Beyond Universalism: Capabilities Approach for Improving Women's Quality of Life

Manfred Buhr (2007) suggested a powerful and subtle critique of European nations. He observed that their histories reveal “a painful process”. His antidote is a universalism that takes a deeper understanding of the Enlightenment project of reason. Buhr endorsed emancipation and human dignity through the Enlightenment rationalism of Kant. He allowed for cultural difference in attaining human dignity. Martha Nussbaum devised the Capabilities Approach along Aristotelian lines, to provide a normative account to evaluate human functioning. Capabilities have real life potential for programs that reassess and empower women in the developing world. The literature inspired by this capabilities approach addresses specific communities where women were empowered by giving them choices about the quality of their lives in such areas as education, gender relations, activities outside the home, microcredit, and training.