In the new millennium, the empowered consumer-citizen has become a figure in dominance, and as such a taken for granted starting point for philanthropic and solidarity efforts throughout. This article traces the making of this active citizen in Chile through the intersection between feminist knowledge production and institutional practice, and administrative processes that seek to normalize the poor by shaping the conduct, capacities, needs, aspirations and desires of women clients of social assistance. It focuses explicitly on the area of self-formation and women's empowerment. Finally, the article makes the case that neoliberal cultural forms, though transnational in appearance and in ambitions, are best understood as articulations that are negotiated in specific national-cultural formations.