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Empowerment is today a widely used term in development policies and programs but the concept empowerment covers a wide range of definitions. In this part we will focus on some of the key definitions mostly used in development studies and intervention strategies. Key words mostly refered to be options, choice, control and power. Common to these definitions are the ideas of process or change, and the ideas of human agency and choice. A process by which disempowered individuals and groups gain the power to control their life and the ability to make strategic life choices. According to Naila Kabeer there are three important factors included in the empowerment process: Resources, agency and achievements. Resources can be seen as the enabling factors for empowerment, such as education and employment. Agency is the essence of women’s empowerment. It includes the abilities to make strategic choices and decisions that affect important life outcomes. It is important that women themselves are active agents rather than recipients of development assistance. By this is not meant that women alone are responsible for their empowerment. International and national institutions play important roles in the process of the provision and implementation of resources, by which women can empower themselves. The last element in the process Kabeer refer to as achievements (Boender et. Al 2002; 5-9). For women to become active agents of change, consciousness of their conditions and the causes for their subordination must be raised and reflected upon. Awareness and understanding of ones life conditions can be viewed as a cognitive element of empowerment (ibid;11). Other important elements of empowement are psychological elements which means increased self-esteem and self-reliance which/and are thereby motivating factors that contribute to women’s actions. An economic element of empowerment refers to the capability of earning a living. Political elements relate to women´s abilities to mobilize for social change and participate in social organizations. Thus empowerment is a multidimensional process which works at various levels (Monkman 1998:499). We believe that attention paid to all dimensions is important in order to change existing structural inequalities. Empowerment is important both as an individual and collective process. Individual actions can challenge and affect existing gender norms. Outcome of individual actions can start a chain reaction by influencing and motivating other peoples` desires and choices, thereby creating collective actions, which provide an even greater challenge to structural inequalities, improving conditions not only for the women involved but also for their families and the community (Boender et. Al. 2002;16). Empowerment in development discourses often refers to Molyneux’s (1985) distinction between strategic and practical gender needs. Practical gender needs, refer to the basic immediate needs such as water, food, health-care and employment. Many development programmes have been focusing on women’s practical gender needs. This approach does not challenge existing traditional roles and structures in society. Strategic gender needs differ from practical gender needs by addressing women’s subordinate position to men. It seeks to change unequal power relations in society. This can be done through means such as fix. The abolition of the gender division of labor, the guarantee of equal wages and the alleviation of the burden of domestic labor and access to child care (Moser 1993; 37-41). Grassroots movements have typically sought to empower women through addressing the strategic gender needs via bottom-up actions. But often they have started with a focus on practical gender needs. In 1979 a feminist group in India was organized in order to prevent bride burning and rape. But the group soon realized that the problem of housing was of a much greater concern to the local women. As a result, focus shifted to organizing housing for homeless women. Initially they focused on homelessness and thereby they raised issues about the patriarchal structures concerning inheritance matters. From being mainly a concern for local women the issue was raised to national level and was placed on the political agenda (ibid; 74-77). The role of grassroots movements in mobilizing and attempting to empower women will be discussed in a later section. Before this we will look on the different constraints that girls and women face in terms of entering and participating in the educational system.