International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

Some studies on women empowerment have associated women’s vulnerability with negative connotations such as victimhood, helplessness and dysfunctions, which calls for immediate supports to alleviate their deplorable condition. In these studies, vulnerability is mostly conceptualized to be opposite of autonomy, whereby women are seen as deficient of any essence of autonomy and thereby in need of help. The problem of this conceptualization is that it takes away the capacity of women to transcend beyond their current situation by applying resilient strategies (agency). In this paper, we re-conceptualize vulnerability of women by applying the relational autonomy theory to argue that despite women’s vulnerability (ontological conditions) they can make reliable decisions to overcome their challenges, which shows their resilience (agency or autonomous capacities). We considered the relational approach as a macro level of conceptualizing women’s empowerment from vulnerability, since it depicts women’s values, resilience, agencies and struggle for social justice. This paper argues that vulnerability and autonomy should not be seen as oppositional, and that such an approach can result in paternalistic and coercive forms of interventions that will not yield any benefits to poor women. Thus, the paper proposes that relational conceptions of autonomy can reconcile the apparent tension between autonomy and vulnerability, by showing that vulnerability is relative, and that women can actively contribute towards their empowerment.