Gender and Power: Financial Independence and Women's Relational Empowerment in the Global South
基于对毛里求斯和津巴布韦55位已婚女性的深度访谈，研究揭示了性别权力关系和制度因素如何影响女性的经济独立与赋权过程，挑战了全球南方赋权研究的普遍假设。
ABSTRACT This study adopts a positive and contextually grounded representation of married women in Global South (GS) countries through the theory of gender and power (TGP) and Kabeer's empowerment framework, to examine factors driving financial independence (FI) and empowerment among women in Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Drawing on 55 in‐depth interviews with married women (28 in Mauritius and 27 in Zimbabwe), findings indicate that gendered power relations and institutional forces are pivotal in shaping empowerment for married women. Three interconnected themes emerged: “ societal and institutional factors ,” “ context‐embedded financial independence and autonomy ,” and “ women's relational empowerment .” Theoretically, we intersect Kabeer's empowerment framework with the TGP to illustrate how FI operates at the nexus of resources, agency, gendered power relations, and structural constraints, both aligning with and challenging universalized assumptions in gender, development, and empowerment research. Empirically, the paper advances scholarship by providing nuanced insights into empowerment processes within under‐researched GS contexts.