This study adopts a positive and contextually grounded representation of married women in Global South (GS) countriesthrough the theory of gender and power (TGP) and Kabeer's empowerment framework, to examine factors driving financialindependence (FI) and empowerment among women in Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Drawing on 55 in‐depth interviews withmarried women (28 in Mauritius and 27 in Zimbabwe), findings indicate that gendered power relations and institutional forcesare pivotal in shaping empowerment for married women. Three interconnected themes emerged: “societal and institutionalfactors,” “context‐embedded financial independence and autonomy,” and “women's relational empowerment.” Theoretically, weintersect Kabeer's empowerment framework with the TGP to illustrate how FI operates at the nexus of resources, agency,gendered power relations, and structural constraints, both aligning with and challenging universalized assumptions in gender,development, and empowerment research. Empirically, the paper advances scholarship by providing nuanced insights intoempowerment processes within under‐researched GS contexts.
Doargajudhur et al. (Sat,) studied this question.