A Women’s Empowerment Campaign in Egypt: Is It Really Empowering?

Abstract

Abstract The last few years have seen many movements aimed at empowering women worldwide. The question of what it means to be empowered and how to empower others needs to be studied further. Using ‘Taa Marbuta,’ a women’s empowerment campaign in Egypt, this paper attempts to understand the process of empowerment from the campaign/content creators’ perspective, including levels of empowerment and forms of power, and factors that influence a campaign success or failure. In-depth interviews with the campaign makers were conducted, as well as a textual analysis of the campaign messages. The analysis shows that the campaign exhibited three forms of power: power from, power to, and power over, and created a sense of belonging among advocates. Organizational empowerment was strongly apparent, followed by individual empowerment, but with minimal community empowerment. The context, leadership, political will, variety of communication channels, and collaborations among community organizers were success factors, while stereotypes and focus on awareness-raising instead of actions acted as barriers.