The Language of Empowerment
When it comes to women and marginalized communities, we hear a lot of talk about empowerment. (I’ve certainly used that language, too.) It typically goes: We want to empower women to ________. In recent years, though, it’s come to bother me. I thought it was because, like words like “authentic,” it’s so overused it’s been stripped of its meaning, but I was reading Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens’ book Practically Divine and she nailed it. Like her, I don’t like the word because it implies that one needs to be empowered by someone else. It’s minimizing, patronizing, and perhaps ironically, disempowering—even though I know that’s the last thing people who use the word intend.
Stevens, a priest, writes about a man who interviewed for a marketing position at Thistle Farms, which she co-founded with other female survivors in Nashville, Tennessee 25-years-ago. It’s a cafe, shop, and residential program for women who have experienced sexual trauma, including trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. Thistle Farms employs thousands of women across the globe to make products—essential oils, teas, jewelry, etc.—that support the effort. During his interview, the young man told Stevens that he was interested in the job because he wanted to “empower women,” and “give them a voice.”
Understandably, this set her off, and she asked him whether the Thistle Farms survivors, who would be giving him a job, wouldn’t actually be empowering him. She writes, “To empower someone is to claim power independently for oneself. It is saying, without saying it directly, ‘I have more power than you. Because I am a moral person, I will give you a little bit of my power, but make no mistake—I will always have more power than you.’ Of course, this isn’t what people necessarily mean or intend. However it is the meaning implicit in the language, and I believe language is important.”
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I believe language is important, too. Empower is an interesting word, because it was used infrequently throughout history until the 1980s, when it picked up steam in business management circles. Meanwhile, the etymology of the word power itself is surprising: It comes from Latin posse, “to be able.” It lacks a punch, which makes the idea of “empowering” someone else feel especially like a form of perverse liberation. You’re going to ensure I’m able to do something? Gee, thanks.
I don’t know what the solution is, except, perhaps, to use more specific language rather than now-empty catch-phrases: After all, what do we really mean? Rather than empowering women, perhaps we want to support the stated needs of women, or highlight and tell their stories, or work in service to their ambition and goals. There are ways of underscoring an intention to be a utility for women or other marginalized groups without making it sound self-aggrandizing, or like you’re a benevolent and generous giant being a "moral person," to quote Stevens.
I don't want this to suggest that I'm not excited by the amount of attention and capital being funneled toward women: We are wildly under-represented on cap tables, executive and leadership teams, et al. But I wish it could sound less like charity and more like the reality of what it is: Hooking wagons to horses, or in the parlance of the day, unicorns, and being pulled into the future. NOT the other way around.
Thoughts?