Women's Empowerment and Education in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone

Abstract

<p>Education is often assumed to increase the empowerment of women, yet there is little data to show if and how education empowers women in Sierra Leone or in what ways it contributes to building agency. The educational experiences of 18 interview participants were analysed in detail and supplemented with information on educational values and hopes of 43 survey participants at the University of Makeni in Sierra Leone. Participants described their experiences as women in education from primary school to university level, and the impact of social, cultural, and traditional values on their access to education, as well as the impact of the Sierra Leone Civil War on their education and agency. A combination of the researcher’s emic observations, experiential knowledge, reflection, and reflexivity was used to analyse the stories of these 18 women, providing a socio-cultural evaluation of the impact of education on empowerment and agency and the ways agency shaped their access to and continuation of formal learning. Participants in the interviews showed that it was their experiences in Sierra Leone’s education systems, effects of conflict on their lives, community values and family support which contributed most strongly to their agency rather than the education itself. Their education notably had increased some participants’ ability to speak confidently in public, which raised the point that empowerment for them was the ability to feel bolder in voicing their opinions, particularly through the presentations they were required to do at the University of Makeni. The results indicate that participants in the interviews valued their education highly, but proof that education alone empowered them has not been confirmed in this sample. Instead, agency was seen to have been utilised in reaction to participants’ experiences, particularly in conflict, sexual harassment at educational institutions, and financial hardships. Despite their difficult circumstances, participants showed determination to continue their education.</p>