Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores migrant women and girls' views on 'gender empowerment’ and inclusion. Drawing on results of the Horizon Europe project ReIncluGen, it will contrast their narratives with Civil Social Organizations' narratives and practices, and those underlying public policies focusing on them.

Paper Abstract:

Since the Beijing World Conference (1995), ‘Gender empowerment’ has been used to refer to the promotion of women's participation in decision-making processes in any field as a means to advance equity and equality. In general, the current rhetoric adopted by inclusion policies in Europe seems to aim at the empowerment of women with an immigrant background. However, the empirical dimension of the actions carried out, are often limited about what migrant women and girls need to achieve. It is even more difficult to understand the views and imaginaries surrounding ‘gender empowerment’ and inclusion held by these women and girls and how they perceive the social problems associated with these concepts.

Applying a situated intersectional perspective (Yuval-Davis, 2015), this communication contributes to addressing this gap and answering how migrant women define gender empowerment and inclusion.

Drawing on results of the ReInclugen project (EU Horizon-RIA, 2023-25), this work explores the narratives of 30 migrant women involved in 3 different Spanish Civil Social Organizations (CSOs). Ethnographic fieldwork has been carried out including participant observation, focus group discussions and photo-voicing interviews.

The analyses will question if they define gender empowerment at all, if it’s relevant in their life story or what similar notions are used by them in contrast to the CSOs' definitions and those underlying the public equality or integration policies that focus on them.

We will present an analysis of approaches allocation acting as a counter-narrative of women and girls' emancipatory processes that can inform social policies beyond hegemonic discourses.