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Reflections on Empowerment through
a Women’s WhatsApp Storycircle
Sarah Wilson, Pamela Richardson, Rudo
Chakanyuka and Alexandra Plummer
Presented at Rise Up! Reconnect. Rebuild. Recreate.
20th June 2022, Loughborough University, UK.
WhatsApp Women’s Storycircle
●MiG project leader received invitation to collaborate with Kufunda’s
Women are
Medicine
project in Zimbabwe; provision of video-making/story-sharing workshops
●WhatsApp storycircle created - 23 participants from across rural areas of Zimbabwe,
4 facilitators (2 Zimbabwean, 2 British)
Source: https://www.kufunda.org/gallery
Aim of this study:
how effective is
WhatsApp as a platform for
facilitating the DS workshop
experience
? - in what ways did
participants experience a sense of
EMPOWERMENT?
●13/23 participants interviewed after completion of their workshop series -
semi-structured, online (WhatsApp)
●Analysis: thematic content analysis to identify key commonalities,
relationships and differences in the participants’ responses
●Ethics: informed consent and anonymisation of the participants
Research Methods
Framing Empowerment
●Took a holistic view of “effectiveness” of WhatsApp DS workshop (i.e. not in
terms of “pass/fail/drop out” rates)
●Empowerment - a popular but contested concept - a process
●4 modalities of empowerment: power-over, power-within, power-to, power-with
●Feminist view of empowerment - can’t be done for or to women; we can only
effect social change collectively
Results: processes and outcomes
“The experience was amazing being in our own female space, where we could
express ourselves freely without fear of being judged.”
Accessing a virtual space for women (ongoing process)
Connecting … (a “power-with” process)
Developing skills… (a “power-to” process)
“I shall use this knowledge in the future to show other women how to
be self-reliant and to make use of their skills and gifts.”
Sharing of stories… (a “power-with” process)
Produced an edited video story (“power-to” outcome)
Improved Self-esteem (“power-within” outcome)
“I know what I'm doing now. I don't need a journalist to come and tell
the story for me in my village. I can do it myself.”
Desire to apply skills & knowledge (“power-over” outcome)
“I am so eager. I am so ready to use this
knowledge in the future.”
Desire to support others (“power- with” outcome)
“I shall use this knowledge in the future to show other women how to be
self-reliant and to make use of their skills and gifts.”
Discussion
Conclusions
●Overall positive experience: WhatsApp supported empowerment processes and
outcomes
●BUT some barriers (to participation) persisted - mainly related to tech limitations
●DS remote facilitation via WhatsApp can be effective with regard to participant
experience of empowerment, but: How can access to resources/access be
improved, esp. for women in rural areas of the Global South?
In follow-up interviews, Sarah asked the
workshop participants, "Overall, how would
you summarise your experience of
participating in the all-female storytelling
and video-making workshop on
WhatsApp?"