Social mapping

Content description
Gather your imagination. Il is the beginning of the seminar and you are wondering how to address the concept of empowerment. Suddenly, you have an idea... « And if we tested the power map together »

Small reminder : What is power mapping ?
lt is a very simple tool that consists intranslating on paper a subjective representation, in this case the presence of men and women in a space (neighbourhood,city,etc.).
This tool is suitable for all types of audience.s Ali you need is a few sheets of white paper, pencils or markers and you’re ready to go !

Practical use

Let’s get started !

To begin, ask participants to get together in small groups of 3 or 4 people. ldeally, they should be associated according to where they live. The objective, remember, is to reflect on power relations within one’s own neighbourhood.

Once the small groups are settled, distribute a large sheet of A3 paper and pencils or markers and announce the instructions :

> First of all , in 20 minutes, using the material in front
of you,try to represent your neighbourhood or village by drawing it schematically : this means symbolising the main daily places (home, schools, shops, places of worship, places of work, places of care...).

> Then, in a second step , in 10 minutes, you will position
– in this new drawn space- the places where women and men are located : choose a colour for the men and another one for the women, colour the spaces in which the one and the other are in majority.
• Don’t t forget that you are in a group so the ideal would be to take into account your different experiences to build this drawn representation,

>Finally, in15 minutes, ask the groups to consider the types of power relationships that exist between men and women in these everyday places : who do what ? Who make the decisions ? (e.g. : male leaders / female employees..,).

To conclude, invite them to a collective restitution, One rapporteur per group should present the group’s output to the other participants and facilitators who can ask questions to clarify the types of power relations between men and women.
To facilitate feedback, consider recording this valuable information in a chart on one of the walls of the room

This char ! can record :
> The places indicated where power situations are at stake ;
> The people who are in the majority in these places ;
> The people with power over others in these places and their type of power (moral, economic, social­ privilege, etc.).

example of a table :

¿What’s the final word ?

To synthesize the developrnent of these power relationships, you can rnake the link with the 3 dimensionsof empowerment (cf.part of the guide " Benchmark for understanding")

lndeed, the different drawings of the participants encouraged a questioning of their own situation and made them aware of their role within these different power situations.

With regard to these relationships, it is now a matter of identifying the types of power that women ->http://batik-international.org/data/batik/media/site/pdf/Livret-methodo.pdf] can develop in training to emancipate themselves :
> power with ;
> power for  ;
[> power from within.