Social Change via Relational Engagement: Redeeming Women’s Power

Abstract:

Violence against women is a critical social issue that touches every social stratum across the globe and there is an urgent need to think strategically at all decision-making levels—local, national, and global—to achieve gender equality and empower women. This research takes a relational engagement approach to improve women’s empowerment. We propose an intervention protocol based on mindfulness and self-compassion, developed from productive interactions between scholars and stakeholders, to enhance women’s individual and collective wellbeing and promote social change across two parts of the world (US and Brazil). We expect that the training protocol will increase the individual and collective confidence of vulnerable women through empowerment, increasing their self-esteem and promoting their wellbeing.