Power

Julia Trattnig | 29 September 2021

In feminist theory, power is a central concept, defining it either as

• domination,
• as resource to be (re)distributed,
• or as empowerment
  (Allen, 2016).

The classic formulation for power as domination, i.e. as “power-over”, stems from Max Weber, defining power as the chance that an individual in a social relationship can achieve their own will even against the resistance of others (Weber, 1922).

Thomas Hobbes already defined power as a resource, thus as power – “to obtain some future apparent Good” (Hobbes, 1641), i.e. that power makes it possible to receive goods or similar future privileges. From a feminist perspective, power as resource is currently unequally distributed amongst men and women. For this reason, the objective is to redistribute power equally.

Lastly, power as empowerment is also understood as “power-to”, i.e. as capacity or ability and thus as alternative to “power-over”, i.e. domination. In this understanding, power is the capacity to produce a change and consequently, as transformative (Allen, 2016).

Especially post-structural feminist perspectives acknowledge that knowledge and power are constituted in dynamic relationships. Therefore, feminist research aims to break up social silences to dismantle ideologies justifying unequal power relations. Although this traditionally addressed power relations between genders or racial groups, it is equally applicable to other groups concerned from governance perspective (Carey, 2019).