This paper defines women's political empowerment borrowing from the UNDP's development framework using the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) "which examines whether women and men are able to actively participate in economic and political life and take part in decision making" (UNDP 1995:73). Furthermore, in modifying GEM this paper focuses only on women in local governance, since it is an area where efforts in political empowerment is easier studied using micro lenses. The modified GEM focuses on three main concerns: election of women local chief executives, local chief executives' advocacy of women-oriented programs and women's advocacy at the grassroots level.
The paper also shows that gender alone is not the way to engendered governance. Female and male local officials must all be aware of the need to redress inequalities among the genders through policy and action.