ABSTRACT
Empowerment is a complex topic containing economical, social, political and psychological ideas and notions. The term empowerment has been established over the last decades. Especially in S. Longwe's framework it is obvious that conscientization is the key for empowerment. The most important detail in the process of empowerment is whether one has power over one's own action, to have self-confidence and to believe in oneself. From the feminist perspective the women in development (WID), woman and development (WAD) and gender and development (GAD) models show the paradigm shift completed by the United Nations (UN) and other NGOs. In WID, women play a minor part in the wide range margin of economy. The GAD model emphasizes gender relations and tries to empower not the women in general but the weak ones. On the one side, gender is socially constructed, on the other side gender relations are power relations.
