Michelle Savard, PhD candidate in Education Studies at Concordia published an opinion piece in Policy Options about the use of the term "empowerment" when applied to African women.
"Rather than addressing the barriers, such as patriarchal values, that limit women’s choices, those in international development train women in a few gendered, low-income fields, such as tailoring, hairdressing or catering, and the result is saturated markets. The rationale is that skills training will lead to the development of independent businesses, but it ignores the lack of viability of small enterprises within northern Uganda’s fragile economy."