Responsibility, Participation, and Social Engagement: Women's Capacity-Building Programs in Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

This thesis explores the empowerment effects of arts-and-crafts programs targeting women in Johannesburg, South Africa, focusing mainly on one case study: Boitumelo Sewing Project. Interviews with participants, facilitators, and management reveal that empowerment manifests in Boitumelo Project primarily in individual and collective forms, though also on an economic level to a limited degree. While many development projects focus on economic empowerment, this research suggests that other forms of empowerment may be even more important in the long term. Economic empowerment helps people meet short-term responsibilities, but it is through individual and collective empowerment that personal and community forms of healing take place, enabling people to engage more successfully in society overall. In light of this, I argue that development projects should focus on engendering genuine participatory empowerment on both the individual and collective levels in order to increase sustainability and development success in the long term.