The participation of women in the decision-making process in various aspects concerning their lives is a vital indicator for analyzing whether they are really empowered. A research was carried out by the Education Development & Research Cell (EDRC) to explore the extent to which literacy has helped to empower women during the one year of operation of SEF’s Women’s Literacy and Empowerment Program (WLEP).

Sample comprising of ten women, selected through stratified random sampling, was interviewed from the five Women’s Literacy and Empowerment Center (WLEC) in Malir. Three focus group discussions were conducted with the Goth Nari Sangat (women organizations formed in each WLEC) using random sampling method. The research studied the role of women in making decisions concerning themselves and their children. Views on education, empowerment, perceived benefits of studying at the centre and vision for the roles of WLEP centres were also explored. Women expresses general agreement that while they have some say in making decisions, an individual woman’s decision-making process really depends to a large extent on age, class and other factors. Thus the study suggests that taking into account the variety of communities and also a variety of literary practices, modes of participation ought to be planned accordingly. The research further shows that functional purposes of literacy (especially to read and write) have helped to empower the women to a certain extent with their day-to-day work and activities. However the shortcomings expressed about the program are a clear indication that using functional literacy as the approach to literacy instruction falls short of achieving empowerment. The notion of literacy needs to expand beyond the functional definition and incorporate other possible literacy practices that the women wish to begin incorporating or to extend within the provision of the WLEP center and within the village as a whole.