Every individual woman’s experience of empowerment is unique, but the causes of empowerment are universal. Empowerment is more than a buzzword, it’s the process of building transformative power, and it’s essential for inclusive sustainable development. Empowerment is not indicated by the specific outcomes of an intervention, but from the processes itself. Instead of looking to static differences (changes) we must look at the dynamic processes (change) and determine whether our efforts are building transformative power: women’s power for, within, to and with. Only when we activate and build each of these forms of transformative power, will empowerment emerge.