Empowerment: A journey not a destination - Capacity.org

Empowerment: A journey not a destination

For further information on the research seewww.pathways-of-empowerment.org oremail pathways@ids.ac.ukThe Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programme Consortium was established in2006 funded by UKaid from the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Pathwaysreceived co-funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that enabled the programme toexpand to include countries in conflict, post-conflict and crisis situations in our Middle East, SouthAsia and West Africa regional hubs. Additional funding for Pathways projects and activities hascome from a variety of donors, including the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sida, NORAD, GTZ,IDRC, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNICEF, the Rockefeller Foundation, BRAC, Comic Relief, the Arts Council,Screen South, the National Lottery and the Brazilian Government. The views and recommendationsin this report do not necessarily represent those of our development partners or funders.

ContentsPathways 2Introduction 8Key findings 11Key points 1–12 12Key resources and references 36Pathways projects 46Photo captions 52Contents1

PathwaysLatin AmericaBRAZILArgentinaBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaWest AfricaGHANANigeriaSierra LeoneMiddle EastEGYPTPalestineSudanSouth AsiaBANGLADESHAfghanistanIndiaPakistan2Pathways has four regionalhubs: Latin America, WestAfrica, the Middle East andSouth Asia

Pathways of Women’sEmpowerment (Pathways)is an international research andcommunications programmethat has focused for the last fiveyears on understanding andinfluencing efforts to bring aboutpositive change in women’s lives.Who we arePathways links centres ofexcellence in women’s studiesand gender and development inLatin America, the Middle East,South Asia, West Africa and theUK, working in partnership withUN Women. Pathways receivedfunding from the UKDepartment for InternationalDevelopment (DFID) andco-funding from the NorwegianMinistry of Foreign Affairs thatenabled the programme toexpand to include countries inconflict, post-conflict and crisissituations in our Middle East,South Asia and West Africaregional hubs. Additionalfunding for Pathways projectsand activities has come from avariety of donors, including theSwedish Ministry for ForeignAffairs, Sida, NORAD, GTZ,IDRC, UNIFEM, UNFPA,UNICEF, the RockefellerFoundation, BRAC, Comic‘What we are exploring is an entirely differentapproach: one that is framed by lived experiencerather than stereotypes; one that can countenancecontradictions and celebrate plural visions andversions of empowerment that fit with the contextsin which they are voiced; and one that can reframeempowerment in ways that restore its power as aconcept to serve the struggle for a more just andequal world.’ 1 Andrea Cornwall, Pathways DirectorRelief, the Arts Council, ScreenSouth, the National Lottery andthe Brazilian Government.Under the directorship ofAndrea Cornwall of SussexUniversity, Pathways is coordinatedby the Institute ofDevelopment Studies, UK andcollectively managed. Around60 academic-activists belong tothe Pathways network, and areinvolved in Pathways projectson issues of economic, legaland political empowerment,sexuality and reproductiverights, movement building andadvocacy for women’s rights.Pathways benefits from anadvisory group of distinguishedfeminist activists and scholars.Four regional hubs co-ordinateresearch, policy engagementand communications activities:• BRAC Development Institute,BRAC University, Bangladesh– convenor: Maheen Sultan,for work in Afghanistan,Bangladesh, India, Pakistan• Centre for Gender Studiesand Advocacy (CEGENSA),University of Ghana –convenor: Takyiwaa Manuh,for work in Ghana, Nigeria,Sierra Leone• Nucleus for InterdisciplinaryWomen’s Studies, FederalUniversity of Bahia, Brazil –convenor: CeciliaSardenberg, for work inArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil,Colombia, Costa Rica• Social Research Center,American University inCairo – convenor: HaniaSholkamy, for work inEgypt, Palestine, Sudan.Global institutions andinternational policy arenas havebeen a site for research as wellas advocacy in work led byRosalind Eyben. Global policyspaces are those where ideasand norms about approaches todevelopment are proposed,defended and contested. Anumber of those working ininternational aid agencies havetaken part in Rosalind’sresearch both as researchersand contributors to workshops.Pathways3

‘The way Pathways isstructured [has] providedgreat scope for capacitybuilding (being able tosend people for trainingon statistical analysis; orusing digital technology,etc) which an individualproject could do on avery limited scale.’ 5Sohela Nazneen,Associate Professor,University of DhakaWays of workingTogether, we have developed a‘Pathways way of working’ thatemphasises principles ofdemocracy, transparency andsolidarity. Rather thancommission individuals orinstitutions to carry outparticular pieces of research, wehave sought to build a networkwith multiple, horizontal linksbetween partners. Each of thecore partners acts as a ‘regionalhub’, selecting their own partnersand establishing agendas andactivities appropriate to theirregion. The Pathways team atthe Institute of DevelopmentStudies co-ordinates activitieslinking the hubs, and workswith a team of dedicatedcommunications officers ineach hub to manage aprogramme of communications.Pathways team members work,in turn, with a constellation offeminist scholars, women’sorganisations and policy actorsin the field of gender equalityand women’s empowerment.Our researchPathways began with the issuesthat have been at the heart offeminist research and advocacy:women’s work and access toemployment and an independentincome; women’s sexualitiesand intimate relationships; andwomen’s voice and engagementin political institutions andprocesses. Through a processthat involved dialogues withpolicy actors, researchers andcivil society organisations inscoping workshops and thematicreview activities emerged aseries of collaborative, crosshubworking groups. Thesefocused on the issues that hadsurfaced as priorities from ourdiscussions with those workingfor change on the ground inour different regions, and inglobal policy arenas:• Empowering work• Building constituencies forjustice and equality• Changing narratives ofsexuality• Conceptualisingempowerment.4‘Being a part of Pathways has given us theopportunity to dare, to brave into unconventionalforms of doing research and giving voice to women.’ 2Cecilia Sardenberg, Pathways Latin America HubConvenor‘Pathways gave me the opportunity to be part of alearning process in which I have been able tocomplicate and enrich my understanding of conceptsand terms that are important to both academics andpolicymakers who are concerned with women’srights, gender justice, and feminism. Terms I have inmind are empowerment of women, equality, the verycategory of women, women’s rights, and of coursegender.’ 3 Mulki Al-Sharmani, Assistant Professor,Social Research Center, American University in Cairo

The thematic groups provideda cross-hub mechanism forcollaborative exchange andcomparative research between thehubs, creating a strong South–South forum for intellectualexchange and providingimportant opportunities forcollaboration, influence andengagement. Each groupproduced a series of more closelyspecified research agendas,grounded in dialogue withpolicy actors and a substantivereview of the evidence. It wasaround these agendas forchange that a series of specificprojects was structured.Methodology workshops,online exchanges and othercapacity development activitiesbrought the thematic groupstogether around research design,analysis, and writing. Ouremphasis from the very start wasto seek creative combinationsof methods that could generateinsights from different anglesand at different degrees of depthand breadth. Surveys involvingup to 5,000 respondents weredesigned to explore aspects ofwomen’s work, thetrustworthiness of their findingsstrengthened by life historicaland semi-structured interviews,and by a rigorous process ofquestionnaire design led byworking group convenor NailaKabeer. Ethnographic researchallowed researchers to getinside institutions andprocesses, and get to grips withwhat people were experiencing.A range of interview techniqueswas employed, from keyinformant interviews to focusgroups. Our methodologicalrepertoire included digitalstories, participatoryvisualisation methods andparticipatory photography.The strength of the evidencewe present here comes from thecomplementarities betweenthese diverse methodologies.Recognising that the mostreliable knowledge is that basedon triangulation betweendifferent methods,methodologies and researchers,and that different methods areneeded to investigate differentphenomena and processes, wehave sought in what we presenthere to make the very best useof the spectrum ofmethodological approachesthat the social sciences offer.The quality of our insightscomes precisely from this.ThemesMuch of Pathways researchaddresses the key questions thatwere framed in our initialprocess of review and dialogue,deepened with sub-questionsthat have evolved in the processof enquiry:• Empowering work – what isit about work that makes itempowering, and whatPathways‘I participated in a training session on taking lifehistories, run by Ann Whitehead and held in Ghanain December 2007. Although I had done qualitativeresearch in the field quite a bit, the training sessionproved invaluable and taught me many techniquesIhad never realised I could use.’ 7Ayesha Khan, Senior Researcher, Collective forSocial Science Research‘The flexibility DFID gave us with programme designmeant we could create funds for strategic influencingactivities. This gave us the scope to respond rapidlyto emerging opportunities. For example, we wereable to sponsor international participation fromRwanda, Bangladesh and the InternationalParliamentary Union in Brussels to attend an eventhosted in Brazil’s National Congress on quota reformas the Congress debated reforms to the politicalsystem.’ Andrea Cornwall, Pathways Director5

could be done to makeworking more empoweringfor women? What aremarginalised women workersdoing to organise themselvesto claim rights andrecognition? And how dowomen who work andgenerate independentincomes experience power intheir homes, their intimaterelationships and in theirinteractions with society?• Building constituencies forequality and justice – whatenables and constrainswomen in their pathwaysinto politics? Where andhow have women been ableto be successful in changingpolicies and laws in favourof women’s empowerment –and what does it take forthese changes to havepositive effects on women’slives? How does women’s‘voice’ translate intoinfluence that brings aboutchange in favour of greaterjustice and equality for all?• Changing narratives ofsexuality – how is women’ssexuality represented in themedia and everyday life?What might be done toaddress restrictive anddiscriminatory attitudes towomen, on the grounds ofsexuality, that have knockoneffects in the workplace,in politics and in women’spublic and private lives?• Conceptualisingempowerment – whatmeanings and practices areassociated with the idea of‘empowerment’? How isempowerment represented inpolicies, programmes andpopular culture? And whatcan we learn from the waywomen themselves experienceempowerment to informadvocacy and action, andrepresentations of women’sempowerment that can bemore empowering for women?Over the five-year period,other themes have arisen. Wehave become especially awareof the extent to which culturematters for women’sempowerment. Our work hasrevealed the significance of thevalues and norms of everydaylife in shaping women’s selfperceptionsand men’s attitudestowards women and women’sempowerment, and inbounding their actions. It hasalso shown the tremendousinfluence on women of thecultures of public, political andreligious institutions, as well asforms of popular culture –music, radio and televisionprogrammes and films – thatare very much part of women’slives in many of the contexts inwhich we work.One of the most significantand promising new directionsfor work on women’sempowerment arises from thisrecognition of the significanceof culture in shaping women’simaginations of the possible,and challenging as well asreinforcing stereotypes.6‘The wonderful thing about Pathways is that it’s liberating to be part of thisnetwork, and rather than having been shoe-horned into a box that says youmust get from point A to point B, to really work through a process ofempowerment, of self-empowerment as well. [At the beginning] I would not havebeen able to promise Pathways that four years into the project we would havebeen able to get 55,000 families involved as part of a government-funded CCT[conditional cash transfer] programme that we have designed.’ 4Hania Sholkamy, Pathways Middle East Hub Convenor

Pathways‘This research programme has given an opportunity for intellectual engagementamong scholars from different countries which has enriched debates andproduced critical knowledge regarding women’s voice and empowerment.’ 6Eileen Kuttab, Assistant Professor in Sociology, Institute of Women’s Studies,Birzeit University 7

Introduction8In 2006, in response to a callfrom the British Government’sDepartment for InternationalDevelopment for proposals for aresearch programme consortiumthat would investigate whatworks to support women’sempowerment, a diverseinternational network ofresearchers came together toexplore how positive changehappens in women’s lives. We setout to broaden the existingscope of development researchon women’s empowerment.Many of us had long-standinginvolvement with activism andpolicy, and saw in the turn towomen’s empowerment thepromise of refocusingdevelopment agencies on theglaring inequities that existbetween women’s and men’searning power, political power,power over their bodies andpower to make choices abouttheir lives. Yet we were alsoconcerned with the mountingevidence suggesting that theways development agencies wereoperationalising women’sempowerment was doing little toaddress the underlying causes ofdisempowerment.Studying changePathways set about the challengeof discovering what works tobring about positive change inwomen’s lives. We looked atpolicies and programmesexplicitly designed to enhancewomen’s empowerment. Weinvestigated other drivers ofchange such as the impact of themove into paid work by largernumbers of women. And weexplored the empowering (anddisempowering) effects ofbroader social and economicchanges, identifying emerginginfluences on women’s lives –and finding, in the process,some unexpected results. Ourapproach drew on a panoramaof disciplinary perspectives fromeconomics to cultural studies,psychology to musicology.Alongside survey data sets andethnographic accounts, weproduced short films,photography exhibitions and apopular music DVD. Taking amulti-methods approachopened up new avenues forenquiry, enriching ourunderstandings of women’sempowerment and of what ittakes to foster positive change.Empowerment as ajourneyFive years on, Pathways hasgenerated a rich and variedportfolio of studies: over 825outputs, of which around 135are journal articles, 85 areworking papers or researchreports, and around 170 arepopular media – newspaperarticles, documentary films, orphotography exhibitions. Ourfindings have led us tounderstand women’sempowerment as a journey, nota destination. Understandingwhat enables women to embarkon these journeys, whatpathways are available to them,which routes they take, andwhat assists them along the wayis essential if we are to supportwomen to empower themselves.Our work points to theimportance of creating anenabling environment for

women’s empowerment. Theoverwhelming conclusion fromthe body of evidence that wehave accumulated in this periodis that a broader transformativemodel that addresses thestructural constraints thatwomen face in their everydaylives is the most effectiveframework for women’sempowerment in the long term.Organising for changeAn overarching finding fromour work is the significance oforganising for women’sempowerment. Organising is amajor route to change and a keypathway of empowerment.Women’s organisations andmovements are vital in buildingconstituencies for gender justice.For women in low-paid, undervaluedjobs, organising providesopportunities to gain rights andrecognition and is vital in theirstruggles for empowerment.Women’s organising has animportant role to play ingovernance, holding states toaccount for their commitments,and monitoring implementationof laws and policies affectingwomen; as in the example ofPathways Brazil’s workmonitoring the new domesticviolence legislation. Pathwaysresearch shows that gains thathave been achieved in relationto women’s sexual andreproductive rights aresubstantially due to women’sorganising, at the local, nationaland transnational level.Supporting women’s organisingcan transform pathways ofempowerment into pathways tojustice and equality.Making policies work forwomenOur research shows thatinterventions directly focusingon women’s political, economicand legal empowerment, and onenhancing women’s sexual andreproductive rights, provide animportant resource for thosewho are struggling for changeon the ground. However, ourfindings make clear that nopolicy intervention or legislativemeasure can bring aboutwomen’s empowerment in andof itself. Policy changes need tobe accompanied by actions thatsupport women’s capacities toengage politically and the abilityand willingness of institutionsto respond to women’sdemands. These include supportfor women’s organisations andother civil society actors tomonitor the implementation ofpolicies, and to hold the stateand other authorities to accountto deliver on their commitmentsto women.Diverse pathwaysPathways of women’sempowerment are diverse, andhighly contextual: what works inone context to transformwomen’s lives will notnecessarily produce the sameeffects in another. Primaryeducation and microcredit,often promoted as simple waysto achieve women’sempowerment, are revealed inour research as much morecontingent on time as well asplace. In Ghana, for example,due to changes in the labourmarket, education is no longeras reliable a route out of povertyas it once was. In Egypt the legalreform Khul (a type of no-faultdivorce where women give upany financial rights in exchangefor the divorce) offers a newroute out of difficult marriagesfor some women. Families arecommonly seen as obstacles towomen’s political involvement.However, our research in Braziland Bangladesh shows that theopposite can be the case;women’s husbands and relativescan be an enabling factor intheir political careers.Pathways9

possibility. As women come tosee themselves differently, theycan begin to confront andovercome obstacles in theireveryday lives. Working withwomen’s empowerment callsfor working with women’simaginations as well as withmaterial aspects of their lives,and for changing the waywomen see themselves and areseen by others.10Relationships matterOur work points to a missingpiece in approaches to women’sempowerment: relationships.Women’s relationships withkin, colleagues, intimatepartners, children, and friendsmeans their choices aremediated by theserelationships. Relationshipsmatter for social change. Bondsof common concern forged instruggles for rights andcitizenship, and alliancesbetween women working instate institutions and civilsociety organisations, are a vitalpart of empowerment.Interventions aimed at creatingand sustaining supportiverelationships among women,and supporting women’scapacities to act together aremore likely to havetransformative effects thanthose targeted at individualwomen.Shifting the horizons ofpossibilityOur work emphasises how vitalit is to listen to what womenthemselves say about their lives,their options and their choices.For example, one of the moststriking and unexpectedfindings from Pathwaysresearch in Afghanistan andBangladesh, is the role thatwatching television plays tobroaden women’s sense of theworld around them, andprovide them with strategiesfor negotiating power relations.This and the findings fromother Pathways studiesdemonstrate thatempowerment is not onlyabout changing the boundariesof action, but also aboutshifting the horizons ofReport structureThis report is organised around12 key messages emerging fromacross the diversity of studiesand interventions supported bythe Pathways programme.These messages have emergedfrom an iterative and innovativesynthesis process. The synthesisprocess has involved theanalysis of around 825 outputs,derived from 55 projects in 15countries. This process soughtboth to systematise keyfindings, triangulating acrossdifferent sources of evidenceand different modes of analysis,and to ground these findings ina scan of the current policycontext, so as to optimise theaccessibility of findings to thosewho can make the most use ofemerging insights in theirefforts to bring about positivechange in women’s lives.

Key findings1 What is empowering to one woman is not necessarilyempowering to another: understanding empowermentneeds to begin from women’s own experiences, ratherthan focus on a predictable set of outcomes.2 Across very different contexts, women’s ability toexercise voice and strategic forms of control over theirlives is linked to being able to generate regular andindependent sources of income.3 Relationships lie at the heart of women’s empowerment– women’s families, partners, friends and colleagues,and women’s organisations, networks and coalitions canbe crucial in supporting and enabling women’s pathwaysof empowerment.4 Sexuality is a vital but neglected dimension of women’sempowerment. Positive approaches to sexuality can bean important driver of change in women’s lives.5 Understanding women’s empowerment calls for rigorousand imaginative combinations of research methodologiesand methods. Participatory research can make apowerful contribution to both understanding and action.6 Efforts to promote women’s empowerment need to domore than give individual women economic or politicalopportunities. They need to tackle deeper-rootedstructural constraints that perpetuate inequalities.7 Policies and laws that affirm women’s rights and openup pathways for women’s empowerment are criticallyimportant. But they are not in themselves sufficient tochange women’s lives.8 Women’s organising is vital for sustainable change.9 There is no one-size-fits-all approach to women’sempowerment. Global institutions would benefit fromlistening more to local women and doing more to supportexisting local agendas for women’s empowerment.10 Fostering public engagement and debate is essential tomaking policies that work for women’s empowermentand gender equality. The media and popular culture havea vital role to play in this.11 Recognising and supporting those within the state whoare responsible for the implementation of women’sempowerment interventions is crucial; front-line workerscan be vital agents of change.12 Changing attitudes and values is as important tobringing about women’s empowerment as changingwomen’s material circumstances and politicalopportunities.Key findings11

1What is empowering to one woman is not necessarily empowering to another: understanding empowermentneeds to begin from women’s own experiences, rather than focus on a predictable set of outcomes.Empowerment cannot beexpressed as a standardformula that works equally oneveryone wherever it is applied.It depends on women’ssituations, and is mediated byrace, class and sexuality. 8External assumptions aboutwhat empowerment is and isnot can differ widely from howa woman experiences her ownreality. 9 An increase in wealthor status may give women moreof a say, but does notnecessarily protect them fromdomestic violence or fromsocial reproach if they decidethey can no longer endure anunhappy marriage. 10 There isno automatic associationbetween giving women a loanor sending a girl to school andachieving an outcome ofempowerment. 11 And womenmay experience empowermentthrough activities or situationsthat are widely considered to bedisempowering – such as sexwork or marital breakdown, orparticipation in ritual orreligious practice. 12Pathways research suggeststhe need for a more nuancedapproach to measurement thatenables women to identify andexplore the changes they haveexperienced in their lives ratherthan being limited by a focuson existing assumptions. 13 Ourresearch reveals pathways ofempowerment that would behidden to conventionalmeasurement. 14 These includethe empowering effects ofviewing television and insightsinto the relationship betweenreligious observance andempowerment that challengesconventional expectations. 1512Women (re)negotiating religion in BangladeshThe rise in religious observance in Bangladesh has been framed by secularsociety as problematic and disempowering for women. This view is based on theassumption that religious engagement accepts and does not challengestructures of gender inequality. The Pathways research team in Bangladeshinterviewed three groups of women: factory workers, students and taleem(discussion groups on religious texts) participants. They found that women intaleem classes sought a textual knowledge of Islam that allowed them tounderstand, question and critique its customs. They used this understanding toassert themselves in religious discourse and at home. They did not see anobservance of religion as incompatible with empowerment. However, theempowerment they seek may fall outside the narrow definition usually appliedby development discourse. 19‘For me empowerment is the ability tocreate a new situation, a newcondition, a new act, a new story forwomen in society. This gives uspower. When we are able to createsomething new from ourselves, fromus women: that for me isempowerment.’ 16 Cristina Buarque,Secretary for Women’s Policies,Pernambuco State, Brazil

Education: A pathway to women’sempowerment?Girls’ education has come to be regarded asone of the most important poverty-reducinginterventions. It is linked with improved childhealth and lower rates of fertility and infantmortality. However, Pathways researcherAkosua Darkwah found that education maynot always lead to increased empowerment.Her research with 600 women from three agegroups in Ghana examined the link betweenlevels of education and paid work in thepublic sector of the economy. Findingsshowed that education is important indetermining whether a woman works in thepublic sector or runs her own business.However, assuming that education is all thatit takes is problematic. Context matters.Providing universal primary educationwithout providing jobs with satisfactoryworking conditions hinders educatedwomen’s efforts at gaining control overfinancial resources. There should be a multiprongedapproach to empowering women.Education alone is not enough. Access tojobs and laws that ensure decent working‘It is easy to read women’s dependence on theirfamilies as disempowering, where religiousrhetoric/ideals only reinforce women’s subordination.However, one needs to take account of the fact that inBangladesh, both culture and religion stress a morefamily and community-based rather thanindividualistic view of the self.’ 17 Samia Huq,Assistant Professor, BRAC Development InstituteKey point 1‘Religion has become almost like a venue or a forumfor self-expression: it provides avenues for women’sconditions are essential. 20 leadership, for public speaking, and it is a form ofsocial security both spiritually and temporally.And as some people in our research cynically said,when you die they give you a good burial.’ 18Takyiwaa Manuh, Pathways West Africa Hub Convenor 13

2Across very different contexts, women’s ability to exercise voice and strategic forms of control overtheir lives is linked to being able to generate regular and independent sources of income.The economic empowermentof women has become amajor development priority.Giving women moreopportunities to earn an incomehas been shown to make asignificant contribution to theachievement of developmentoutcomes. 21 Yet amidst the pushto get more women into workand stimulate women’s incomeearningcapacities, less attentionhas been focused on what wouldmake working moreempowering for women.Pathways research hasrevealed clear links betweenwomen’s economicempowerment and otherdimensions of empowermentin their everyday lives. 22But it has also shown thatthese effects do not automaticallyflow from women’s entry intopaid work: much depends onother factors, including theopportunities that going out towork offer women to broadentheir horizons, to expand theirunderstanding of their optionsand develop the knowledge,confidence and capacities toexercise agency. 23Action research on conditionalcash transfers (CCTs) has revealedthe significance of interventionsthat make women aware of theirrights and entitlements, and thattreat women as citizens ratherthan as beneficiaries. Researchon women’s work in the informalsector has shown the significanceof collective action in offeringpathways to citizenship forworking women. Evidence fromthis research offers crucialinsights into the repertoire ofstrategies that women ininformal work can bring to bearon their strategies for change. 24Taken together, Pathwaysresearch on women, work andincome points to the benefits ofinfusing conventional strategiesfor economic empowerment –microfinance, employmentcreation and skills training –and the new instruments ofsocial policy, such as CCTs,with a citizenship approach. 2514Work survey in BangladeshThe work theme group in Bangladesh carriedout a survey of 5,000 women in differentlocations in the country. The economicimpetus for positive change in women’s livesincluded access to work outside the home,especially formal and semi-formal work.Unfortunately this accounted for only 5 percent of the sample. Ownership of assets,particularly housing and education (inparticular post-primary), were among theother factors that mattered. In addition,routine watching of television, support to thefamily and membership of an NGO all provedimportant pathways of change in women’slives. Conformity with religious norms hadmixed impacts. It gave women somestanding within the community and thesense that they could deal with difficultcircumstances. But it also curtailed theirmobility in the public domain with regard tohealth services, economic activity, marketsand visits to their own families. It reinforcedson preference and it had little impact onwomen’s sense of having control over theirown lives. 28

Viewing alternative realities inAfghanistanPathways research in Afghanistan exploredhow Afghani women experienced efforts toenable them to gain greater economicindependence and establish their ownbusinesses. Led by Naila Kabeer, theresearch revealed important lessons for howempowerment is assessed. Kabeer notesthat attempts to quantify women’sempowerment often fall short preciselybecause they measure predictable outcomes– and what empowers women may beentirely unpredictable. In the context ofAfghanistan, what has made a difference hasbeen exposure to alternative realitiesthrough migration experiences, access totelevision and the opportunities that microcreditprogrammes have opened up forwomen to interact with other women likethemselves. For some of these women, theability to earn was important in trying torenegotiate the male breadwinner model ofthe household. For many others, however,the significance of the loans was in enablingthem to set up businesses like bakeries orhairdressing salons that bring people tothem, expanding their social networks andwith this their horizons. 29‘Yes, I’ve heard of equal rights. It means that thehusband and wife have equal rights in any kind ofwork and in making any kind of decision. I know thisfrom my education, from books and from watchingTV.’ 26 Fatrhat, home-based worker, Bangladesh‘You can tell as soon as you see a working woman. If she works andearns an income of her own, then there is a different sense aboutthem. They have mental strength.’ 27 Shahara, subsistenceproduction worker, BangladeshKey point 215

163Relationships lie at the heart of women’s empowerment – women’s families, partners, friends andcolleagues, and women’s organisations, networks and coalitions can be crucial in supporting andenabling women’s pathways of empowerment.Development agencies tendto represent women’sempowerment in terms ofimprovements in individualwomen’s lives or the biggerpicture of society-wideeconomic change. There is a lotof talk about women’s agency. 30But there is little recognition ofthe role that others play inshaping women’s actions andchoices. 31 Relationships withBuilding women’s relationships in rural BangladeshWhat is the significance of social relationships in women’slives? What does it have to do with empowerment?Researchers Naila Kabeer and Lopita Huq looked at Saptagram,a landless women’s organisation in rural Bangladesh.Saptagram’s core strategy for positive social change is totransform women’s consciousness and capabilities. Key to thisis building relationships based on solidarity and mutualsupport between women with shared experiences of class andgender oppression. The research showed that womenbenefited materially from their involvement with Saptagram,learning about the environment, family planning and childhealth. But more important is the social space in which chosenidentities and relationships flourish. Their friendship, affectionand loyalty for each other resulted in an unconditional form ofsupport. They can draw on the power of these socialrelationships to confront relationships of power within theircommunity. They have used their solidarity to demand a fairerdistribution of government services, and to raise awarenessabout violence by men against women. 41family, friends, colleagues andpartners are significant inmediating women’s choices.These relationships are notfactored in sufficiently to theways development agenciesthink about women’sempowerment. 32Women’s organisations play acrucial role in supportingprocesses of women’sempowerment. 33 They providespaces for women to gaincapacities, confidence andawareness, and to buildsupportive relationships withother women. 34 Informalnetworks and associations,including work-related orreligious associations, can playan equally important role inwomen’s empowermentproviding women withopportunities to come togetherwith other women and reflecton their shared situations. 35Relationships fostered in thesespaces are often responsible forbringing about the kind ofchanges associated withempowerment – growth in selfconfidence,acquisition of newcapabilities and consciousness,and capacity to act collectivelyto demand rights andrecognition. 36For women seeking to bringabout change in the arenas ofpolicy and politics, relationshipsare vital to women’seffectiveness. 37 Pathways researchdemonstrates the significanceof supportive domesticrelationships and the importanceof constituency and alliancebuildingfor women’s politicalcareers. 38 Research in globalpolicy spaces attests to how vitalnetworks and alliances are towomen’s capacity to influence. 39

Feminists in global policy spacesRosalind Eyben’s work on ‘femocrats’ in national and globalpolicy arenas draws attention to how powerful feministbureaucrats can be in shaping policy agendas. Of keysignificance, she finds, are the relationships that femocratsbuild with each other within institutions and with otherbroader networks of feminists. She points out that althoughmany dismiss bureaucrats as mere technocrats, theirpositions, and how they choose to negotiate them, can behighly supportive of feminist agendas. She looks beneath thesurface of discourses of empowerment and studies the subtletactics that feminists within the aid world use to strategicallychallenge dominant and potentially unhelpful discoursesabout women’s empowerment. 42Key point 3‘Women are not as foolish as they used to be. Bygoing for processions, by getting together, becomingunited, by becoming members, we have learnt. Whenwe were by ourselves, there was no unity. Noweveryone is together. There are 20 members here:can anyone’s husband come here to beat her?’ 40Jamuna, Saptagram member, Bangladesh17

4Sexuality is a vital but neglected dimension of women’s empowerment. Positive approaches tosexuality can be an important driver of change in women’s lives.18Social expectations ofwomen’s sexuality affecttheir working lives and theirinteractions in public, as well asin their most intimate lives. 43 Inmany countries, marriage isvirtually compulsory forwomen; what is regarded asacceptable or permissible forwomen shapes their careerchoices, political aspirationsand electability, and the choicesthat they feel able to makeabout their own bodies. 44Ways of understandingsexuality are affected byYoung women’s sexualities in PalestinePathways researcher Penny Johnson’s research in Palestineexplored how the political and security crisis created a contextin which moral panics about unmarried women and ‘irregular’marriages led to tighter social control of young women. Herresearch focused on two areas of the West Bank and revealedmarked differences between the two in terms of young women’svisions for the future. In Dheisheh, a strong supportive civilsociety and not having to cross an Israeli checkpoint played adecisive role in facilitating the girls’ opportunities. But in Sairwhere a checkpoint had to be crossed, girls’ mobility and thusopportunities were severely restricted. These restrictionsextended to accessing information about their bodies. The girlsclearly articulated a desire to understand their bodies better,but faced barriers to such understanding. In discussing NGOtraining for Palestinian youth on democracy, the young womencomplained, ‘really we are bored from always hearing the samesubject, communications workshops, democracy. Learningabout our bodies would be better.’ 54globalisation, moralconservatism andfundamentalisms. 45 This isparticularly apparent in times ofdisruptive change, and canprompt a retreat to ‘tradition’ or‘culture’. Pathways researchersdiscovered the importance thatnarratives of sexuality play inwomen’s experiences ofempowerment anddisempowerment. 46 Thisresearch explored not only howthe way women’s sexuality isrepresented is changing but alsohow it can be changed. Thefindings challenge assumptionsabout what can best supportwomen. They show how legaland policy reforms caninadvertently reinforce the verygender norms that create theproblems laws and policies aretrying to solve. 47 And sometimesstrategies are needed that take amore ‘under-the-radar’ approachto changing attitudes. 48Positive approaches tosexuality play a vital role inpromoting women’sempowerment. 49 Changingnarratives of sexuality,Pathways researchers suggest, isa crucial but much-neglecteddevelopment strategy thatpromises wider benefits towomen’s livelihoods andwellbeing. 50 Our findings pointto the value of engagingpositively with the creation ofalternative images of women’ssexualities in film, storytellingand photography, as well as indevelopment policy narratives. 51‘People thought we were wasting time talking aboutsex and pleasure, when maternal mortality is so high but I was convinced that if this delicate taboothing – sexual pleasure – could be negotiated bywomen, then almost anything can be negotiated and that idea gave me multiple orgasms!’ 52Dorothy Aken’Ova, INCRESE, Nigeria

‘Talking about pleasuremeans more than justreeling off facts aboutpleasure zones andsexual acts. It calls foraddressing deep-seatedcultural norms, taken-forgrantedideas about howthe body works, andassumptions about whatit means to be a “realman” or a “real woman.”’ 53Jill Lewis, internationalgender/HIV preventionconsultant andGill Gordon, HIV/AIDSAllianceKey point 4The power of pleasureWomen’s sexuality is of concern to development agencies onlyas a source of danger, harm, risk and vulnerability. Yet, asPathways work shows, focusing on the positive aspects offemale sexuality is a key strategy in challenging limiting socialnorms that restrict women’s wellbeing and opportunities atwork, in politics and in the public domain. Being able to havecontrol over and to enjoy our own bodies without fear of abuseor disease is fundamental to our wellbeing. Positiveapproaches to sexuality open up space for women to learnabout their bodies, and recognise their rights to a pleasurablesexuality of their own choosing. Together with the DFID-fundedIDS Sexuality and Development Programme, Pathwaysconvened a workshop on sexuality, pleasure and women’sempowerment that brought together practitioners and activiststo share innovative approaches and exchange experiences. 55 19

205Understanding women’s empowerment calls for rigorousand imaginative combinationsofresearchmethodologies and methods. Participatory research can make a powerful contribution to bothunderstanding and action.‘The consensus that empowerment is contextspecific and processual has provided the possibilityof gaining new insights into women’s lives indifferent contexts. Realising this demandsmethodological innovations, but also the navigationof challenges.’ 64 Dzodzi Tsikata and Akosua Darkwah,University of Ghana.Surveying women’s empowermentResearchers from Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana andPakistan met to discuss common questions that could be usedin surveys on paid work and empowerment. It rapidly becameevident that asking the same question in different settingswould generate answers with very different implications. ForGhanaian women, for example, going out to work is somethingthat is expected of a woman, whilst in Bangladesh women’sentry into the labour market is one of the most pronouncedsocial changes of the last few decades. This underscored theneed for a combined methods approach to measuringempowerment that can be sensitive to cultural context.Pathways survey researchers combined questionnaires withlife histories, focus groups and interviewsto gain deeperunderstanding of the impact of changes in women’s lives.Researching women’sempowerment ischallenging. Pathwaysresearchers found that theconcept of ‘empowerment’ isunderstood in diverse ways indifferent cultural andorganisational contexts. 56 Thiscreates well-recogniseddifficulties for assessing when,how and whether empowermentis taking place. 57 Pathwayssought innovative combinationsof quantitative, qualitative andparticipatory methodologies –including the use of newcommunications technologies 58– to explore the process ofempowerment as well as itsoutcomes. 59 Combining lifehistories, surveys, ethnographicmethods, participatoryworkshops, interviews andanalysis of existing statisticaldata permitted us to gain closerunderstanding of the processand experience ofempowerment, as well as of itsoutcomes. Our work affirmedthat involving women directly inthe research process – womenliving in poverty, 60 women insocial movements 61 and women’sorganisations, 62 and ‘femocrats’in development agencies 63strengthens not only the qualityof evidence, but also stimulatesthe impetus for action.‘Courses, workshops, trips out of state I cansummarise the impact of the Pathways project on mylife with the following phrase: it is “empowering” me.’Daniela Almeida, student intern, Changing Times,Changing Lives project, Brazil

Digital storytelling in BangladeshLife histories offer powerful windows into women’s lives. Digitalmedia technology opens up new possibilities for capturing andsharing life histories through the creation of digital stories. TheSouth Asian team ran three workshops in which researchers,students, rights activists, and local politicians in Dhaka andthe Chittagong Hill Tracts made their own digital stories. Thesewere short films (about 3 minutes long), with a first personaudio narrative, illustrated with a slide show of photographs orsketches. The process of women creating their own digital story‘I define women’s empowermentas a bundle of things – an array ofpolicies, practices and attitudesthat allow women to actualisethemselves, to realise theirpotential.’ 68 Takyiwaa Manuh,Pathways West Africa HubConvenorfollows in the tradition of the work of Paulo Freire and others,who see the development of critical consciousness as anecessary precursor to action for social change. In articulatingtheir stories, the women developed technical and creativeskills and confidence. The collaborative nature of theworkshops, and the sharing of each other’s stories, helped thewomen develop a sense of solidarity with each other. Thecontent of the stories offers researchers very rich material, andthey can potentially be used as illustrative or advocacy tools onparticular policy issues. 66‘I cannot express how much I likedwatching my own story on thescreen Every time I watch mydigital story, I will feel empoweredand confident all over again.’ 67Participant, second DigitalStorytelling workshop,BangladeshKey point 5Changing Times, Changing Lives in BrazilCecilia Sardenberg embarked on researching changes acrossthree generations of women in Plataforma, a working classsuburb of Salvador, Brazil, by recruiting a group of co-researchersfrom amongst her students. Half were working-class youngwomen whose internships with the research project helped themstay in college. The others were middle-class students who hadpreviously had little exposure to life in the low-incomeneighbourhoods of the city. Using feminist consciousness-raisingtechniques, the team shared their own stories. The youngwomen interviewed their own family members and used whatthey learnt to construct a survey instrument to explore women’sperspectives on the impact of broader changes in Braziliansociety and culture on their everyday lives. Their collectiveanalysis changed their perspectives of themselves as women,and of the women around them, and resulted in an opportunityfor these young women to travel to southern Brazil to presenttheir work at one of Latin America’s most prestigious feministconferences. The project showed that research on empowermentcan in itself be empowering. 6521

6inequalities.Efforts to promote women’s empowerment need to do more than give individual women economic orpolitical opportunities. They need to tackle deeper-rooted structural constraints that perpetuateBy addressing the structuralconstraints that lead towomen being treated in waysthat undermine their dignity,deny them respect andperpetuate theirdisempowerment, efforts toempower women stand a farbetter chance of achievingsuccess. 69 To be effective inaddressing women’sdisempowerment, Pathwaysresearch suggests, meanstreating women as wholepeople rather than only asincome-generators, reproducersor representatives. This meansputting the dignity and respectthat women experience aslacking in the way society treatsthem at the heart of efforts toenhance their empowerment.For example, domestic workersin Brazil said that one of themost disempowering aspects oftheir job was to be invisible totheir employer, a pair of handsrather than a person. 70Our work suggests thataddressing the multiplestructural constraints towomen’s empowerment calls forapproaches that re-value thelonger, slower processes throughwhich women gain a sense oftheir own self-worth, cometogether to recognise thoseaspects of their lives that areunfair and oppressive, andengage actively in changingeveryday unfairness that mightotherwise be taken for granted. 71Pathways researchers alsoemphasise the need to recognisethe role that men can play inthose processes of change. 7222Appropriating ‘gender’ and ‘empowerment’Charmaine Pereira analyses the uptake of terms such as ‘gender’and ‘empowerment’ by the Obasanjo government’s NationalEconomic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS). Pereiraargues that, in the context of a global recourse to narratives ofpoverty reduction, the state’s instrumental use of feminist discourselegitimates a neoliberal development agenda. Fundamentalquestions of power are erased in the process. These include theconstraints within which women are expected to perform theirgender as well as the power of those close to government to buyup lucrative public properties, investments and infrastructure inthe name of ‘economic empowerment’. Pereira points out that, ifthe structural inequities that produce poverty and disadvantageare to be addressed, there is a need to reclaim a feminist visionof empowerment in the pursuit of social and economic justice. 76‘Making markets work for women is not enough foreconomic justice. Focusing exclusively on increasingwomen’s labour market participation andentrepreneurship will not produce a balanceddistribution between men and women in bothproductive and reproductive work. Policymakersneed to address the right to decent work and equalwages and recognise and value all women’s work.’ 73Rosalind Eyben, Research Fellow, Institute ofDevelopment Studies

Crossroads of empowermentDomestic worker activists in Brazil havebrought about changes in the law andfostered innovative programmes thatseek to change the options open toyoung black women at the crossroadsthat take them into domestic work.Terezinha Gonçalves researchedprocesses of empowerment for womenin FENETRAD (National Federation ofDomestic Workers) in Brazil.Despite an expansion of the labourmarket to include more women in thelast 50 years, the fact that 60 per centof domestic workers are black andfemale shows that this has done littleto improve their reality. Upper andmiddle-class women employ domesticworkers so they can pursue careersand escape the ‘trap’ of reproductivework. Yet often because they do notvalue domestic work as an occupation,they do not respect the law in terms ofpayment and hours. At thiscrossroads, where gender, race andsocial class intersect, domesticworkers face a struggle to overcomethe multitude of obstacles and findpathways of empowerment. 77Key point 6‘Alleviating poverty and enabling women to make someincome can better lives, butthe enabling environmentthat confirms the right to work, to property, to safety,to voice, to sexuality and to freedom is not createdby sewing machines or microcredit alone.’ 75Hania Sholkamy, Pathways Middle East Hub Convenor‘Women don’t only want access to resources,but also control over them. Women don’t want towork in any employment opportunity, but inprotected and decent work. This is the situationwhere women become empowered, and also thereason why this kind of empowerment cannothappen under colonial occupation and patriarchaldomination. It is difficult to attain a degree ofempowerment if the occupation does not end, and ifstability and security does not prevail.’ 74Eileen Kuttab, Assistant Professor in Sociology,Institute of Women’s Studies, Birzeit University23

7Policies and laws that affirm women’s rights and open up pathways for women’s empowerment arecritically important. But they are not in themselves sufficient to change women’s lives.24Pathways research shows howimportant legal and policychange has been to achievingwomen’s empowerment. Ourwork also suggests, however,that legal and policy reformsare only a first step in theprocess of achieving women’sempowerment. 78 Efforts to ensurethe effective implementation ofpolicies and laws are vital,including supporting women toseek access to justice and takeup opportunities for politicalengagement. 79Quotas can be a pathway intopower, but can also leavewomen without voice orinfluence once they reachoffice. 80 When women enterpolitics through quota systemsthey are more able to beeffective advocates for womenwhere they have a constituencywho can support them, and holdthem to account. ProvidingQuotas: A pathway of political empowerment?The use of quota systems to increase women’s politicalrepresentation and to further women’s political empowerment isincreasing worldwide and continued support for this interventionis essential. But many more factors beyond the introduction ofquotas influence how power is mediated. Quotas are not anadequate indicator. Research in Latin America by Ana AliceAlcântara Costa found that once in office women representativesare often faced with patriarchal political structures that limit theirpolitical activity. There is also no guarantee that womenrepresentatives will act in favour of women’s rights. This highlightsthe need for a strong feminist movement with grassroots support.Quotas also run the risk of being ignored unless they are backedby sanctions against parties for their non-implementation. 88opportunities for individualwomen alone offer women fewerpathways of empowerment;interventions should seek tochange the structures ofconstraint that women face. 81Studies of microfinance andconditional cash transferprogrammes show that economicempowerment initiatives holdmore potential for women’sempowerment when they take acitizenship approach – providingbenefits as entitlements, andaccompanying payments orloans with activities thatstrengthen women’s knowledgeand exercise of their rights. 82Our research also found thatinstruments producing positiveoutcomes in one context do notnecessarily have the same effectsin others. Alternative measuresmay be needed. For example,older women in Ghanaexperienced education as a keypathway out of poverty. Foreducation to play a similar rolefor younger women today,additional measures are neededto strengthen their access toemployment in a changinglabour market. 83 However, incomparison, our survey inBangladesh found that education,particularly secondaryeducation, was a very powerfulforce for positive change. 84‘Quota systems alone are not sufficient to create theconditions for women to empower themselvespolitically But when quotas are complementedwith public policies to promote equality that cancreate deeper transformations in the patriarchalstructure in society, with the perspective ofexpanding democracy, then they can serve as achannel for change.’ 85 Ana Alice Alcântara Costa,Research Fellow, Nucleus of Interdisciplinary Studiesat the Federal University of Bahia

‘Reform strategies need to gobeyond lobbying the government.What is lacking in the currentreform efforts are building supportamong different sectors of thesociety (religious scholars, IslamicNGOs, legislators, families andcommunities) through dialogue andawareness raising, and partaking inthe process of imparting to newgenerations of children and youngpeople enlightened religiousknowledge and sensibilities thatare appreciative of justice, equalityand acceptance and respect forothers.’ 86 Mulki Al-Sharmani,Assistant Professor, Social ResearchCenter, American University in Cairo‘The thing I like about Pathways isthe impact it can have on people’slives; it is not just doing studies foracademics but changing people’slives. I think Pathways hasimproved people’s lives a lot. Thisis the beauty of it. The Maria daPenha observatory, for example, isactually making the Maria daPenha law on domestic violencehappen. People are really using it.You have a law, but it is only anadvisory law. We need theobservatory to make the law work –to track in which cities the law isreally being applied and how it’sbeing applied.’ 87 Lea Santana,Masters student, Federal Universityof Bahia (formerly Latin AmericaHub Communications Officer)Key point 7Family law reforms in EgyptIn the last decade, new family laws have been passed in Egyptthat include legal provision for women to release themselvesfrom marriage, khul. Although these have had importantramifications for women, research by Mulki Al-Sharmani and herteam found that the transformative role these reforms could playin strengthening women’s rights is being limited. Implementationof the reforms has been uneven, with many different actorsbringing their own agendas to the table. Their research showsthat in order for new family laws to be truly effective, greaterunderstanding needs to be fostered amongst the public. Tocounter the kind of stigma and opposition associated with khul,broader societal debate is needed on marriage and on women’sand men’s rights, roles and responsibilities within it. Thisresearch formed the basis for a documentary, Khul, produced aspart of Pathways Real World scheme. 8925

8Women’sorganising is vital for sustainable change.26Building peace through women’s organising inSierra LeoneWomen’s organisations played a vital role in efforts to endSierra Leone’s brutal civil war and build the basis for peace.The brutalities and atrocities that women and children,especially girls, were subjected to during Sierra Leone’s11-year civil war resulted in a groundswell of activism bywomen’s NGOs and activists demanding the protection andpromotion of women’s rights as part of peace negotiations,post-conflict reconstruction and peace consolidationprocesses. Sierra Leone’s reconstruction and peaceconsolidation policies and programmes are pursued within thepost-conflict peace-building framework and resolutions suchas Resolution 1325. Pathways researcher Hussainatu Abdullahand her colleagues in Sierra Leone found that while thisframework has a transformational edge, it does not go farenough to ensure women’s empowerment. Its application inpost-conflict Sierra Leone is disjointed and full of loopholesthat can be used to roll back whatever gains women haveachieved. Sustainable change remains elusive. What isneeded is more consistent application of existingcommitments, along with support to women’s organisations tomonitor and hold to account those charged with implementingwomen’s empowerment within the post-conflict peacebuildingframework. 98Organising plays animportant role in enablingwomen to formulate and voicetheir demands for gender justiceto their communities, societiesand states. It is especiallyimportant for women whoexperience multiple structuraloppressions, whether because ofrace, class or other socialinequalities. 90 Working womencoming together to demandbetter conditions, recognitionand rights can gain strengthfrom each other and join theirvoices to insist on being heard. 91Women’s movements bringwomen from all walks of lifetogether to fight for a commoncause. 92 By combining efforts insupport of a particular issuewomen can gain greater visibilityand legitimacy in holdinggovernments to account onenacting their promises in ameaningful way. 93 It is muchharder for women to achievelasting change when they arenot organised.Our work also shows thatthrough collective mobilisationwomen can gain a sense oftheir own self-worth, and cometogether to recognise thoseaspects of their lives that areunfair and oppressive. Researchon women’s collective action toimprove conditions in informalsector employment shows thatmobilisation around immediatepractical concerns over livelihoodissues can open up pathways tocitizenship, as mobilisationsbroaden to encompass longertermconcerns.Women’s organising is key tomaking policies and laws makea difference to women’s lives.Organising women can raiseawareness of enablingprogrammes and legislation, sothat women can make demandsfor change and hold authoritiesto account for delivering onexisting laws and policies. 94 It isespecially important for womenwho experience other forms ofdiscrimination, includingbecause they are poor, work inmarginalised or stigmatisedprofessions, or due to their raceor caste. It is much harder toachieve lasting change throughlegal or policy reform withoutactive engagement by those forwhom the changes are intended. 95

‘If you don’t see a light inthe darkness, you mustlight a fire.’ 97 CreuzaOliveira, domestic workerrights activist, Brazil‘Strategies for empowering women need to take into account the role played by such organisations [nationalwomen’s NGOs] as mediators and channels ofwomen’svoice and demands, and engage with and supportthem more actively as champions of change.’ 96 Sohela Nazneen, Associate Professor, University of Dhakaand Maheen Sultan, Pathways South Asia Hub ConvenorKey point 8Constituency building by women’s organisationsIn a state characterised by gender and class hierarchies,women’s organisations in Bangladesh have to use a range ofstrategies to highlight their agendas. Research by SohelaNazneen and Maheen Sultan analysed how three nationallevel organisations negotiated with political parties, statebureaucracy and civil society to become an effective voice forwomen’s interests in Bangladesh.They found that how women’s organisations frame issuesinfluences their ability to build solidarity. The latter is importantfor alliance building which puts them in a stronger position toavoid any potential backlash from conservative quarters insociety or the state. Women’s organisations use tactics todemonstrate to the government the cost of not implementing itscommitments so that it does not renege. The media has provedto be a useful ally on certain issues such as women’s politicalparticipation and acid violence by holding the government up topublic scrutiny. Influencing government is seen as essential toensuring sustainable rights for women. Engagement with thestate is strategic as the organisations may not always be aroundbut government machineries will remain. 9927

289There is no one-size-fits-all approach to women’s empowerment. Global institutions would benefitfrom listening more to local women and doing more to support existing local agendas for women’sempowerment.Pathways researchdemonstrates how globalwomen’s empowerment agendastake shape on the ground indifferent forms and with variedeffects depending on the socialand political context into whichthey are introduced. 100 The term‘empowerment’ itself has come toacquire unhelpful associationsas a result of the promotion ofa stock set of interventions andprogrammes by globaldevelopment institutions thatoften fail to take any account ofwhat might be needed to createan enabling environment forsuch interventions to haveEmpowerment in PalestinePalestinian researcher Eileen Kuttab shows how when women’sempowerment is simply taken up mechanically as an agendaassociated with foreign donor agencies, it can obscure anddilute the concerns faced locally by women. In the Palestiniancontext, Kuttab and her colleague Islah Jad demonstrate howthe rush of funding for women has led to the ‘NGOisation’ ofwomen’s organisations, and to a disregard for the actualconditions of Palestinian women’s lives under occupation.Kuttab’s research reveals the extent to which the mushroomingof microcredit institutions seeking women’s economicempowerment has not resulted in any meaningful change inwomen’s lives. She contrasts donor and lender empowermentinterventions with the community-based organising that grewout of the resistance to the Israeli occupation and shows thatthe vitality of these forms of local development offers a farmore promising entry point for change than the importation ofoff-the-shelf interventions by foreign agencies. 107empowering effects. 101 A muchvoicedcritique of globaldevelopment actors is theirfailure to be sufficiently awareof what is already happening onthe ground, and to lend supportto those initiatives – a situationexacerbated by the limitations ofcurrent models of aid deliveryand impact assessment. 102Global institutions shouldlook at how best to supportexisting local initiatives ratherthan superimposing one-sizefits-allsolutions anddecontextualised ‘best practice’models on entirely differentcontexts. This is not to say thatthere is not a place for sharingwhat works with othercountries. When policymakerstake the time to adapt goodideas that come from elsewhereand ground them in theparticularities of that context,there is a much better chance ofsuccess. An example of this is thedesign of the Egyptianconditional cash transferprogramme, which incorporatedelements and lessons fromexperience in various LatinAmerican countries – fostered bya Pathways-supported exchangeand the ethnographic actionresearch that informed lessonlearningfrom implementationof a pilot scheme. 103‘Women’s empowerment is often treated byinternational agencies as something that can bedesigned as a policy blueprint, rolled out and scaledup. What actually happens when policy is conceived,negotiated and shaped maybe altogether different.’ 104Hania Sholkamy, Pathways Middle East Hub Convenor

‘Empowerment should be first aboutlistening and seeing what people onthe ground want, not entering crisisstrickenor disadvantaged spaces withpredetermined “rescue” agendas.’ 105Rosalind Petchesky, Professor ofPolitical Science, City University ofNew YorkKey point 9Donor relationships with women’s rightsorganisationsWhen does external financial support to women’s rightsorganisations (WROs) have a positive impact on women’sempowerment? Pathways researchers studied this question inBangladesh, Ghana and at the global level through criticalreflection with donor staff and representatives of WROs.The researchers found that donor resources play a critical rolein women’s rights work yielding tangible results in terms oflegal reform, policy advocacy and delivery of services towomen. However, both the donor staff and the WROrepresentatives highlighted (a) short-term, project-relatedrather than core funding, and (b) the increasing emphasis oninter-organisational competition for scarce funds, as beingdetrimental to the sustainability of WRO activities. Negotiatingcomplicated funding application formats, and the increasingneed to rely on unfamiliar intermediary organisations to applyfor funding is a further hindrance to accessing resources.Once funding is obtained, the lack of a direct relationship betweenthe donors and the WROs around how the money is spent hasproved problematic. Direct citizen-to-citizen communication wouldincrease solidarity, understanding and mutual accountability.The current dichotomy between rights and efficiency in donorspeak has also proved challenging to WROs in how they positionthemselves. These discourses imply that rights are not efficientand that efficiency does not deliver rights. The research alsohighlighted the increasing demand on WROs to provideevidence and measurable results to demonstrate that womendevelop improved leverage through institutional support. 10629

Fostering public engagement and debate is essential to making policies that work for women’s10empowerment and gender equality. The media and popular culture have a vital role to play in this.30Talking empowerment in plain Arabic‘Empowerment’ has been described in the Middle East as a‘Western import’. Against the perpetuation of this myth, andrecognising the limitations that English-language conceptsmay hold when used in different language contexts, HaniaSholkamy and colleagues in Egypt, Palestine and Sudanorganised a series of events to explore the meaning of‘empowerment’ when translated into Arabic. They used theseevents as a way of engaging a diversity of people who areinfluential in public and policy debate about women andwomen’s empowerment. In Sudan, for example, the workshopdrew together journalists, academics, politicians and peopleworking for NGOs, bringing them into dialogue with each otheron these questions, often for the first time. It opened a spacefor critical interrogation of what the concept of ‘empowerment’actually means in this setting.The workshops enabled those people that felt alienated fromthe concept of empowerment to appropriate this language andultimately contribute to the global narrative on women’sempowerment. It also offered individuals an opportunity tofind new ways of talking empowerment in plain Arabic withoutfeeling that they are serving someone else’s project orsomeone else’s political agenda. 117Ifpolicies that challenge deeprootedinequities – such as thedisproportionate numbers ofmen in politics or unequal payand a lack of opportunities forwomen – are to stand a chanceof being taken up, they need tobe accompanied by proactivestrategies that foster debate.Public opinion is critical toproviding an environment thatwill be receptive to policyreforms. When citizens areencouraged to engage withpolicy change and contributetheir views and experiences, 108they are more likely to beinterested in holding state andnon-state actors to account fordelivering what they promise.Creating broad-based publicsupport for laws and policiesthat seek to alter the status quoin favour of women’sempowerment can bedifficult. 109 Popular culture andthe media play a vital role inshaping public opinion, andoffer spaces for debate anddeliberation on the issues thatmatter. 110 To capture publicsympathy women may berepresented as long-sufferingvictims or brave heroines. Theserepresentations are unhelpfuland can be disempowering. 111Being cast as a victim can leavewomen with little sense of theirown agency, and places them ina position of being passiverecipients of other people’s help.Being represented as a heroinewho can lift economies, keepher household afloat and be themotor of poverty alleviationplaces a huge burden on women– and fails to acknowledge thevery real constraints that everywoman experiences. 112Challenging stereotypes ofwomen, including thoseperpetuated by developmentagencies themselves, should be apriority for those who want tosupport women’s empowerment.Our work also points to theneed to break with stereotypes ofmen 113 – and recognise thesupportive roles that men canplay and are playing in women’sempowerment and genderequality. 114

‘Is legal reform enough to address theproblems that women suffer from inEgypt? I don’t think so. I think weneed to do more. We really need toaddress public opinion and how it isconstructed; our social norms andhow people think about marriage;men and women’s roles and theirrelations within marriage. We need tohave a dialogue, a societaldialogue.’ 115 Mulki Al-Sharmani,Assistant Professor, Social ResearchCenter, American University in Cairo‘Often in policy discourses, popular culture is completelydiscounted [as though] it doesn’t exist and yet it is a genre thatso many people relate to. Popular culture is something peopleengage with on a daily basis and it does shape their perceptions.’ 116Takyiwaa Manuh, Pathways West Africa Hub ConvenorKey point 10Songs for changeRepresentations of women in popular music can reinforce orchallenge stereotypes. Pathways researchers Akosua Adomakoand Awo Asiedu analysed the lyrics of Ghanaian musicalgenres from the 1950s to the present, and found that themessages contained in these songs were often negative,portraying women as sex objects, and as fickle and jealous.Multi-stakeholder engagement opened up spaces fordiscussion about the way gender and relationships were beingportrayed in popular music. In order to encourage artists tothink more about these issues, a song writing competition washeld. A panel of judges made up of musicians, musicproducers, gender researchers, music scholars and youngmusic consumers chose the winning songs, based on thestrength of the lyrics, musical quality and innovation. Ongoingengagement with these groups will encourage shifts in the waywomen are portrayed in the music and entertainmentindustries in future. 11831

Recognising and supporting those within the state who are responsible for the implementation of11women’s empowerment interventions is crucial; front-line workers can be vitalagentsofchange.32Implementing a feminist conditional cash transferprogramme in EgyptPathways researchers in Egypt, led by Hania Sholkamy, workedclosely with officials at the Ministry of Social Solidarity todesign and implement a conditional cash transfer (CCT) pilotprogramme based on feminist principles. The Egyptian CCTprogramme works with female heads of household in a Cairolow-income neighbourhood, Ain el-Sira. Researchers wereclosely involved in the training of 200 social workers toimplement and monitor the programme. Social workersmonitor the loan conditionalities, visiting the women once amonth, talking directly to the women as familyrepresentatives, and providing them with much-neededsupport in terms of access to resources. This has included,over the duration of the programme, cash for smallbusinesses, cash to support ill or handicapped familymembers, and support in combating family member drugaddiction. The centrality of the social workers within thescheme, and the training and support they have received as aresult of this has significantly improved their engagement withtheir job, as well as their ability to do it well. It has also helpedfoster their understanding of feminist politics, and thestructural issues that particularly affect women. 124State policies andprogrammes offer a majorsource of support for womenliving in poverty, and womenwho experience abuse, violenceand discrimination. Whiledevelopment agencies placemuch emphasis on achievingsupportive policies, far lessattention is focused on thosepeople who deliverprogrammes at the grassroots.Yet Pathways research onwomen workers within thestate – social workersadministering cash transfers inEgypt, and lady health workersin Pakistan and Bangladesh –found that these jobs are oftenempowering for the womenthat do them, and in turn theyallow these women to supportthe empowerment of thewomen for whom the policiesand programmes are intended. 119Front-line workers play animportant role in transformingthose who would otherwisesimply be seen as beneficiariesof state policies into citizens,and in creating the enablingconditions for theirempowerment. 120 Their ownattitudes towards those theywork with are also crucial inensuring that health and socialservices do not become a sitefor the reinforcement oflimiting beliefs andexpectations about women. 121‘Many men and women have changed their thinkingafter seeing me work. They also want their daughtersto become lady health workers. Whenever I go towomen’s houses, they ask me to have their daughtershired if there are any vacancies for lady healthworkers.’ 122 Nasreen, lady health worker, Pakistan

Lady health workers in PakistanThe Lady Health Workers programme is amajor public sector initiative to providereproductive healthcare to women inPakistan. It employs almost 100,000 womenas community health workers who addresswomen’s reproductive healthcare needs. Theyprovide information, basic services andaccess to further care. Thanks to theprogramme, women are more visible andmobile within the community. They receivetraining, are knowledgeable and gain respect,and also have their own income. Thischallenges gender imbalances in the homeand the community. Government-runadvertisements on television in support of theprogramme were critical in helping women togain credibility. The research shows thatprocesses that support empowerment arestrengthened when social policy is shapedalongside current social change. 125Key point 11‘One of the interesting things we’ve done from a women’sempowerment point of view is to work with and train thebureaucrats – the people who serve the poor, who are usually verypoor themselves and no one invests in their training – to convincethem that social protection for women is strategic.’ 123Hania Sholkamy, Pathways Middle East Hub Convenor33

Changing attitudes and values is as important to bringing about women’s empowerment as12changing women’s material circumstances and political opportunities.Pathways research shows thatempowerment is notsomething won or bestowed,but a process of negotiationthat requires courage andpersistence, and support whentimes get tough. 126 The courageto step away from theexpectations that limit us andnegotiate pathways ofempowerment is somethingthat comes not only fromhaving assets or opportunities,but from seeing ourselves andour options in a different light.Supporting women’s pathwaysof empowerment must alsoinvolve efforts to share theseimages of the possible, and tospark women’s imaginations, sothat they can see themselvesdifferently – and from that,begin to act to change theirlives.Changing attitudes andvalues that limit women’shorizons is vital for women’sempowerment. The way weview the world, and understandwhat is ‘normal’, or ‘acceptable’or even just ‘possible’ is shapednot only by our directinteractions with people, but bythe images and words thatsurround us from television,radio and newspapers. 127Pathways research revealed howpowerful women’s self-imageand societal perceptions ofwomen can be in limiting theirpossibilities. 128 It also shows thepower that could come frombreaking away from stereotypes,broadening and diversifyingimages of women and men,and creating new narrativesthat showed women pursuingalternative possibilities. Sharingstories of women doing jobsthat are usually associated withmen, for example, helpsdemonstrate that it is bothpossible, and desirable, to liftthe barriers blocking womenfrom particular professions.Role models that inspire,challenge and strengthen othersare invaluable. 129Where imaginative use hasbeen made of vehicles like soapoperas and online forums,opportunities have been madeto challenge prejudices bycreating the possibilities forgreater understanding. This inturn can change people’sperceptions and perspectives.Despite these changes beingdifficult to measure,development agencies shouldnot give up on their promise.Working with the producers ofthe images that we consume –journalists, musicians,photographers, filmmakers,broadcasters and artists – isessential if we are serious aboutgender justice.34Storytelling in EgyptAna el Hekkaya (I am the Story) are agroup of feminist storytellers, based inCairo, who believe in the power ofstorytelling in shaping people’sunderstanding of reality and inchallenging existing gender norms. Theirstories aim to represent positive,empowered images of Egyptian women,and grew partly out of their distress athow women were portrayed in traditionalliterature, such as the Arabian Nights.Their work provides a modern, feminist,take on a popular traditional art form.With support from Pathways, they haveworked with young writers andperformers from Sudan, Egypt andPalestine both helping them creatively,and trying to make them more aware ofthe gender subtexts in their writing.Ana el Hekkaya do regular performancesand are producing an animated filmbased on some of the stories producedby young writers. 132

‘What the Afghan researchdemonstrates is that even in the mostrepressive of circumstances, exposureto new ideas and alternative realities,even if it is simply through watching TV,can have the power to change lives.’ 130Naila Kabeer, SOAS, University ofLondon; Ayesha Khan, Collective forSocial Science Research, andNaysan Adlparvar, Institute ofDevelopment Studies‘We see on television a nuclear family where the man is thebreadwinner or sometimes the husband and wife togethermaintaining the family, but we want to see serials where it is thewife who is the sole breadwinner. In scenes that show men drivingaround in their cars and motorbikes, they have their wives next tothem; we’d now like to see women in the driver’s seat.’ 131Student at Jahangirnagar University, BangladeshKey point 12Women watching television in BangladeshPathways Bangladesh researchers Aanmona Priyadarshini andSamia Rahim have been looking at the way in which womenwatch television. Television has blurred the boundaries betweenthe public and the private. Its power to influence is significant.Women are not just passive consumers of television; theychoose, judge and discard the narratives that they see, andnegotiate how these narratives interact with their daily lives.As such, if the media would breakexisting stereotypesand addto, or replace, dominant stories and images, it could contributeenormously to women’s empowerment. Seeing role models ontelevision can change women’s sense of what is possible, andprovide them with hopes of an alternative reality. Watchingtelevision also gives women the leisure that their everyday livesmay otherwise deny them, time to think and to dream that canbe vital for their empowerment. 13335

Key resources and references36Key resourcesAl-Sharmani, M. (ed.) (forthcoming) Legal Reform andFeminist Activism: Comparative Perspectives,London:Zed BooksAzim, F. and Sultan, M. (2010) Mapping Women’sEmpowerment: Experiences from Bangladesh, India andPakistan,Dhaka:University PressCornwall, A. (2007) ‘Pathways of Women’s Empowerment’,Open Democracy,30 July,www.opendemocracy.net/article/pathways_of_womens_empowermentCornwall, A. and Anyidoho, N. (guest editors) (2010)‘Gender and Empowerment’, Development 53.2, JuneCornwall, A. and Edwards, J. (2010) ‘NegotiatingEmpowerment’, IDS Bulletin 41.2, Brighton: Instituteof Development StudiesCornwall, A., Gideon, J. and Wilson, K. (2008) ‘ReclaimingFeminism: Gender and Neoliberalism’, IDS Bulletin39.6, Brighton: Institute of Development StudiesEyben, R. (2008) ‘Conceptualising Policy Practices inResearching Pathways of Women’s Empowerment’,Pathways Working Paper 1, Brighton: Pathways ofWomen’s EmpowermentEyben, R. and Turquet, L. (eds) (forthcoming) The FeministBureaucrat: Agent of Change or a Contradiction inTerms of Development?,London:Zed BooksGoetz, A-M. and Nyamu, C. (2008) ‘Voice and Women’sEmpowerment: Mapping a Research Agenda’, PathwaysWorking Paper 2, Brighton: Pathways of Women’sEmpowermentKabeer, N. (2008) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowerment andGender Justice: Critical Pathways of Social Change’,Pathways Working Paper 3, Brighton: Pathways ofWomen’s EmpowermentKabeer, N., Sudarshan, R. and Milward, K. (eds)(forthcoming) Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak:Strategies for Organising Working Women in theInformal Economy,London:Zed BooksPereira, C. (2008) ‘Changing Narratives of Sexuality –Concept Paper’, Pathways Working Paper 4, Brighton:Pathways of Women’s EmpowermentPereira, C. (ed.) (forthcoming) Changing Narratives ofSexuality: Contestations, Compliance and Women’sEmpowermentent,London:Zed BooksSardenberg, C. (2009) ‘Liberal vs LiberatingEmpowerment: Latin America’ Pathways WorkingPaper 7, Brighton: Pathways of Women’sEmpowermentNazneen, S. and Sultan, M. (eds) (forthcoming) VoicingDemands: Feminists Reflecting on Strategies,Negotiations and Influencing,London:Zed BooksTadros, M. and Jad, I. (eds) (forthcoming) NegotiatingWomen’s Pathways of Political Power,London:ZedBooksReferences1 Andrea Cornwall, Pathways Director, speaking to theEgyptian Daily News,January 20092 Cecilia Sardenberg, Latin America Hub Convenor,NEIM, ‘Pathways of Women’s Empowerment AnnualReview 2007–8’3 Mulki Al-Sharmani, Researcher, Social ResearchCenter, American University in Cairo, Middle EastHub, personal correspondence, February 20114 Hania Sholkamy, Middle East Hub Convenor, SocialResearch Center, American University in Cairo,Pathways Consortium Advisory Group (CAG)Meeting, June 20105 Sohela Nazneen, Researcher, BRAC DevelopmentInstitute, South Asia Hub, personal correspondence,February 20116 Eileen Kuttab, Researcher, Birzeit University, MiddleEast Hub, personal correspondence, February 20117 Ayesha Khan, Researcher, Collective for Social ScienceResearch, Pakistan, South Asia Hub, personalcorrespondence, May 20118 Blagojevic, M. (2010) ‘Empowerment from aSemiperiphery Perspective’, Development: Gender andEmpowerment 53.2: 190–2Cornwall, A. and Anyidoho, N.A. (2010) ‘Women’sEmpowerment: Contentions and Contestations’,Development: Gender and Empowerment 53.2: 144–9Corrêa, S. (2010) ‘Sexuality, Gender andEmpowerment’, Development: Gender andEmpowerment 53.2: 183–6McFadden, P. (2010) ‘Challenging Empowerment’,Development: Gender and Empowerment 53.2: 161–3Pereira, C. (2008) ‘Changing Narratives of Sexuality –Concept Paper’, Pathways Working Paper 4, Brighton:Institute of Development StudiesRowlands, J. (1997) Questioning Empowerment:Working with Women in Honduras,London:OxfamPublishing9 Mumtaz, K. and Pitanguy, J. (2010) ‘Women’s Bodiesand Freedom’, Development: Gender and Empowerment53.2: 156–60Petchesky, R. (2010) ‘Critical Perspectives onEmpowerment’, Development: Gender andEmpowerment 53.2: 181–2Sardenberg, C. (2009) ‘Liberal vs LiberatingEmpowerment: Conceptualising Women’sEmpowerment from a Latin American FeministPerspective’, Pathways Working Paper 7, Brighton:Institute of Development StudiesSholkamy, H. (2008) ‘The Empowerment of Women:Rights and Entitlements in Arab Worlds’, inM. Mukhopadhyay and S. Meer (eds) Gender, Rightsand Development: A Global Sourcebook,Amsterdam:Royal Tropical Institute10 Al-Sharmani, M. (2008) ‘Recent Reforms in PersonalStatus Laws and Women’s Empowerment – FamilyCourts in Egypt’, Cairo: American University in Cairoand Brighton: Pathways of Women’s EmpowermentRPCAl-Sharmani, M. (ed.) (forthcoming) Legal Reform andFeminist Activism: Global Processes,London:Zed BooksQueiroz de Carvalho Gomes, M., Alverita da Silva, Z.,Ribeiro Santos, C. and Sardenberg, Cecilia M.B. (2009)Monitoramento Da Lei Maria Da Penha – RelatórioPreliminar De Pesquisa,Salvador:OBSERVE11 Darkwah, A.K. (2010) ‘Education: Pathway toEmpowerment for Ghanaian Women?’, IDS Bulletin41.2: 28–3612 Al-Sharmani, M. (2010) ‘Legal Reform, Women’sEmpowerment and Social Change: The Case of Egypt’,IDS Bulletin 41.2: 10–17Huq, S. (2010) ‘Negotiating Islam: Conservatism,Splintered Authority and Empowerment in UrbanBangladesh’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 97–105Seshu, M. and Bandhopadhyay, N. in conversationwith C. Overs (2009) ‘How the Development IndustryImagines Sex Work’, Development – Sexuality andDevelopment 52.1: 13–1713 Cornwall, A. and Edwards, J. (2010) ‘Introduction:Negotiating Empowerment’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 1–9

Eyben, R., Kabeer, N. and Cornwall, A. (2008)‘Conceptualising Empowerment and the Implicationsfor Pro-poor Growth’, paper for DAC PovertyNetwork, Brighton: Institute of Development StudiesKabeer, N. (2008) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowermentand Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of SocialChange’, Pathways Working Paper 3, Brighton: Instituteof Development StudiesSardenberg, C. (2009) ‘Liberal vs LiberatingEmpowerment: Conceptualising Women’sEmpowerment from a Latin American FeministPerspective’, Pathways Working Paper 7, Brighton:Institute of Development Studies14 Abdullah, H.J., Ibrahim, A.F. and King, J. (2006)‘Women’s Voices, Work and Bodily Integrity inPre-conflict, Conflict and Post-conflict ReconstructionProcesses in Sierra Leone’, country paper prepared forthe West Africa Hub Scoping Workshop of Pathways ofWomen’s Empowerment RPC, Accra, Ghana, 4–7 JulyAzim, F. and Hussain, N. (forthcoming) ‘Trajectories ofDesire and the Mediation of Socio-Cultural Spaces:The Impact of the Media and Religion on Women’sLives in Bangladesh and Pakistan’, Comparative Paperon Bangla and Pakistan Research, BDI Working Paper,Dhaka: BRAC Development InstituteCornwall, A. and Edwards, J. (2010) ‘Introduction:Negotiating Empowerment’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 1–9Gonçalves, T. (2010) ‘Crossroads of Empowerment:The Organisation of Women Domestic Workers inBrazil’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 62–9Kabeer, N. (2008) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowermentand Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of SocialChange’, Pathways Working Paper 3, Brighton: Instituteof Development StudiesPereira, C. (2008) ‘Changing Narratives of Sexuality –Concept Paper’, Pathways Working Paper 4, Brighton:Institute of Development Studies15 Azim, F. (2011) ‘Editorial Introduction: Islam, Cultureand Women’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 12.2: 173–5Huq, S. (2010) ‘Negotiating Islam: Conservatism,Splintered Authority and Empowerment in UrbanBangladesh’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 97–105Priyadarshani, A. and Rahim, S.A. (2010) ‘WomenWatching Television: Surfing Between Fantasy andReality’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 116–2416 Cristina Buarque cited in Sardenberg, C. (2010)‘Women’s Empowerment in Brazil: Tensions inDiscourse and Practice’, Development 53.2: 232–817 Huq, S. (2010) ‘Negotiating Islam: Conservatism,Splintered Authority and Empowerment in UrbanBangladesh’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 97–10518 Takyiwaa Manuh, West Africa Hub Convenor,CEGENSA, being interviewed about the West AfricaHub research, Youtube Pathways channel, 5 October201019 Huq, S. (2010) ‘Negotiating Islam: Conservatism,Splintered Authority and Empowerment in UrbanBangladesh’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 97–10520 Darkwah, A. (2010) ‘Education: Pathway toEmpowerment for Ghanaian Women?’, IDS Bulletin41.2: 18–2721 Eyben, R., Kabeer, N. and Cornwall, A. (2008)‘Conceptualising Empowerment and the Implicationsfor Pro-poor Growth’, paper for DAC PovertyNetwork, Brighton: Institute of Development StudiesKabeer, N., Cornwall, A., Edström, J., Eyben, R.,Fontana, M., Mehta, L. and Standing, H. (2010)‘Gender Equality and the MDGs: Pathways to aTransformative Agenda’, IDS Gender Evidence for ActionPaper,Brighton:Institute ofDevelopment StudiesUN Department of Economic and Social Affairs(2009) ‘2009 World Survey on the Role of Women inDevelopment: Women’s Control over EconomicResources and Access to Financial Resources, includingMicrofinance’, lead writer, Naila Kabeer, UnitedNations: New York22 Kabeer, N., Mahmud, S. and Tasneem, S. (2011) ‘DoesPaid Work Provide a Pathway to Women’sEmpowerment? Empirical Findings from Bangladesh’,IDS Working Paper 375, Brighton: Institute ofDevelopment Studies23 Gonçalves, T. (2010) ‘Crossroads of Empowerment:The Organisation of Women Domestic Workers inBrazil’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 62–9Kabeer, N. (2008) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowermentand Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of SocialChange’, Pathways Working Paper 3, Brighton: Instituteof Development StudiesSardenberg, C. (2010) ‘Family, Households andWomen’s Empowerment in Bahia, Brazil, Through theGenerations: Continuities or Change?’, IDS Bulletin41.2: 88–9624 Cornwall, A. and Gonçalves, T. (forthcoming) ‘TheStruggle for Rights for Domestic Workers in North-East Brazil’, in N. Kabeer, K. Milward and R. Sudarshan(eds), Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak? Strategiesfor Organizing Working Women in the InformalEconomy,London:Zed BooksKabeer, N. and Huq, L. ‘The Power of Relationships:Love, Money and Loyalty in a Landless Women’sOrganization in Rural Bangladesh’, in N. Kabeer,K. Milward and R. Sudarshan (eds), Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak? Strategies for Organizing WorkingWomen in the Informal Economy,London:Zed BooksKabeer, N., Milward, K. and Sudarshan, R.(forthcoming) ‘Introduction: Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak’, in N. Kabeer, K. Milward andR. Sudarshan (eds), Refashioning the Weapons of theWeak? Strategies for Organizing Working Women in theInformal Economy,London:Zed BooksMenon, G. (forthcoming) ‘The Challenge ofOrganizing Domestic Workers in Bangalore: Caste,Class and Gender in the Informal Economy’, inN. Kabeer, K. Milward and R. Sudarshan (eds),Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak? Strategies forOrganizing Working Women in the Informal Economy,London: Zed BooksNarayan, L. (forthcoming) ‘Power at the Bottom of theHeap: Organizing Waste Pickers in Pune’, in N. Kabeer,K. Milward and R. Sudarshan (eds), Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak? Strategies for Organizing WorkingWomen in the Informal Economy,London:Zed BooksRethinam, J. (forthcoming) ‘Negotiating Patriarchies inthe Fishing Community: Organization Building inTamil Nadu’, in N. Kabeer, K. Milward andR. Sudarshan (eds), Refashioning the Weapons of theWeak? Strategies for Organizing Working Women in theInformal Economy,London:Zed BooksSeshu, M. (forthcoming) ‘Sex, Work and Citizenship:VAMP and the Sex Workers Collective in Maharasthra’,in N. Kabeer, K. Milward and R. Sudarshan (eds),Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak? Strategies forOrganizing Working Women in the Informal Economy,London: Zed Books25 Kabeer, N. (2003) ‘Making Rights Work for the Poor:Nijera Kori and the Construction of “CollectiveCapabilities” in Rural Bangladesh’, IDS Working Paper200, Brighton: Institute of Development StudiesKabeer, N. (2008) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowermentand Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of SocialChange’, Pathways Working Paper 3, Brighton: Instituteof Development StudiesKabeer, N. (2011) ‘Between Affiliation and Autonomy:Navigating Pathways of Women’s Empowerment andGender Justice in Rural Bangladesh’, Development andChange 42.2: 499–528Kabeer, N., Khan, A. and Adlparvar, N. (forthcoming)‘Faith, Freedom and Microfinance: GenderedNarratives of Submission and Subversion in UrbanAfghanistan’, IDS Working Paper,Brighton:Institute ofDevelopment StudiesSholkamy, H. (2010) ‘No Path to Power: Civil Society,State Services, and the Poverty of City Women’, IDSBulletin 41.2: 46–5326 Cited in Kabeer, N., Mahmud, S. and Tasneem, S.(2011) ‘Does Paid Work Provide a Pathway toWomen’s Empowerment? Empirical Findings fromBangladesh’, IDS Working Paper 375, Brighton:Institute of Development StudiesReferences37

38127 Cited in Kabeer, N., Mahmud, S. and Tasneem, S.(2011) ‘Does Paid Work Provide a Pathway toWomen’s Empowerment? Empirical Findings fromBangladesh’, IDS Working Paper 375, Brighton:Institute of Development Studies28 Kabeer, N., Mahmud, S. and Tasneem, S. (2011) ‘DoesPaid Work Provide a Pathway to Women’sEmpowerment? Empirical Findings from Bangladesh’,IDS Working Paper 375, Brighton: Institute ofDevelopment Studies29 Kabeer, N., Khan, A. and Adlparvar, N. (forthcoming)‘Faith, Freedom and Microfinance: GenderedNarratives of Submission and Subversion in UrbanAfghanistan’, IDS Working Paper,Brighton:Institute ofDevelopment Studies30 DFID (2007) Gender Equality at the Heart ofDevelopment: Why the Role of Women is Crucial toEnding World Poverty,London:Department forInternational DevelopmentEyben, R. with Napier-Moore, R. (2009) ‘ChoosingWords with Care: Shifting Meanings of Women’sEmpowerment in International Development’, ThirdWorld Quarterly 30.2: 285–300Kabeer, N., Cornwall, A., Edström, J., Eyben, R.,Fontana, M., Mehta, L. and Standing, H. (2010)‘Gender Equality and the MDGs: Pathways to aTransformative Agenda’, IDS Gender Evidence forAction Paper,Brighton:Institute ofDevelopmentStudies31 The World Bank’s empowerment framework, forexample, focuses on assets and institutions withoutrecognising the vital role relationships play in women’sempowerment (see Alsop, R. and Heinsohn, N. (2005)‘Measuring Empowerment in Practice: StructuringAnalysis and Framing Indicators’, World Bank PolicyResearch Working Paper 3510, World Bank: Washington)Kabeer, N. (1999) ‘Resources, Agency, Achievements:Reflections on the Measurement of Women’sEmpowerment’, Development and Change 30.3: 435–6432 Eyben, R. (ed.) (2006) Relationships for Aid,Oxford:EarthscanEyben, R. (2010) ‘Subversively Accommodating:Feminist Bureaucrats and Gender Mainstreaming’, IDSBulletin 41.2: 54–61Eyben, R., Kabeer, N. and Cornwall, A. (2008)‘Conceptualising Empowerment and the Implicationsfor Pro-poor Growth’, paper for DAC PovertyNetwork, Brighton: Institute of Development StudiesTadros, M. and Jad, I. (eds) (forthcoming) NegotiatingWomen’s Pathways of Political Power,London:Zed Books33 Batliwala, S. (2008) Changing their Worlds, Conceptsand Practices of Women’s Movements,Toronto:AWIDGonçalves, T. (2010) ‘Crossroads of Empowerment:The Organisation of Women Domestic Workers inBrazil’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 62–9Kabeer, N. and Huq, L. (2010) ‘The Power ofRelationships: Love and Solidarity in a LandlessWomen’s Organisation in Rural Bangladesh’, IDSBulletin 41.2: 79–87Nazneen, S., Hossain, N. and Sultan, M. (2011)‘National Discourses on Women’s Empowerment inBangladesh: Continuities and Change’, IDS WorkingPaper 368, Brighton: Institute of Development StudiesSardenberg, C. and Costa, A.A. (forthcoming)‘Feminisms in Brazil: Voicing and ChannellingWomen’s Demands in their Diversity’, in S. Nazneenand M. Sultan (eds), Voicing Demands: FeministsReflecting on Strategies, Negotiations and Influencing,London: Zed BooksSharma, D. and Sudarshan, R. (2010) ‘Towards a Politicsof Collective Empowerment: Learning from Hill Womenin Rural Uttarakhand, India’, IDS Bulletin 41.5: 43–51Tsikata, D. (forthcoming) ‘In the Time of the NGO:Women’s Rights Organizing in Ghana Since the 1990s’,in S. Nazneen and M. Sultan (eds),Voicing Demands:Feminists Reflecting on Strategies, Negotiations andInfluencing,London:Zed BooksWeldon, L. (2004) ‘The Dimensions and Policy Impactof Feminist Civil Society’, International FeministJournal of Politics 6.1: 1–2834 Nazneen, S. and Sultan, M. (2010) ‘Reciprocity,Distancing, and Opportunistic Overtures: Women’sOrganisations Negotiating Legitimacy and Space inBangladesh’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 70–8Sardenberg, C. (2009) ‘Liberal vs LiberatingEmpowerment: Conceptualising Women’sEmpowerment from a Latin American FeministPerspective’, Pathways Working Paper 7, Brighton:Institute of Development Studies35 Cornwall, A. and Gonçalves, T. (forthcoming) ‘TheStruggle for Rights for Domestic Workers in North-East Brazil’, in N. Kabeer, R. Sudarshan and K. Milward(eds), Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak? Strategiesfor Organizing Working Women in the InformalEconomy,London:Zed BooksKabeer, N. and Huq, L. (forthcoming) ‘The Power ofRelationships: Love, Money and Loyalty in a LandlessWomen’s Organization in Rural Bangladesh’, inN. Kabeer, R. Sudarshan and K. Milward (eds),Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak? Strategies forOrganizing Working Women in the Informal Economy,London: Zed BooksNarayan, L. (forthcoming) ‘Power at the Bottom of theHeap: Organizing Waste Pickers in Pune’, in N. Kabeer,R. Sudarshan and K. Milward (eds), Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak? Strategies for Organizing WorkingWomen in the Informal Economy,London:Zed BooksPande, A. (forthcoming) ‘Organizing for Life andLivelihoods in the Mountains of Uttarakhand’, inN. Kabeer, R. Sudarshan and K. Milward (eds),Refashioning the Weapons of the Weak? Strategies forOrganizing Working Women in the Informal Economy,London: Zed BooksSelwyn, B. (forthcoming) ‘Women and Rural TradeUnions in North-East Brazil’, in N. Kabeer,R. Sudarshan and K. Milward (eds), Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak? Strategies for Organizing WorkingWomen in the Informal Economy,London:Zed BooksSolomon, C. (forthcoming) ‘The Dynamics of aNon-Governmental and Member-Based Partnership:Women Farmworkers in South Africa’, in N. Kabeer,R. Sudarshan and K. Milward (eds), Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak? 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Pereira (ed.), Changing Narratives ofSexuality: Contestations, Compliance and Women’sEmpowerment,London:Zed Books47 Al-Sharmani, M. (2010) ‘Legal Reform, Women’sEmpowerment and Social Change: The Case of Egypt’,IDS Bulletin 41.2: 10–1748 For example Sylvia Tamale argues that whilst Ssengareinforces heteronormativity they also help to facilitate‘silent struggles’ through counter hegemonic andsubversive teaching on the erotics of sex. This ismediated through metaphor, games, folklore andsongs. The façade of subservience often maskssubversive teaching about how women can controltheir male partners. Tamale, S. (2006) ‘Eroticism,Sexuality and “Women’s Secrets” Among the Baganda’,IDS Bulletin 37.5: 89–9749 Aken’ova, D. (forthcoming) ‘Better Sex and moreEqual Relationships: Couple Training in Nigeria’, inS. Jolly and K. Hawkins (eds), The Power of Pleasure,Sex, Politics and Empowerment,London:Zed BooksAtkin, L.C., Smith, M. and Maxwell, J. 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(forthcoming)‘Towards Alternative Representations of Women inAfrican Cultural Products’, in A. Adams (ed.)Festschrift in Honour of Ama Atta Aidoo52 Dorothy Aken’Ova, INCRESE, Nigeria, cited inW. Knerr (2008) Global Mapping of Pleasure FocussedProjects,Oxford:The Pleasure Project53 Lewis, J. and Gordon, G. (2006) ‘Terms of Contact andTouching Change: Investigating Pleasure in an HIVEpidemic’, IDS Bulletin 37.5: 110–1654 Johnson, P. (2010) ‘Unmarried in Palestine:Embodiment and (dis)Empowerment in the Lives ofSingle Palestinian Women’, IDS Bulletin 41.2:106–1555 Lynch, A. (2008) ‘Sexuality and the DevelopmentIndustry’, report from the Sexuality and theDevelopment Industry Workshop, 3–5 April, Instituteof Development Studies, Brighton56 Sardenberg, C. (2010) ‘Women’s Empowerment inBrazil: Tensions in Discourse and Practice’,Development: Gender and Empowerment 53.2: 232–857 Darkwah, A. and Tsikata, D. 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(2005) ‘Social Exclusion and Citizenship:The Wider Impacts of Microfinance’, in J. Copestake,M. Greeley, S. Johnson and K. Wright-Revolledo (eds),Money with a Mission,London:ITDGKabeer, N., Khan, A. and Adlparvar, N. (forthcoming)‘Faith, Freedom and Microfinance: GenderedNarratives of Submission and Subversion in UrbanAfghanistan’, IDS Working Paper,Brighton:Institute ofDevelopment StudiesSholkamy, H. (2008) ‘All Women Work!’, EuromedNewsletter 1: 12, AugustSholkamy, H. (2010) ‘Power, Politics and Developmentin the Arab Context: Or How can Rearing ChicksChange Patriarchy?’, Development 53.2: 254–883 Darkwah, A.K. (2010) ‘Education: Pathway toEmpowerment for Ghanaian Women?’, IDS Bulletin41.2: 28–3684 Kabeer, N., Mahmud, S. and Tasneem, S. (2011) ‘DoesPaid Work Provide a Pathway to Women’sEmpowerment? Empirical Findings from Bangladesh’,IDS Working Paper 375, Brighton: Institute ofDevelopment Studies85 Costa, A.A. (2010) ‘Quotas: A Pathway of PoliticalEmpowerment?’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 18–2786 Al-Sharmani, M. (2010) ‘Legal Reform, Women’sEmpowerment, and Social Change: The Case of Egypt’,IDS Bulletin 41.2: 10–1787 Lea Santana, Communications Officer, NEIM, LatinAmerica Hub, Pathways of Women’s Mid-TermConference, Cairo, January 200988 Costa, A.A. (2010) ‘Quotas: A Pathway of PoliticalEmpowerment?’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 18–2789 Al-Sharmani, M. (2010) ‘Legal Reform, Women’sEmpowerment, and Social Change: The Case of Egypt’,IDS Bulletin 41.2: 10–1790 Kabeer, N. (2008) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowermentand Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of SocialChange’, Pathways Working Paper 3, Brighton: Instituteof Development StudiesKabeer, N., Milward, K. and Sudarshan, R.(forthcoming) ‘Introduction: Refashioning theWeapons of the Weak’, in N. Kabeer, K. Milward andR. Sudarshan (eds), Refashioning the Weapons of theWeak? Strategies for Organizing Working Women in theInformal Economy,London:Zed BooksSardenberg, C. 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123 Hania Sholkamy, Middle East Hub Convenor, Egypt,Pathways Consortium Advisory Group Meeting, June2010124 Elhakeen, N. (2010) ‘Introducing Conditional CashTransfers to Egypt’s Poor’, Al Masry Al Youm,18 MayGowayed, H. (2009) ‘Tackling Inequalities throughInnovative Social Policy: Gender, Education andHealth in Piloting a Conditional Cash TransferProgram in Egypt’, Vanguard Magazine 5.2: 18–20Hallez, K. and Massengale, J. (2009) ‘Women at theHeart of Egypt’s First Conditional Cash TransferProgramme’, IDS News,25 MayPathways (2010) ‘Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT)Pilot in Ain el-Sira’, DFID Research for DevelopmentCase StudySaleh, H. (2010) ‘Poverty: Trapped by a PoorEducation’, Financial Times,16 DecemberSholkamy, H. (2008) ‘Introducing EmpoweringConditional Cash Transfers to Egypt: The Ain el-SiraExperiment’, workshop report, Cairo, January, Egypt:Social Research Center, American University in CairoSholkamy, H. (2008) ‘All Women Work!’, EuromedNewsletter 1: 12, AugustSholkamy, H. (2010) ‘No Path to Power: Civil Society,State Services, and the Poverty of City Women’, IDSBulletin 41.2: 46–53Sholkamy, H. (2010) ‘Power, Politics and Developmentin the Arab Context: Or How can Rearing ChicksChange Patriarchy?’, Development 53.2: 254–8125 Khan, A. (2007) ‘Women’s Paid Work andEmpowerment in Pakistan’, unpublished paper forPathways South Asia Scoping Workshop, Dhaka: BRACDevelopment InstituteKhan, A. (2010) ‘“Look, that’s me on TV!” Lady HealthWorkers in Pakistan’, paper presented at the ISA WorldCongress, Gothenburg, JulyKhan, A. (2011) ‘Lady Health Workers and SocialChange in Pakistan’, Economic and Political Weekly46.30, 23–29 July: 28–31126 Cornwall, A. and Edwards, J. (2010) ‘Introduction:Negotiating Empowerment’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 1–9Kabeer, N. and Huq, L. (2010) ‘The Power ofRelationships: Love and Solidarity in a LandlessWomen’s Organisation in Rural Bangladesh’, IDSBulletin 41.2: 79–87Sardenberg, C. (2009) ‘Liberal vs LiberatingEmpowerment: Conceptualising Women’sEmpowerment from a Latin American FeministPerspective’, Pathways Working Paper 7, Brighton:Institute of Development Studies127 Johnson, P. (forthcoming) ‘Unmarried in Palestine:Embodiment and (dis)Empowerment in the Lives ofSingle Palestinian Women’, in C. Pereira (ed.), ChangingNarratives of Sexuality: Contestations, Compliance andWomen’s Empowerment,London:Zed BooksPereira, C. and Bakare Yusuf, B. (forthcoming)‘“Reporting Anita”: Nudity in Nigerian Newspapers’, inC. Pereira (ed.), Changing Narratives of Sexuality:Contestations, Compliance and Women’s Empowerment,London: Zed BooksPriyadarshini, A. and Rahim, S. (2010) ‘WomenWatching Television: Surfing Between Fantasy andReality’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 116–24128 Al-Sharmani, M. (ed.) (forthcoming) Legal Reform andFeminist Activism: Comparative Perspectives,London:Zed BooksEdstrom, J. (2010) ‘Time to Call the Bluff:(De)-constructing “Women’s Vulnerability”, HIV andSexual Health’, Development 53.2: 215–21Johnson, P. (2010) ‘Unmarried in Palestine:Embodiment and (dis)Empowerment in the Lives ofSingle Palestinian Women’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 106–15Jolly, S. (2010) ‘Pleasure and Empowerment:Connections and Disconnections’, Development:Gender and Empowerment 53.2: 227–231Kabeer, N. and Huq, L. (2010) ‘The Power ofRelationships: Love and Solidarity in a LandlessWomen’s Organisation in Rural Bangladesh’, IDSBulletin 41.2: 79–87Lewin, T. (2010) ‘Communicating Empowerment:Countering the Cardboard Woman’, Development:Gender and Empowerment 53.2: 222–6Sholkamy, H. (2010) ‘Power, Politics and Developmentin the Arab Context: Or How can Rearing ChicksChange Patriarchy?’, Development 53.2: 254–8129 Tervo, P. (2007) Thorns and Silk,documentary film byPaulina Tervo made under the Real World Schemejointly organised by Pathways of Women’sEmpowerment RPC and Screen SouthLewin, T. (2008 ) ‘Ghanaian Women in the Frame’,IDS News,22 May,Institute ofDevelopment Studies,www.ids.ac.uk/go/news/news-at-ids-ghanaian-womenin-the-frame130 Kabeer, N., Khan, A. and Adlparvar, N. (forthcoming)‘Faith, Freedom and Microfinance: GenderedNarratives of Submission and Subversion in UrbanAfghanistan’, IDS Working Paper,Brighton:Institute ofDevelopment Studies131 Student at Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh citedin Priyadarshini, A. and Rahim, S. (2010) ‘WomenWatching Television: Surfing between Fantasy andReality’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 116–24132 Pathways (2010) ‘Ana el Hekkaya (I am the Story)’,DFID Research for Development Case Study133 Priyadarshini, A. and Rahim, S. (2010) ‘WomenWatching Television: Surfing between Fantasy andReality’, IDS Bulletin 41.2: 116–24References45

Pathways projects46Conceptualising empowermentChanging Times, Changing Lives: Women’s Empowerment throughGenerations in Bahia, BrazilThis study identified and analysed changes in women’s lives in Salvador,Bahia over the last three generations, and how these changes relate toprocesses of women’s empowerment.Conceptualising Empowerment: A Look at Public Policy for Women inBrazilThis project identified and analysed conceptualisations of empowerment inBrazil underlying public policies for women, in particular at the Pro GenderEquality Programme (Programa Pró-Eqüidade de Gênero) implemented bythe Secretariat for Public Policies for Women.Conceptualising Empowerment in Global Spaces and the Shaping ofInternational Policies and Practice about WomenThis project explored the meanings and debates around women’sempowerment within and among sets of actors with global reach, andlooked at how they are shaping values, ideas and policy actions (orabsence of actions) on women’s empowerment.Discourses on Women’s Empowerment in Sierra LeonePre-war discourses of empowerment which were mainly around issues ofdevelopment have now changed, in this post-war era, to include issues ofgender equality, participation and voice, among others. This projecttracked these changes in relation to women’s conceptions ofempowerment during this period.Expanding the Space for Women’s Empowerment in Contemporary NigeriaThis project examined the discourses ofempowermentused byspecificactors, particularly in relation to understandings of women’sdisempowerment, and explored the effects of these discourses on effortsto bring about gender equality.Interrogating Policy Discourses and Practice on Women’s Empowerment inGhanaThis project involved looking at policy texts of organisations (civil society,donor agencies and government) dealing with women’s issues to see whatkind of empowerment is present in the texts.National Discourses on Women’s Empowerment: Enabling or ConstrainingWomen’s ChoicesThis project compared and contrasted conceptualisations of women’sempowerment in Bangladesh, in the development area, in women’sorganisations and in cultural spheres such as the media and religion.Qalet el Rawiyah (So Said the Storyteller)/Ana el Hekkaya (I am the Story)A storytelling project that aimed to enhance the empowerment of Arabwomen through a rereading and rewriting of traditional representations oftheir roles.Talking Empowerment in Plain ArabicThis project held a series of workshops in Arabic to discuss the agendas ofwomen’s empowerment and the flows that influence, set, shape, critiqueand communicate them in plain Arabic rather than English (which tends tobe the language of empowerment in Arab countries).3G3G Three Generations of Women is an interactive multimedia project thatattempts to move beyond the media stereotypes and statistics aboutwomen, and look at their real lives.Tracing and Measuring Empowerment and Change in Women’s Livesthrough Revisiting Different NGO Trajectories ofDevelopmentDiscourseand Local Lay Women’s Conceptions of EmpowermentThis project analysed the ideological and structural transformation of theconcept of ‘empowerment of women’ as applied within developmentparadigms and policies in Palestinian NGOs in general, focusing onwomen’s organisations in particular and on locally recognised empoweredwomen.Empowering workAnalysing the Egypt Labour Market SurveyResearchers used the Egypt Labour Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) of 2006(and its predecessors) to foster both qualitative and quantitative studieson various aspects of gender and work in Egypt, as well as buildingresearch capacity in this area.

Gendered Impacts of BRAC and WFW Microfinance Programming on HazaraWomen in Kabul, AfghanistanThis research provided a grassroots analysis of the livelihood strategies ofwomen from low-income households, their ability to take advantage of neweconomic resources and the extent to which these resources, along withother supportive measures, have translated into shifts in the balance ofpower within the family and the community.Cash Transfers for Poor Families in EgyptDr Hania Sholkamy (Pathways Middle East Hub Convenor) and her team atthe Social Research Center, American University in Cairo collaborated withthe Ministry of Social Solidarity to implement Egypt’s first conditional cashtransfer programme. The pilot was launched in March 2009 in the Caireneslum of Ain el-Sira.Changes and Continuity in Women’s Everyday Lives in GhanaThrough a pilot survey of 400 women in urban, peri-urban and rural areasin the Greater Accra Region, this study explored women’s everyday lives inorder to better understand their experiences of empowerment anddisempowerment.Empowering Domestic Work: The Organising of Domestic Workers in BrazilThis project traced how some of the most marginalised workers in Brazilcame to unionise, press demands for professionalisation to governmentand achieve a major policy shift. It draws out broader lessons on howmarginalised workers can gain rights, security and wellbeing, addressingthe intersections of race, class and gender.Lady Health Workers in PakistanThis study explored the empowerment-related possibilities experienced bywomen in a major public sector community health initiative in Pakistan.Women Health Workers in BangladeshThis research considered whether and how the work done by women healthworkers leads to changes at the individual, family and societal levels.Paid Work and Women’s EmpowermentThis research project explored how paid work can change women’s lives interms of dealing with the public sphere and institutions, accessingservices, commodities, resources, information, reducing isolation,increasing negotiation/bargaining skills, ability to protect themselves, etc.Women’s Voice in Policy Spaces Shaping the Global EconomyThis project looks at the challenge of how to maximise the gains and minimisethe constraints of globalisation in order that women can access markets as apathway to their empowerment in different regional and local contexts.Building constituencies for equality and justiceWomen in the Writing of 1988 ConstitutionThis research analysed documents and interviews with congresswomenwho participated in the elaboration of the Federal Constitution of 1988.Feminisms and Women’s Movements in Brazil: Issues and ChallengesThis research is ongoing and looks into collective action as a pathway towomen’s empowerment.Brazilian Feminisms in the United Nations ArenasThis research analysed the strategies of articulation ofBrazilian feminists,with a special focus on the global spaces created by the United Nationsorganisations.Women in Local Power in Bahia – City Council WomenThis project facilitated training seminars with local council women.Building Constituencies for Political Reform: Quotas as an Instrument ofChangeThis project looked at the extent to which political quotas for women canbe successful in bringing women into political office.Review of Strategic Approaches to Building Constituencies by Women’sOrganisationsThis project sought to document and analyse strategies and approachesused by selected women’s organisations in Bangladesh to mobilise andadvocate for women’s rights and raise demands to the State and otherrights holders.Dialogue with Selected Women District Assembly Members in GhanaThis research asked how assembly members got into office, and what theirexperiences in office have been, and what gains they have made forthemselves and their communities.Family Courts in Egypt: An Exit from Marriage on a Pathway toEmpowerment?This research looked at the reforms that have been taking place in Egyptianpersonal status laws since 2000, and their implications for women’sempowerment.Feminist Activists in Global Policy OrganisationsThis project identified and worked with feminist activists working withininternational development organisations that are shaping discourse andpolicy action – it explored their strategies and strengthened capacity tobring about change.Pathways projects47

48Local Governments between Building the Islamic Nation and Women’sEmpowermentIn this research, Islah Jad examined the role of the newly elected(2005–06) local councils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Measuring the Implementation of UN Resolution 1325This research aimed at monitoring and evaluating progress made so far onthe implementation of UN Resolution 1325 in Sierra Leone.Mobilising Resources for Women’s OrganisationsThis project examined the significance and impact of official externalfinancing for women’s organising at global, regional and nationallevels,with case studies from Ghana and Bangladesh.Pathways of Women’s Empowerment through Legal Strategies: The Caseof Maria da Penha LawThis project investigated women’s struggles and pathways for theimplementation and monitoring of public policies addressing violenceagainst women in Brazil.Poor Women’s Agency in Gaza: Between ‘Doing’ and ‘Being’This research examined the complexity of gendered subjectivity in the GazaStrip and how it is reshaped in a contradictory manner in the context oflivelihood crisis and insecurity caused by the full siege imposed on theGaza Strip by the Israeli occupation and the international community.Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding as Pathways of Women’s EmpowermentThis project examined women’s conception of, and role in security andpeace building in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.Women and Local Governance in Sierra LeoneThis study aimed at illuminating the pathways of women’s politicalempowerment, the relationship between political participation and changeand interrogating the effectiveness of the decentralisation commission inempowering women.Women in Local Government in BangladeshThis project investigated the introduction and enabling conditions ofwomen into local governance in Bangladesh and its influence on women’sempowerment, including strengthening accountability of local governanceinstitutions to women.Women in Local Government in PakistanThis project investigated the introduction and enabling conditions ofwomen into local governance in Pakistan and its influence on women’sempowerment, including strengthening accountability of local governanceinstitutions to women.Women in the ‘Right’?: Women in Religious Political Groups in BangladeshThis research explored how and why women organise in religious groupsand its political implications.Women’s Political Participation in EgyptThis project looked at the various instruments to support women’s politicalparticipation in Egypt, including the National Council for Women’s politicalempowerment training programme, and asked how effective have thesebeen in challenging power hierarchies and empowering women politically?Changing narratives of sexualityChanging Representations of Women in Popular CultureThis project sought to understand the ways in which women arerepresented in popular Ghanaian music from 1970 to date, and challengecontemporary musicians to think about how their lyrics portray women.Cultural History of Bengali Muslim WomenThis project explored the identity formation of Bengali Muslim women byinvestigating the cultural and political history of Bangladesh spanning the20th century.Exploring Positive Approaches to SexualityThis project looked at a small number of cases of local, national or regionalinitiatives on sexual rights and women’s empowerment that have succeededin creating spaces for challenging repressive social norms concerning femalesexuality.Feminisms and the Struggle for Reproductive Health and ReproductiveRights: The Brazilian ExperienceBy exploring the link between the denial of women’s reproductive rights andthe denial of women’s sexual agency under patriarchy, this project examinedthe conditions under which feminist demands around abortion have beensuccessful by drawing together experiences from across Latin America.Sexuality and Empowerment: The Case of Anita HoganAn incident in which nude pictures of a well-known Nigerian actressappeared in a ‘serious’ newspaper and the subsequent response providesinsight into understandings of sexuality and its embeddedness indiscourses on morality and freedom. This project explored this and the useof communications technology in the shifting of public/private boundariesand sexual commodification.Social Change through Video Production in the Chittagong Hill TractsThis project explored how minority communities in the Chittagong HillTracts project identity, culture and change in the cultural productions of the

Hill region and the process through which their stories, for long unheard,are now being related by minority people.Unmarried in Palestine: Dynamics and Discourses of Choice, Embodiment,Responsibility, Power and Survival in the Lives of Single Palestinian WomenUsing topical life stories, focus groups, data and discourse analysis, this workexplored the experiential diversity and thematic commonalities in the livesof Palestinian unmarried women, in the context of a society experiencingprolonged warlike conditions, political crisis, and social disruption.Women and Media in BangladeshThis project explored how Bangladeshi women engage with television andthe meanings, choices and subjectivities they derive from it.Women and Religion in BangladeshThis research looked at resurgent Islam and its influence on the formationof female identities and sexualities to examine whether the new forms ofIslam in fact open up new spaces thereby ‘permitting’ women greatersexual rights than has been popularly perceived, and what might be learntby the secular women’s movement from women’s organising in these newspaces.Changing Narratives of Empowerment in Pakistan: Trajectories of Desireand the Mediation of Socio-Cultural SpacesPathways South Asia examined the discursive changes that are takingplace in areas related to the media, predominantly satellite television andreligion, viz the global upsurge of religious fundamentalism and resurgentpatriarchies in Pakistan, in the wider context of new technologies,consumerism and globalisation.Communicating empowermentReal WorldReal World is a film production scheme run by Pathways and Screen South(Regional Screen Agency of the British Film Institute) that supports emergingdirectors to work with our researchers to produce short films based onPathways work.Photography GhanaPathways Ghana held both a training workshop and a photographicexhibition that looked at changing images of women in Ghana.Photography BrazilPathways Brazil ran a photovoice project and exhibition with womendomestic workers in Bahia.Photography EgyptPathways Egypt held a gender training and photography competitioninterrogating contemporary images of women in Egypt.Changing Images of Women Photo ExhibitionPathways Bangladesh ran a gender sensitising training, and photographiccompetition, followed by an exhibition looking at changing images ofwomen in Bangladesh.Digital StoriesPathways communication officers in each hub were trained in digitalstorytelling (DST) facilitation. Three DST workshops were held inBangladesh, two in Dhaka and one in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.Stories of Change Video Documentary, BangladeshStories of Change is a video documentary that travels through differentregions of Bangladesh and through different generations by following thenarratives of five women, ranging from a 16-year-old cricketer to a 60-yearoldactivist. The film depicts the lives and struggles of these women as partof the efforts to make visible the trajectories of change experienced in thelives of Bangladeshi women.Stories of Change Writing Project, BangladeshThis project started with a workshop where stories from Pathways researchwere rewritten using creative writing tools, and culminated in a book.Pathways projects49

Photo captions52Captions are in the order they appear in thereport.Cover left to right Salamata, a woman accused ofbeing a witch by her fellow villagers, outside herhome in Gambaga, Northern Ghana.Photo: Yaba BadoeMunni Saha, a Bangladeshi television reporter.Reporting used to be limited to men due to thenature of the work, having to go anywhere at anytime and to potentially risky situations. However,many young women are now undertaking thischallenging job and rejecting the image ofwomen as being defenceless and vulnerable.Photo: Sheikh Razibul IslamAn Egyptian girl on the streets of Cairo during therecent revolution. Women played an active andcrucial role in the 2011 protests, demandingpolitical reform and the ousting of the thenpresident Hosni Mubarak. Photo: Ali AtefA woman fruit seller in Salvador, Brazil. Thisphoto was taken as part of the photographytraining given to the NEIM student interns.Photo: Sheila RodriguezContents, page 1 Women taking an early morningstroll. Women going for a morning walk is a recentphenomenon in Bangladesh as they becomehealth conscious and more comfortable walkingby themselves. Previously, women would nothave walked in the park without a male guardian,however young. Photo: Sheikh Rajibul IslamPathways, page 7 Participants at a DigitalStorytelling Conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Photo: Tessa LewinIntroduction, page 8/9 Women in Tamale,Northern Ghana. Photo: Steve AbabioWomen on the streets of Cairo during theJanuary/February 2011 revolution. Photo: Ali AtefIntroduction, page 10 Hawa, a seamstress workingin Tamale, Northern Ghana. Photo: Steve AbabioKey Point 1 Shantana works in the garmentindustry in Bangladesh. Garment workers arepaid very little and work 10 or more hours a dayto make a living. She says she is happy and notintimidated by her workload, having built afantasy world for herself where her companionsare film stars. Photo: Sheikh Razibul IslamKey Point 2 Om Ramadan selling gas canisters inAin el-Sira, Cairo. This is traditionally considereda male job. Photo: Amanda Kerdahi MattKey Point 3 Family in Ain el-Sira, Cairo, locationfor the pilot conditional cash transfer programmebeing supported by researchers at the PathwaysMiddle East Hub. Photo: Heba GowayedKey Point 4 Kabul, Afghanistan. Women crowd intoa beauty salon reopened after the defeat of theTaliban regime. The salon’s busiest day is Friday,the Muslim holiday. Photo: Iva Zimova/PanosKey Point 5 NEIM’s undergraduate studentinterns. Photo: NEIMKey Point 6 Hawa is a seamstress working inTamale, Northern Ghana. Her tailoring businessmay include an old-fashioned charcoal-heatediron, but she stays in touch with her contacts viaher mobile phone. Photo: Steve AbabioKey Point 7 Nursing students. This photo wonsecond place in the ‘Changing Images of Womenin Ghana’ photo competition. Photo: Senyo GanyoKey Point 8 Creuza Oliveira, domestic workerrights activist, campaigning for election inSalvador, Brazil in 2008. Photo: Animal MondayKey Point 9 Majda Al-Bahr, taxi driver. Majda isa rare sight on the streets of Jerusalem: she saysshe is the only Palestinian female taxi driver whoworks there. A mother of five, she used to be acleaner and work only indoors. She aspires tobecome a bus driver, as that would mean moreregular working hours. Photo: Paulina TervoKey Point 10 A family watching televisiontogether in Bangladesh, 2008. Televisionprovides women with new spaces in which toview the world, expanding their knowledge andhelping them escape reality; the contributionsthis can make to their wellbeing andempowerment have been underestimated bydevelopment. Photo: Aanmona PriyadarshiniKey Point 11 A health worker, Bangladesh. Thiswoman’s standing in the community reflects theincreasing recognition given to healthcare andfamily planning. As health workers are requiredto engage with households of all kinds, they arecrossing class and caste barriers that wouldpreviously have denied them such direct accessand mobility. Photo: BRACKey Point 12 Storytellers from the 2008 Qalet el-Rawiyeh performance at the historic venue ofWikalet el Ghouri, Cairo. Photo: Tessa Lewin

‘This important global investigation, driven by facts found on the ground, gives usvaluable insights into how women’s lives change for the better. The findings hold twoessential messages for policymakers. First, to build equality, the deep structural causesof gender inequality and discrimination must be firmly addressed. Women cannot livewith dignity and improve their lives – and those of their families and communities –when they are denied equal rights to property and access to justice, income-earningopportunities, and knowledge. Second, collective action provides the foundation forsustained empowerment. For UN Women, these two findings constitute valuable guidesfor our work.’Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Directorof UN Women