Opening Minds, Improving Lives—Education and Women's Empowerment in Honduras

Murphy-Graham (education, U. of California, Berkeley) examines the experiences of 19 women who participated in the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (Tutorial Learning System or SAT) program in Honduras, exploring the relationship between their education and empowerment. She draws on interviews and classroom observations to illustrate the potential of the SAT program to empower women through expanded access and improved quality of secondary education in Latin America and Africa. She conceptualizes women's empowerment through education as a process of recognition, capacity building, and action, showing how as women become empowered, they recognize their inherent worth, the fundamental quality of all humans, and their ability to contribute to personal and social betterment. She examines the experiences of adolescents and older women who returned to school and describes the research and policy context for the study; the program and its components (textbooks, tutors, the study group, the community, and the implementing institution); challenges in implementation; how women experienced changed mindsets as a result of their participation and how empowerment is a process triggered by acquisition of knowledge; the consequences of their new outlook and their actions toward personal and community improvement; and the roles of husbands or partners to block or enable them. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)