No abstract

This chapter presents the concept of dis/empowerment in the context of women victims of intimate partner violence, identifying the act of violence against women as a product of a patriarchal society. The chapter suggests the idea that empowerment is a stepping stone into power, an ability to act or control one's life, that exists within people and communities, that is shared and transferred among members of society, all the while moving between layers of the individual and the collective. The chapter includes a description of the project Stronger Together as an example of the individual impact on the collective. The collective, or community, however does not exist in a vacuum, but is located within patriarchy itself, and therefore the circle of disempowerment and empowerment happen all in one place, raising the question as to whether cultivating individual power based on one's subjective needs is truly possible from the place where we stand.