Reformulating the empowerment process through women entrepreneurship in a collective context

Purpose- The purpose of this study is to develop an empirically informed framework to analyse women empowerment and entrepreneurship, contextualized within a collective society.

Design/methodology/approach- The authors conducted fifteen in-depth semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs located in the United Arab Emirates to understand their entrepreneurial experiences and how they were empowered.

Findings- Findings suggest the three aspects of power characterized as ‘positive’ from within Rowlands’ distinctions (‘power to’, ‘power with’ and ‘power within’) dominate, as opposed to those emphasized in the literature (‘power to’ and ‘power over’). Findings include empowerment of the ‘me’ (individual) also synergistically contributes to empowerment of the ‘we’ (society), when considering empowerment within a collective society.

Originality- A psychology model was used as a basis to develop a Collective Empowerment Process Framework. This framework provides a fresh look at empowerment, allowing for explanations of how women in specific contexts experience empowerment and social change.