Should Empowerment Be Comfortable? Lessons from an OSCE Peacebuilding Initiative for Young Women from Serbia and Kosovo

The article explores a peacebuilding initiative implemented by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for young women from Serbia and Kosovo. Examining one of the longest standing endeavors of this type in the Western Balkans, the author analyzes to what extent the empowerment of women from two divided societies can be achieved through a program expressedly favoring a “comfortable” atmosphere during its workshops, ultimately implying a bracketing out of women’s political, ethnic, and other potential differences. Through semi-structured interviews, the author shows how the initiative’s “comfortable” approach is geared toward the individual-oriented economic empowerment characteristic of professional nongovernmental organizations. At the same time, however, the participants both challenge and enhance this approach – thus potentially cultivating the seeds of a more collective, cross-ethnic struggle. The article addresses a gap in the research on women’s empowerment in post-conflict societies, thus contributing to both empowerment theory and feminist practice.