Finding Empowerment through Continuing Training – Spanish Women’s Perceptions

Abstract

Empowerment refers to a positive change in the holistic well-being. In this study, the discourse of empowerment is discussed in the light of continuing training process among women in an Andalusian village, in Southern Spain. The study leans on critical pedagogy and feminist anthropology, through which the empowerment process was studied. This is an ethnographic study and a part of a wider fieldwork made during 2003-2007. The informants were woman who attended in a regional continuing education program which aim was at prevent and decrease unemployment as well as at provide further education in growing occupational fields. The empiric data were generated within the training period 2004-2005 during which the informants participated in a course of nursing and health care. Data consist of interviews, field notes, and questionnaires. On the basis of the empirical knowledge, the purpose is to discuss the empowering possibilities that continuing training can offer. Based on the results, the education period appeared an educational intervention enabling a change in women’s subject positions and empowerment at the personal level.