“We are already strong, do we really need to prove that again?” Migrantised women’s situated meanings of “gender empowerment” in Belgium

Many governments, civil society organisations (CSOs), and policy makers promote “gender empowerment,” as part of larger policies on gender equality, inclusion, and equal opportunities in society. In Belgium, civil society organisations are prominent actors to realise such empowerment. However, less is known about the situated meanings of the concept of “empowerment.” This study investigates how migrantised women participating in civil society organisations defined “gender empowerment” for themselves. Given that migrantised women are often targeted by these policies, we used a multi-staged sample, recruiting 30 participants from 3 civil society organisations and interviewing them across multiple rounds. Our findings reveal that “empowerment” was interpreted as an individual process, and not a top-down evaluation of external parties. Participants’ definitions, their social positions, and the contexts in which they lived shape what they defined as empowering. Given the structural barriers most participants were confronted with, being able to navigate within existing structures step-by-step, instead of overcoming them, was considered as empowering. This aligns with Mahmood’s call for a redefinition of “agency” and a more careful use of the concept of “empowerment” in policies.