Female reproductive empowerment needs to encompass more than rights to abortion and contraception, it also needs to include the right to have children, regardless of the woman’s economic, racial, and family background. This is oftentimes not the case historically for marginalised groups.

This thesis explores Native American women empowerment through the case study of the 2018 documentary film Amá, and whether it provided the Native American women participants with an empowerment opportunity, by providing them the platform to discuss their experiences, and how forced sterilisations impacted their lives.

It used narrative analysis, specifically thematic and structural, to codify the film’s narrative and visuals. Then the Empowerment model via Svensson (2018) was applied to extract a meaningful understanding of whether the film addresses the research questions.

The film strongly demonstrated that Native American women participants empowered themselves and the next generation through the telling of their forced sterilisations.

It also emphasised that minority women need to be included in public life and in the decision-making process of policies that affect their own well-being.