Gender and Empowerment in Bawku West District, Ghana

The growing number of development projects focusing on women gives the impression that many CBO¿s, NGO¿s and International Institutions now put faith in the contribution of women empowerment to achieve development. Women empowerment is about supporting women to take control of their lives, but can it also stir up the existing power balance within families? This work examines how a local Ghanaian NGO that aims to empower women in terms of knowledge and access to land, has influenced the everyday life of women and men in a rural patriarchal community. Empowerment and gender are understood differently and this work analyse how diverse interpretations of those concepts affects the impact of empowerment. The analysis also shed light on how to include men in the process of empowering women in order to strengthen the level of cooperation within the families. This book, therefore, should be useful to development actors and other professionals that emphasis on avoiding a feminization of obligations and responsibilities.