For too long, “empowerment” has been used as a buzzword—ambiguous, overused, and often imposed from the outside in. It’s been treated as a one-size-fits-all outcome rather than a deeply personal, social, and political process. This project exists to challenge that.

Founded by researcher and changemaker Tiyana Jovanovic, the Empowerment Project draws on over four years of fieldwork and scholarship exploring how women across diverse contexts—particularly in rural India—define and experience empowerment. What emerged is a conceptual framework that is as practical as it is philosophical, as rigorous as it is human.

The Empowerment Project is my Legacy Project as part of the Legacy International Pageant—a way of bringing my PhD research beyond the bookshelf and into the hands of those who need it most. After years of studying women's empowerment through a rigorous and context-driven lens, I created a practical framework to help individuals and organisations understand and build empowerment in meaningful, measurable ways. This project embodies my commitment to turning academic insight into real-world impact—equipping changemakers, practitioners, and educators with the tools to empower women authentically and effectively.