Reflections on the Elliot reading: Global Empowerment of Women

So I'm feeling a bit frenzied with this entry (considering that I'm leading discussion w/ Lindsey in a few hrs) but it's because I've needed more time to process today's reading than what I originally thought that I would... there's my disclaimer ;-)

The preface and intro to the book do a good job framing the scholarly contributions that each of the essays contribute to the notion of women's empowerment in a global sense. I appreciate that the work is guided by the explicit commitment to developing analytical and practical alternatives to contemporary global hegemonies. As Chow (p. 95) argued: "Empowerment is dialectical and paradoxical. What constitutes empowerment in one context may be disempowering in another" therefore it is necessary to further our processing of these complex issues by delving further into each case study.

Here are a few general questions that I hope we can address during discussion today:

How has "empowerment" (specifically women's) been defined, measured, and deployed? Examples? Problems with these definitions? How do you interpret the word?

Are there theoretical intersections between gender, globalization, governance, violence, politics, and diversity? Such as?

As allotted, I'm focusing on the second half of the reading for today (chpts. 4-6... 7 seems like an outlier to the initial arguments) so I will offer my thoughts and questions regarding this section here:

Chow: Empowerment of Women Migrant Factory Workers in South China

As evidenced by the reading, how/why is labor migration gendered?

In this case, beyond economic empowerment, what are some other benefits that women migrant workers take away from their work? Can we elaborate on these notions? (p. 94)

Silvey: Transnational Domestication: State Power and Indonesian Migrant Women in Saudi Arabia

What should individual states do to better protect women migrant workers? Is there an ideal normative role of the state?

Lingam: Domains of Empowerment: Women in Micro-Credit Groups Negotiating with Multiple Patriarchies

As evidence by the increase in dhairyam (self-confidence) and thelivi (awareness) by women in the three villages that were investigated, why is it imperative to support women in discovering their voice as citizens?

From the reading, what are some examples of community-level empowerment and/or presonal/private empowerment that the women experienced?