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When “Empowerment” Clashes with Culture, how Do You Reconcile It?

User Profile: LanaAfterDark
LanaAfterDark September 3rd, 2025

We often celebrate empowerment as a tool that lifts us, but not everyone’s experience of empowerment looks the same. For some women, especially those from deeply rooted cultural or spiritual traditions, what feels “empowering” can also feel alienating or misunderstood by friends or the wider society.

I’ve been thinking about how empowerment isn’t always about breaking free, it can be about blending strength with where you come from. How do you balance honouring your roots while also feeling confident in your own evolving identity? What does empowerment look like to you when culture and self-discovery aren’t perfectly aligned?


3
User Profile: Clio9876
Clio9876 September 4th, 2025

@LanaAfterDark

Interesting subject to think about.

I think it is really important to believe and trust in ourselves. I've found that I have always known what is right, or wrong, for me. And stress arises when I ignore it. Or deny it, by believing my opinion is somehow wrong. Culture is important, but it is normal and natural for people to question and modify the culture they were given, so that it better matches their core beliefs. It always makes me sad when someone just accepts a culture, without questioning whether it is right for them.

But I recognise that sometimes that is not easy.

Humans have a strong need to "fit in". And completely denying that can be destructive. But just blindly "fitting in" can often lead to dissatisfaction too. The trick I think is to recognise the need and then decide for oneself the level of fitting in that is right.

There's nothing wrong with deciding that a culture is wrong for you, but going along with it for peace. Is that not acceptance of the world as an imperfect place?

User Profile: InsightfulPhoenix
InsightfulPhoenix September 5th, 2025

@LanaAfterDark

I absolutely agree with you, because not all healing journeys or self-care look the same. We are all made unique on purpose, because not all ways we heal are a "one-size fits all" type of situation. Our motivations, and things we do are all different. 

From personal standpoint, my own self-care and empowerment looks like journaling, upholding boundaries, and taking time for myself 

User Profile: Aayla
Aayla September 6th, 2025
@LanaAfterDark that's a great input and a much needed conversation at a time where western standards and "white feminism" still try to set the criteria for what women empowerment means, with little regard to cultural differences. I'm a feminist myself, and a white European woman, but through the years I've worked on deconstructing west-centric narratives and lean towards an intersectional approach. Sure, I might not get a perfect grasp of what empowerment means throughout different cultures, since my background that has shaped my point of view for my entire life might still influence me to some extent. But I'm doing my best to learn and embrace other perspectives. I owe it to my sisters all over the world who have already been harmed extensively by Eurocentrism.

In European countries there's a great deal of debate about this, but unfortunately lots of people still go for an idea of "women liberation" that sounds a lot like applying the same principles and criteria to everyone. That's our colonial mindset still there. Many Europeans believe their culture to be superior and think that women should aspire to be like Western women in order to be free. That's why, for example, some people equal the use of the hijab to oppression, because empowerment for western women includes showing our bodies freely. Thus, the attemps to ban its usage. Racism is more often than not the real reason for these attempts.

I believe every woman should be free to define what freedom and empowerment means for herself, taking into consideration her wishes, her goal, the role and impact that cultural heritage has on her life, and make her decision taking into account all of that. Women with similar perspectives can definitely build community and advocate for other women's freedom to make the same choices, but any attempts to push these choices on others and measure their freedom and empowerment by how much they do or do not adhere to them should be avoided. That's not empowerment.

I'd be really interested in listening to our women's experiences on how they navigate empowerment and cultural heritage, especially women from non-western cultures. I also navigate certain contraddictions within my own culture, but I think other approaches would be much more interesting to explore than my own!
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