. Economics was important, but this was more important. Not only were they learning their rights, they were building an official space within which to activate those rights at the community level. Yet at the same time, economics remained salient. Some of the women participating in the forum requested assistance in developing economic groups. Others used the forum as a vehicle to create their own economic development projects. 6. CONCLUSION Empowerment as a goal of individual and societal transformation is difficult if not impossible to measure. Yet it is
INNOVATIVE GRASSROOTS NGOS AND THE COMPLEX PROCESSES OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
important to understand the impacts of empowerment-based development programs on both individual participants and societies at large (Nagar & Raju, 2003). Empowerment must occur at both levels to truly result in transformative change. In this paper we have outlined a way to measure empowerment outcomes, while holding on to an understanding of empowerment as an on-going and iterative process occurring along multiple pathways across different socio-spatial scales. We have shown that women exposed to different NGO empowerment interventions, seem to be experiencing changes that can be seen as part of a process of empowerment at individual and societal levels—in actions, beliefs, and attitudes. Our models do not explain all the changes we are seeing, though the qualitative data suggest that many of the changes can be attributed to activities related to the NGO activity being analyzed. There are processes that we did not measure, or where our measurements did not work very well, such as: the role of church involvement; social psychological measures such as friends and family who may serve as role models for personal agency; and indicators of individual character such as resilience, willfulness, tenacity, personal strength, etc. Such factors are difficult to get at in a survey, particularly in a different cultural setting. The words from Maasai themselves regarding what it means to be empowered suggest that many of these personal traits (e.g. willfulness, tenacity, strength) are important contributors, but also that education and awareness are needed for women with such traits to realize their full potential. Our qualitative data show this by highlighting the value of the adult education program, empowerment by example, and the work of the CLF in providing the resources for women to enhance personal and collective agency. 46 Our conceptual model draws from Kabeer’s framework that empowerment implies increased agency and achievements within a particular context of resources and constraints. We contextualize this to reflect local power dynamics and social norms, including an appreciation of the different ways in which power plays out within households, across different generations of women, between men and women, within the community at large; and how the introduction of new resources from NGOS may contribute to changes across these dynamics. For instance, though older women often have more power within the household, our study shows that through resources introduced by NGOs, younger women are gaining the ability
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to exercise new forms of power: power to make decisions in the household; power within, to think differently about a husband’s right to beat them and to question other gendered societal norms; and power-with others by standing up and speaking at meetings and through the CLF to gain power to be recognized officially for the power they have always had, and to push for societal changes. Some of these changes work to challenge customary norms, some of them work with customary norms to improve the lives of men and women (i.e., keeping marriages together, preventing land grabs). MWEDO members have also put together their own ‘political forums’ so as to create the necessary conditions for power-with and to create more female political leaders. Innovative grassroots organizations know that women’s issues cannot be isolated into separate compartments neatly treated by individual projects. Women participating in education programs are learning about political rights and rights to land. As a result, they are gaining skills and simultaneously transforming their personal beliefs and attitudes. As women attend MWEDO meetings they are learning about women’s rights and the power of participation. As a result, they are gaining the strength to stand and speak at meetings, which challenges personal, household, and societal norms simultaneously. The CLF is providing a space for women to engage directly with men as leaders, giving women a stronger voice in societal affairs and challenging societal gender norms and behaviors. We argue that it is through these connections across scales (from personal bodies, to household relations, to larger communities) and pathways (economic, political, and personal) that empowerment is happening in these villages. Women are making the connections themselves—taking their education to their economic groups, using economic earnings to demand new rights in the household, and making sure that they participate in decision making about their children, especially their daughters, to enable empowerment of the next generation of women. Here we can see the way that empowerment is necessarily a relational and iterative process. One that involves changing (and sometimes reinforced) subject positions in terms of what it means to be a Maasai woman (strong, capable, respectful, but also with a new set of rights); new concepts of rights for men and woman, and new spaces to voice and act out these rights in ways that can lead to changes societally.
NOTES 1. The goal is stated as to “promote gender equality and empower women,” and is to be achieved through eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ gender.shtml (accessed March 5, 2014). 2. This is common practice, Batliwala (2007) reminds us, for development practice relies on ‘buzzwords, catchphrases, and simple rhetoric, that can be used across disciplinary boundaries, cultural contexts, and the policy-academic divide. 3. A key aspect of magic bullet responses is the simplification of the field of intervention, and the promotion of deliverable, measurable outcomes. 4. UN gender empowerment measurements do look at multiple measurements simultaneously, but have been critiqued for providing only aggregate measurements that can be misleading and for being biased toward the most educated and economically advantaged members of society (Cueva Beteta, 2006; Moghadam & Senftova, 2005). For instance, education is measured only as enrollment ratios at primary, secondary,
and tertiary schools, political participation is measured by parliament seats and economic empowerment by looking at participation in formal economic spheres. 5. We cannot claim to be doing the sort of collaborative research promoted by transnational feminists (Nagar, 2008; Sangtin Writers & Nagar, 2006), though we do place a great deal of value on the women’s own views of change and struggle. 6. Words of Sofia Parkipuny (interview, 2011). She typed this up herself in response to a series of open questions about what empowerment means. She herself came from a rural village background and worked with different Maasai-based NGOs since completing her education. She tragically passed away as a young mother in 2012. 7. Interview, Arusha 2011. 8. These include culturally sanctioned wife beating, forced child-marriages (often to much older men), men’s control of all property (cattle and custody of children), and female genital cutting.
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9. http://maasaiwomentanzania.tripod.com/mission.htm. Accessed November 17, 2013.
22. See Appendix for complete table of variables included in the construction of individual scales.
10. This comes from an interview with the executive director, 2009. She explicitly commented on these being “programs” and not “projects”, as projects are more finite and can change.
23. As most Maasai women are illiterate, they have difficulty calculating their exact age. Maasai men everywhere, and the women in our study area, are recognized as belonging to age-sets, determined by when they were circumcised. Using age-set distinctions proved a more reliable method to get the general age of a woman.
11. Through a scholarship fund and with MWEDOs own boarding school. 12. Women are not dissuaded from pursuing their own individual titles or titles for land to be held in common by a MWEDO women’s group.
24. This knowledge comes from the lead author’s long-standing ethnographic research with Maasai communities across Tanzania and Kenya. 25. See description in qualitative findings, and in Appendix.
13. The lead author observed one of these meetings, when MWEDO was just introducing the issue into Oltukai village, and the active involvement of men in the discussion was a vital part of gaining community support for the issue. 14. This structure mimics the Tanzanian governance system to facilitate acceptance and collaboration. 15. This is related to the power and influence of the long standing MP for the area and subtle but long-term tensions between the two dominant ethnic groups in the district—Maasai and Arusha. The political tensions make it difficult for some NGOs to work in the area and have lead to a situation where the women are less aware and more isolated then women in other villages, which may be more geographically isolated but have a lot of NGO activity. While this isolation itself could be a factor impacting women’s empowerment levels, the fact that changes have been happening since the start of MWEDO working in the village suggests they are not insurmountable and rather provide an ideal context for looking at change as related to NGO activity. In this paper we look only at the comparison across villages. Data were collected to analyze change in year 4 of the study and is still being analyzed, but preliminary analysis highlights changes occurring in this village which echo our findings here.
26. The question that asked if a woman had experienced violence from her husband in the last year had 32 missing responses. The question that asked about ever experiencing such violence had little variation (83% reporting yes). 27. One of the variables in the scale include being beaten “for no reason”, which thus covers occurrences of violence beyond disciplining, and for which most women did not believe was acceptable. We frame the results as ‘violence for discipline’, since beating as a form of discipline is such a common and long-held belief for Maasai women that changes in it suggest important and empowering changes for women. 28. All scales and survey questions used to represent measures of resources and controls, personal agency, and outcomes, are described in detail in Appendix. 29. For example, quotations appear in qualitative interviews of women explaining increased agency; the lead author also noted observed changes in participation or in certain women’s behavior in the household and broader community. 30. Interview with a woman in Oltukai, March 2, 2010.
16. Longido split from Monduli District in 2006, but did not receive a district council until 2007. 17. Other NGOs include: TEMBO (run by Canadians, working on girls education, HIV/AIDs education, preventing FGM, and micro-enterprise development and 27.9% of women interviewed in Longido are involved); LOSSIP (started by a local Maasai man, working on education and training), World Vision, and other smaller organizations. 18. Only 3.3% of women interviewed in Kimokowo were involved in TEMBO. 19. With Shelly Grabe, University of California-Santa Cruz, Department of Psychology.
31. Interview with elder woman, Kimokowa, May 2009. 32. For instance, there was one household where women were told by the male head of the household that they could not prepare maize in a particular way because it used too much maize at one time and therefore cost more money than the more efficient technique of grinding and then cooking the maize. In another situation a woman’s husband (abusive and alcoholic) refused to let her take her extremely sick child to the hospital even when she secured her own funding. 33. This highlights the ways that age can act as a control, in this case with younger women gaining power through MWEDO to have more control in decisions regarding marital sex.
20. Drawing from the literature in human geography on scale, we do not see these as fixed spatial units, but rather as relational categories or as nested vertical spatial organization of social relations (Brenner, 2001), that are socially constructed. As Swyngadow states, (1997: 141, cited in Leitner & Miller, 2007: p. 117): “scales ‘are perpetually redefined, contested, and restructured in terms of their extent, content, relative importance, and interrelations’ (Swyngedouw, 1997, p. 141).”
34. We prefer this term as it draws from the powerful work of Paulo Freire which is based in adult education and critical consciousness as a form of liberation in a developing world context, to ‘consciousness raising’ which draws from the work of Western Feminists and is more directly activist oriented.
21. While Maasai women, by custom, do not officially ‘own’ cattle, they are given cattle at marriage by their husbands, and some come with cattle (from their father) to the marriage. The women often refer to these cattle as ‘theirs’. Additionally some women today are acquiring their own cattle. We did not specify the difference in this survey so can only speak to cattle ownership as a sign of wealth.
36. The shifting subject positions of women as related NGO involvement is complex and beyond the scope of this paper. Women have begun to see themselves as citizens with rights they were previously unaware of. Yet this has not diminished their feelings about what it means to be a proper Maasai women, which is often related to respecting and receiving respect from men, and not challenging certain cultural norms. For instance, one
35. Interview, Longido June 2011.
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elder woman used her economic independence and success to give her husband the money to pay for her bride price, which he had never paid. To her, this was not at all an ironic or contradictory act. She did not feel like a complete woman, because this important cultural act was incomplete and she was empowered economically and socially within the relationship to make it happen, even though it was an act that many women saw as part of their subordination, as described above.
41. The Maasai notion of respect (enkanyit) can inhibit some from speaking in front of others because of “fear” associated with respect and social norms governing behavior see Goldman and Milliary (2014) and Hodgson (2001).
37. Some women, widows in particular, are requesting individual titles. There are also MWEDO groups that are requesting group titles.
44. Interview with five women and five men (all but one, members of the forum), June 24, 2010.
38. Interview with widow, Oltukai July 2009.
45. I thank Elifuraha Laltika and Alais Morindat for clarification on this term.
42. Interview with married woman, Longido May 26, 2009. 43. Interview with male Customary Leader, Kimokowa, Longido June 2010.
46. Here, “agency” refers to shifts if official presence and actions and not necessarily resistance to subordination or complete political change (see also Saba Mahmood’s Politics of Piety for an in depth discussion of need to complexify understandings of agency”).
39. Interview with young married woman, Oltukai July 2009. 40. Interview with widow, Longido May 26 2009.
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APPENDIX A See Table 5.
Table 5. Scale construction, survey questions, and distributions Resources and controls
Alpha
Survey questions
MWEDO involvement
0.573
Number of MWEDO meetings attended: village/ general assembly? Number of MWEDO meetings attended: meeting of MWEDO members in the village? Number of MWEDO annual meetings attended in Arusha? Speaks at MWEDO meetings? Participated in MWEDO economic empowerment/ business? Participated in MWEDO adult education?
Husband Social control
0.592
Husband always wants to know where she is? Husband tries to keep you from seeing your friends? Husband tries to restrict contact with your family of birth? Husband insists on knowing where you are at all times? Husband tries to keep you from going to the market? Husband tries to keep her from attending celebrations?
Coding for scale
% Scoring 1
0 = none, 1 = 1 or more
23.1
0 = none, 1 = 1 or more
51.2
0 = none, 1 = 1 or more
30.0
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
30.0 45.0
0 = no, 1 = yes
82.5
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
66.0 11.9 5.7
0 = no, 1 = yes
65.4
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
7.6 15.7 % Scoring
Formal education
Attended school? Highest level of education achieved?
0 1 2 3 6
= = = = =
did not attend school primary completed primary some secondary technical school
75.9 10.8 10.8 0.6 1.9
Number of cattle
How many cattle do you own (have)?
0-300
Breadwinner
Amount of money she brings in relative to husband?
0 = less than husband, 1 = about the same or more than husband
Age category
Woman’s age-set?
0 = younger (Njunjulai, Ngali/ 54.4 Ndyamaragi, Mbuluku) 1 = older (Isusan, Mosogiro, Mugambo, 45.6 Ngaimug, Isikanyi)
% Scoring 0 5.2 % Scoring 1 36.3 % Scoring
Personal agency (household decision making)
Alpha Survey questions
Coding for scale
% Scoring 1
(continued on next page)
INNOVATIVE GRASSROOTS NGOS AND THE COMPLEX PROCESSES OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
777
Table 5 (continued) Resources and controls
Alpha
Total Cattle Subscale
0.583 0.749
Land subscale
0.877
Survey questions
Coding for scale
% Scoring 1
Do you make cattle decisions? You make the final decision in buying livestock? You make the final decision in selling livestock?
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
32.7 13.1 12.5
You have control of plot? Your name is on the title?
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
23.8 23.1 % Scoring
Number of acres officially owned?
0 = none (.05 thru 4 = 1) (5 thru 9 = 2) (10 thru highest = 3)
71.9 16.9 6.3 5.0 % Scoring 1
HH Economic Subscale
0.560
You make the final decision in buying food items? You make the final decision in buying small HH items? You make the final decision in buying clothes for children?
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
55.0 79.4
0 = no, 1 = yes
35.6
Child Subscale
0.765
You make the final decision in child health care? You make the final decision in child education? You make the final decision in child marriage?
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
60.0 41.3 30.6
Sexual Subscale
0.834
You make the final decision on use of contraception? 0 = no, 1 = yes You make the final decision on the number of 0 = no, 1 = yes children? You make the final decision to have or not to have 0 = no, 1 = yes sex?
74.7 69.3 81.8
Outcomes (social norms and practices)
Alpha Survey Questions
Coding for scale
% Scoring 1
Political participation
0.832
Speaks at governance meetings? Stands to speak at governance meetings? Speaks at village meetings? Stands to speak at village meetings?
0 0 0 0
yes yes yes yes
7.5 6.9 29.4 25.6
Non-traditional Gender Beliefs
0.470
Men should share in household tasks?
0 = no, 1 = yes
16.3
Woman should choose man to marry? Woman should expect equal freedom?
0 = no, 1 = yes 0 = no, 1 = yes
75.6 38.1
If a woman does not complete her housework to husband’s satisfaction it is (not) ok for her husband to hit her? If a woman made an error regarding livestock it is (not) ok for her husband to hit her? If a woman disobeys or disrespects her husband it is (not) ok for him to hit her? If a woman refuses to have sex with her husband it is (not) ok for him to hit her? If a woman asks her husband if he has other lovers it is (not) ok for her husband to hit her? If a husband suspects his wife has a lover it is (not) ok for him to hit her? If a husband finds out that his wife has a lover it is (not) ok for him to hit her?
0 = no, 1 = yes
64.4
0 = no, 1 = yes
10.6
0 = no, 1 = yes
10.6
0 = no, 1 = yes
16.5
0 = no, 1 = yes
87.3
0 = no, 1 = yes
61.2
0 = no, 1 = yes
3.1
Non-acceptance of discipline
0.615
= = = =
no, no, no, no,
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
1 1 1 1
= = = =