Need stressed to analyse, understand women empowerment issues

The issue of empowering women has been a focal point of discussion at different levels. Obviously one tries to understand these issues with regard to different groups of women. The diversities in women's conditions whether they are cultural, social, religious or simply education background, play a very important role in the programme of empowerment.
Since United Nations Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, 1994) held in Cairo, the concept of has drawn the attention of the world. Empowerment can be defined as the process by which the powerless gain greater control over the circumstances of their own lives; control over both resources and ideology. The power relation that has to be transformed includes women's lives at the multiple, inter-linked levels, household/family, community, market, and the state. It also means the 'ability to assert oneself', striving for upward mobility or attaining the psychological state of being powerful. This ability is dependent on cultural norms and institutional arrangements that regulate their lives.
Normally, it is believed that empowering women often leads to social instability. Is there any necessary connection between the two? Once women become aware of their rights and start exercising them, it may disturb the equilibrium of the family. If there is any exploitation, the woman no more tolerates it and may even revolt against it. It may also be the case that she realises that she is being used due to deep emotional involvement and performs her roles with deep psychological disturbance.
The end product will have evidence of control over one's life, but the process has three elements: environment or the setting of women's lives, access to potential sources of empowerment and evidence of empowerment. The empowerment has positive gains for the girl child that benefits from better survival of mothers and improved infant child health. Perhaps it might be relevant to think here of different empowering procedures for women of different stages; female children, adolescents and older women.
Government organisations translate women's empowerment into policies and programmes, creating new models for the future while the available data regarding the status of women, such as education and empowerment provide useful information. However, very often, they are not sensitive enough to capture the nuances of gender power relations. We need to move beyond the traditional variable of women's status although we agree that status variables are a necessary first step leading towards the complex task of conceptualising, meaning and analysing women empowerment.