The Language of Empowerment

I think we need to retire this concept. Or think a bit harder about what we mean.

When it comes to women and marginalized communities, we hear a lot of talk about empowerment. (I’ve certainly used that language, too.) It typically goes: We want to empower women to ________. In recent years, though, it’s come to bother me. I thought it was because, like words like “authentic,” it’s so overused it’s been stripped of its meaning, but I …