What makes change happen in women’s lives?
Photo/Kwabena Danso
Pathways of Women’s Empowerment is an international research and communications programme established in 2006 which links academics with activists and practitioners to find out what works to enhance women’s empowerment. We are identifying where women are achieving real gains and discovering the positive and negative factors which have influenced their journey. Pathways was funded by UKAid from the Department for International Development until 2011 and has received additional financing from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that enabled the programme to expand to include countries in conflict, post-conflict and crisis situations. It is now funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).
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Gender Equality must be a Development Priority in its own right
Naila Kabeer and Jessica Woodroffe argue in this blog for The Guardian, that UN high-level panel consultations cannot ignore the importance of dedicated gender target when looking for the next 'new idea' after the Millennium Development Goals.
New Book: Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy: Beyond the Weapons of the Weak
This new book edited by Naila Kabeer, Ratna Sudarshan and Kirsty Milward and published by Zed is the first in a series on Feminisms in Development from the Pathways programme. This first book offers vibrant accounts of how women working as farm workers, sex workers, domestic workers, waste pickers, fisheries workers and migrant factory workers have organized for collective action.
On International Women's Day: A Tribute to the Men who Risk their Lives for Gender Justice
In this blog for the IDS Participation, Power and Social Change Team, Mariz Tadros pays tribute to the men who choose to be positive deviants and who even put their lives at risk to support a more humane society.
Getting Care onto Development Agendas: How is IDS doing?
On International Women’s Day Rosalind Eyben reflects on IDS’s progress in raising the profile of care in development. See also Naomi Hossain's blog on 'I'm Still Hungry Mum: The Return of Care'.
Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Is there a Win-Win?
This new IDS Working Paper from Naila Kabeer and Luisa Natali asks to what extent does gender equality contribute to economic growth? And to what extent does the reverse relationship hold true?
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Paid Women, Women's Empowerment and Inclusive Growth: Transforming the Structures of Constraint
by Naila Kabeer Ragui Assaad, Akosua Darkwah, Simeen Mahmud, Hania Sholkamy, Sakiba Tasneem and Dzodzi Tsikata
Drawing on household survey data collected in Egypt, Ghana and Bangladesh as part of the Pathways empowering work programme, this report for UN Women provides insights into the ‘resource’ pathways that enhance women’s agency and thereby contribute to the inclusiveness of the economic growth process.
Getting Unpaid Care onto Development Agendas
This policy briefing from Rosalind Eyben explains why care continues to be neglected in development policy and programming. It recommends the employment of three power tools to achieve a strategic succession of small wins with respect to naming, framing, claiming and programming care.
Sex Work and its Linkages with Informal Labour Markets in India
Based on the results of the First Pan India Survey of Female Sex Workers, this paper by Rohini Sahni and V. Kalyan Shankar positions sex work within the broader spectrum of informal labour markets that women engage with in India.
Tearing Egypt Apart
The eruption of protests, violence and civil disobedience in Egypt this month is a replay of the scene in 2011 before the status quo was ruptured, but the current regime’s attacks on women and religious minorities in order to quell opposition is more pervasive than anything seen before, argues Mariz Tadros in this Open Democracy article.
Real World Film selected for Sundance
30% - Women in Politics in Sierra Leone directed by Anna Cady and Emily Cooper as part of the Real World scheme has been selected for screening at the 2013 Sundance Festival in Utah in January. The film was one of 65 chosen from a record 8,102 submissions. Festival Director of Programming, Trevor Groth, said: "The selections represent the immensely varied and dynamic approaches to storytelling that will inspire audiences with their huge accomplishments within a limited timeframe".
For more information see 30%: Pathways Films and Sundance Film Festival. See also IDS News Pathways Film Selected for Sundance. Also read Her Film Project's interview with Director, Anna Cady.
New Pathways Case Studies
Short case study cards which provide key findings and policy action points from 20 of Pathways' research and communications projects are now available to download from Pathways Publications.
New South Asian Feminisms
This new book edited by Srila Roy and published Zed features a chapter from Sohela Nazneen and Maheen Sultan on 'Taking the Bull By the Horns: Contemporary Feminist Politics in Bangladesh' which, drawing on their Pathways research, focuses on two challenges faced by feminists in Bangladesh: NGO-isation and the generational shift in the feminist movement.
Negotiating Culture in the Promotion of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Latin America
In this new working paper from Cecilia Sardenberg, she looks at the relevance of culture to the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment, and examines how some women's movements in Latin America have negotiated and contested meanings around culture and as a result have re-signified gender values, attitudes and behaviours.
Decline in 'Missing Women' in Bangladesh
In this article for Open Democracy, Naila Kabeer suggests that alarm about the declining ratio of girls to boys in the Indian population, evidence of a particularly lethal form of gender discrimination, has overshadowed the more positive trend that is emerging in Bangladesh where the ‘aversion to daughters’ seems to be weakening.
Women's Economic Empowerment offers a Win-Win Scenario
Naila Kabeer's blog for The Guardian argues that not only does gender equality lead to higher economic growth, it is key to ensuring a fairer world for both men and women. The Guardian: Poverty Matters
Security and the Pathways of Women's Empowerment
This new working paper from Naomi Hossain reports on an effort to derive lessons about how security and insecurity shape processes of women’s empowerment in developing countries through a synthesis of research outputs from the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment programme. IDS Working Paper 406
“Across the globe women seem to rise above the most challenging circumstances” but we are less clear “about the pathways to empowerment” Professor Takyiwaa Manuh
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