“I could do that!”– The role of a women's non-governmental organisation in increasing women's psychological empowerment and civic participation in Wales

Hibbs, Leah 2022. “I could do that!”– The role of a women's non-governmental organisation in increasing women's psychological empowerment and civic participation in Wales. Women's Studies International Forum 90 , 102557. 10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102557

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Abstract

Empowering women and girls, and increasing their participation in civil society, has become a core focus of international sustainable development policy. However, there is a lacuna regarding research into the role of women's Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which improve women's psychological, feminist empowerment in the United Kingdom and so findings are presented here from an in-depth qualitative case-study of a Welsh women's NGO which aimed to psychologically empower women and, subsequently, improve their civic participation. The women interviewed experienced increases in their individual psychological empowerment, formed important ‘sisterhood’ and friendships, and did become more involved in civil society. The paper centralizes the ways in which the NGO played a key role in individually empowering interviewees, further equipping them with skills and resources to enable their future participation in civic life. This paper makes an original empirical and conceptual contribution by adapting Zimmerman's Psychological Empowerment Framework to offer new insights into the processes of engendering civic participation and empowering women in a feminist group context.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0277-5395
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	18 January 2022
Date of Acceptance:	14 December 2021
Last Modified:	17 May 2023 17:21
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/146766

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