As International Women’s Day approaches, various events are being organised in Italy where I live, including debates, demonstrations, and strikes. In this collective reflection on the histories, claims, and practices of the feminist movement, one question has been capturing my attention: what is the relationship between feminism and power?
The answer is complex, as there is no single definition of feminism and no straightforward way to exercise power. Feminist theories and practices have variously dealt with the need of organising resistance to end oppression and the risk of replicating ways of subjugation. In these contexts, many questions have been raised and debated: does power always involve domination? Should power be refused or redistributed? Is power fundamental for processes of liberation?
Translation offers valuable insights into such intricate issues, as it allows us to reflect on how power is named and conceived in different linguistic and cultural contexts. Feminist translation practices, in particular, can help articulate possible answers to the complex task of conceiving power in feminist terms.
One word, in particular, has become prominent in describing the relationship between feminism and power: “empowerment”. While the term was used by grassroots activists fighting for civil rights in the 1960s, it soon entered the vocabulary of NGOs, state programs, and international development organizations. Along this journey, its meaning has shifted from referring to the power of self-organization and collective action to emphasising the liberating potential of individual choices. Rather than addressing the systemic dimensions of oppression, empowerment policies encourage marginalised subjectivities to take a more active role individually in seeking opportunities. More recently, empowerment has become a key element of brand strategies and marketing campaigns. In these contexts, the very act of purchasing certain products is framed as a path to greater power, self-confidence, and freedom.
It is through European policies and marketing strategies that the word “empowerment” entered the Italian context, and it did so in its English form. Feminist activists and scholars continue to debate how to translate the term into Italian in a way that highlights its radical and collective roots rather than its individualist, liberal, and commercial developments. A possible answer has indeed emerged by looking at the 1998 translation of a series of essays by a prominent thinker on the relationship between power and feminism: bell hooks.
When Maria Nadotti translated the texts collected in Elogio del margine [Praise of the Margin], the term “empowerment” had only just begun to appear as a loan word in Italian. It was not until the early 2000s that the English term became widely used, to the point that in 2008, it entered the Treccani Encyclopedia as a neologism. Since the English term was not common and there was no straightforward Italian equivalent, Nadotti used a word that functioned as a sort of calque of the English term: “impoteramento.” While this term did not gain popularity and is not found in the Treccani encyclopedia, it sparked a long-lasting reflection on the notion of power in feminist theory. Rachele Borghi, for instance, in her influential 2020 book Decolonialità e privilegio [Decoloniality and Privilege] uses “impoteramento” because, for her, it refers to “potenza” rather than “potere”—indicating potentiality rather than power, a journey rather than the status quo, and self-expression rather than imposition.
The use of the term “impoteramento,” although limited to feminist circles, expresses a form of resistance against the mainstream, liberal idea of empowerment. It highlights how the fight for liberation can involve a critical reflection on the words we use when thinking about power in feminist terms – words that we carry with us into strikes, debates, and demonstrations.
Valentina Tibaldo
Stipendiary Lecturer in Italian, University of Padua