The male domination of society and government are often seen for the purpose of serving male interests and in the continued subordination of women

The experts also inform that there are five levels of the women's empowerment framework, namely- welfare, access, conscientisation, mobilisation and control.

Welfare means an improvement in socio-economic status, such as improved nutritional status, shelter or income, which is the zero level of empowerment, where women are the passive recipients of benefits that are 'given' from on high.

Access to resources and services stands for the first level of empowerment, since women improve their own status, relative to men, by their own work and organisation arising from increased access to resources and services.

Conscientisation is defined as the process, by which women collectively urge to act to remove one or more of the discriminatory practices that impede their access to resources. Here, women form groups to understand the underlying causes of their problems and to identify strategies for action for gender equity.

Mobilisation is the action level of empowerment by forging links with the larger women's movement, to learn from the successes of women's similar strategic action elsewhere and to connect with the wider struggle.

Control is the level of empowerment when women have taken action so that there is gender equality in decisions making over access to resources, so that women achieve direct control over their access to resources.

But one needs to understand that these five levels of women’s empowerment are not really a linear progression but helical and circular along with being interconnected. The empowerment occurs when women achieve increased control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resources, and therefore, improved socio-economic status.