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Within the last 20 years, the problem of women’s participation in formal power positions has been mobilizing women, especially feminists, throughout Latin America. After over half a century since gaining the right to vote, Latin-American women have recognized that, in practice, this fought for right did not guarantee the right to be elected as well. Indeed, Latin American women have remained marginalized from power, kept from participating in greater numbers in deliberative power structures. In these circumstances, the implementation of quota systems for women in a context of affirmative action policies has figured as a major goal in the mobilisation of women in their struggle for access to power structures. …

The 1995 Beijing conference was a pivotal moment for legitimating women’s rights work in Ghana, and served as a powerful framing for women’s empowerment. This article explores the Beijing conference and examines its influence on popular notions of and efforts to promote women’s empowerment. We argue that the discursive context provided by the conference shaped popular narratives about women directly and also through its influence on the ideas and practices of public institutions and civil society. There is greater acceptance that women have rights that should be promoted and protected, and that there should be institutions and systems to which they have recourse. …

In this article Suzette reflects on her personal experience from being at the Beijing conference, and the study and work she has done since this time on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action through the United Nations, NGOs and her active role in the global women’s movement. She looks at strategic ways the document could have been used in a policy context to lead global and national dialogue and draws from her PhD titled ‘Beijing - Transformation and feminist politics: From the personal to the international. She links the process of the Beijing Conference and Platform for Action back to the accountability within the UN itself, identifying opportunities lost through lack of clear commitment, planning and resourcing. She concludes by highlighting the importance of this event and document on the lives of women who were a part of the process and the value of a future NGO Forum for women for the global women’s movement. …

In June 2007 - five years after it was first promised during the 2002 electoral campaign - political reform finally made it onto the Brazilian National Congress agenda. After years of waiting, women were anticipating deep changes in the patriarchal rules and elitist power structures that had characterized the Brazilian state for decades. But the majority of women's demands did not even come close to the negotiation tables. Costa describes this as “. …

This paper is a critical examination of the implementation of the government’s gender equality framework to its decentralization programme. It is argued that the practice of local governance in post-war Sierra Leone which, is far below the Beijing minimum of 30 per cent, rather than leave women disillusioned, has spurred them on to actively engage the state, political parties and the National Electoral Commission to demand a legislative quota to enhance women’s participation and a conducive political atmosphere to level the playing field for women in local governance. …

The researchers have used the Egypt Labour Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) of 2006 (and its predecessors) to foster both qualitative and quantitative studies on various aspects of gender and work in Egypt, as well as building research capacity in this area. …

This research had the objective of investigating and analysing strategies of articulation – from local to global and back – of Brazilian feminisms, and the ensuing challenges, with a special focus on the global spaces created by the United Nations Organisations. This includes not only the influence of Brazilian feminisms and the participation of activists in international conferences, but also in specific commissions and committees, such as CSW (Commission on the Status of Women) and CEDAW (Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women). As part of this project, Cecilia Sardenberg has participated in the 52nd, 53rd, 54th and 55th CSW meetings. …

Brazil has the greatest experience in the weakness of quotas. There are no obligations for the parties to use them, and no one is held to account for not doing it. An international workshop was held to intervene in ongoing demands for political reform in Brazil to redress the low representation of women in national government, by drawing together lessons from successful efforts to bring women into office through quota systems. …

This research project sought to document and analyse strategies and approaches used by selected women’s organisations in Bangladesh to mobilise and advocate for women’s rights and raise demands to the State and other rights holders. The research selected a few key movements to analyse and fed back the findings and analysis to the groups being studied so that they could use that to further reflect on their practice and identify what changes they would like to make to be more effective in the future. …

This special issue of 'Development' picks up some of the contentions and contestations that have accompanied the uptake of 'women's empowerment' by the development industry. Contributors reflect on their own personal and political engagement with the term and what it has come to represent. …

This bulletin is devoted to exploring what empowerment means in the everyday lives of women in different situations and circumstances. …

This bulletin addresses a theme that mainstream development has persisently neglected: sexuality. Drawing on a workshop held at the Institute of Development Studies in 2005, it seeks to show why sexuality matters. It features papers from the workshop which provide diverse accounts of sexual rights conceptions, mobilisation, and new approaches to implementation. …

This study aimed to illuminate the pathways of women's political empowerment, the relationship between political participation and change and interrogate the effectiveness of the decentralisation commission in empowering women in Sierra Leone. …

To mark the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and in association with UN Women, the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment programme are planning a special issue of the IDS Bulletin. Drawing together leading international feminist scholars, advocates and practitioners, the special issue aims to reflect on progress since Beijing and create a space for reflections from people of all genders from different generations on their ideas of possible feminist futures. …

In this contribution to UNRISD's thinkpiece series on 'Let's Talk about Women's Rights: 20 Years after the Beijing Platform for Action', Andrea Cornwall and Jenny Edwards draw on findings from the Pathways programme to highlight the importance of women's organising in holding states to account:  …