In Europe, there has been progress made towards developing effective strategies to promote women’s empowerment. Different levels of governance focus on different approaches and practices to empower women, and this empowerment is often framed within the existing political structures of empowerment. Specifically, the European Union (EU) has emphasized the importance of women in driving reforms, both within internal and external governance, and in the empowerment of freedoms for greater individual economic autonomy and for widespread economic development (Huelss, 2019). This work has been achieved as a means to liberate women from male power in order to contribute to meaningful change.

 

The EU also works on empowerment in the Southern, Mediterranean regions, focusing on the priorities of strengthening the role of women in society. An example of this can be seen in the 2013 Mediterranean Ministerial Conference, which focused on women’s entrepreneurship as a means to develop supportive institutions, investment and cooperation. 

 

Within the Council of Europe, there have been activities to support empowerment by providing access to formerly closed parts of organizations, including the Group of Specialists on User Involvement in Social Services (Verloo, 2005). These strategies have interlinked with local efforts through the interconnection between the Council of Europe report, the European nation states, NGOs, local organizations and researchers. The role of organizations have become increasingly important to these efforts, for example, WISE, the European organization for women’s studies, has played an important role in empowering women through science, research and development against the mechanisms of classical power opportunities.