How Do Cooperatives Enable Empowerment Among Rural Women? Evidence from the Municipality of Cavinti, Laguna

The persistent gender issues and their implications for sustainable development have led to several strategic yet collective schemes, such as the cooperatives, promising to contribute to (women) empowerment and social equality. Guided by Kabeer’s conceptual framework, this study analyzes the role of cooperative membership in promoting empowerment among its female coop-members in Cavinti, Laguna. Primary and secondary sources of data were used and analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The result indicates that cooperatives play a critical role in empowering women by providing new and/or improved knowledge and skills through capacity-building training necessary to make informed decisions, thus strengthening women’s roles in the decision-making process. Overall, this study contributes towards the development of a shared understanding of how cooperatives can be improved and utilized as an effective strategy for empowering women by taking equal importance on the needs and concerns of women in the cooperatives.长期存在的性别议题及其对可持续发展的影响，催生了多项兼具战略性与集体性的举措，其中合作社（cooperatives）有望助力女性赋权（women empowerment）与社会公平。本研究依托卡比尔（Kabeer）的概念框架，以菲律宾拉古纳省（Laguna）卡文蒂（Cavinti）地区的女性合作社社员为研究对象，分析社员参与合作社对提升女性赋权水平的作用。本研究采用一手与二手数据，并通过描述性统计与相关性分析开展数据分析。研究结果表明，合作社通过能力建设培训为女性社员提供全新或改良的知识与技能，助力其做出明智决策，进而强化女性在决策流程中的参与地位，在女性赋权方面发挥关键作用。总体而言，本研究有助于形成统一认知：若能同等重视合作社中女性群体的需求与关切，便可优化合作社运营模式，并将其打造为女性赋权的有效策略。