Effects of an empowerment program for survivors of sexual violence on attitudes and beliefs: evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Background Women’s empowerment may require women to change their beliefs and views about their rights and capabilities. Empowerment programs often target women who have survived sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), with the justification that these women may develop disempowered beliefs as a coping mechanism, or face greater barriers to, or derive greater benefits from, the adoption of empowered beliefs and preferences. We investigated an intensive, six-month residential empowerment program (“City of Joy”) for SGBV survivors in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where more than one in five women have experienced SGBV. Methods We asked 175 participants about their beliefs and preferences pertaining to political, financial, and domestic empowerment. Interviews took place immediately before and after participation in the program, and we tested for differences in views of empowerment between entry and exit using paired t-tests and McNemar’s test. We also conducted 50 semi-structured interviews about empowerment with an additional 30 women who had completed the program up to 5 years earlier and then returned to their home community. Results Prior to enrolling in the program, participants had fairly empowered views regarding politics, less empowered views regarding finances, and still less empowered views regarding the domestic sphere. After completing the program, participants had significantly more empowered views in all three domains, particularly regarding domestic violence, how families should treat men and women, and women’s economic rights. Participants in their home communities reported taking a more active role in community affairs and speaking out against the mistreatment of women. Conclusion This study adds to the evidence that women’s empowerment programs can change participants’ beliefs and thus increase the confidence with which they participate in their communities and support one another.

Realizing Demographic Dividends in the Republic of Congo

“…In preparation for the 64 th session of Commission on the Status of Women, the Republic of Congo lists the persistent discrimination and violence against women as one of the current challenges (Republique du Congo, May 2019). Quattrochi et al (2019) find that while victims/survivors of sexual violence have fairly empowered views on politics, they have relatively disempowered views on their economic rights and very disempowered views on domestic issues. That is the violence disempowers women.…”

Research on the promoting effect of servitization on export technological sophistication of manufacturing enterprises

“…The direct consumption coefficient matrix measures the input of each service sector directly consumed by the manufacturing industry, while the complete consumption coefficient matrix measures the total consumption of each service sector in the unit output process of manufacturing sectors. Based on the research of [ 41 ] and [ 42 ], this article uses the input-output data of 56 sectors from 2000 to 2010 provided by WIOD in the 2016 edition and uses the complete consumption coefficient matrix to measure the servitization of China’s manufacturing industry. The specific calculation formula is as follows.…”

Economic Empowerment of Tanzanian Women Through Ownership of Tourism Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)

“…9 Kundu (2019) used a similar approach in a study of how micro-entrepreneurship led to women's empowerment in rural India. Other researchers have also used the approach (see, e.g., Quattrochi et al, 2019;Mengstie, 2022). The change in the percentage of women experiencing various aspects of empowerment is used to determine how empowering enterprise ownership is.…”