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For several decades, the development sector has strived to promote women’s empowerment. It is tempting to oppose different visions of the concept based on its ideological and political foundations, from radical approaches centred on a collective struggle and social change, to neoliberal approaches based on individual responsibility and market integration. The analysis of the daily reality of struggles prompts us to acknowledge the ambivalent, sometimes paradoxical and always complex dimension of the ways in which emancipation is realised. Without playing down their material dimension, which is indeed essential, this analysis of daily struggles also invites us to pay close attention to the diversity and capillarity of the processes of access to power as well as their emotional, affective and physical dimensions. Emotions and affects shape and express power: it is vital that we better understand them if we want to think about the possible ways in which this power might be inflected or overthrown.