Literacy education for adults, both historically and presently, has often been reduced to teaching a technical skill, disconnected from social practices and broader sociocultural contexts. This limited approach fails to recognize literacy education as a tool for empowerment. This research analyzes the approach adopted to solve the chronic illiteracy problem, which particularly affects women in Türkiye, and evaluates literacy courses for adults at People Education Centers from a women's empowerment perspective. Drawing on a qualitative study of a literacy course in a central Ankara neighbourhood, including observations and interviews with eight women participants, the study uses Stromquist's (2009) empowerment framework and the New Literacy Studies (NLS) approach. The course created a social space for women, allowing them to step outside traditional domestic roles and gain control over their time. While psychological and cognitive empowerment occurred, economic and political empowerment were very limited. The article argues that literacy courses designed with a gender equality frame, taught by educators with adult education perspective, and set within the NLS framework would significantly contribute to women's empowerment.