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3G Three Generations of Women, is an interactive multimedia project that attempts to move beyond the media stereotypes and statistics about women, and look at their real lives. The makers photograph and interview three different generations of women within one family about aspects of their experience, growing up, learning, happiness, love, and more. The aim is that this will give people some sense of the changes that have happened in the lives of these women over the past few decades. …

This article reflects on the lessons learnt about strategies for increasing access to abortion from an 11 country comparative policy analysis known as the Johannesburg Initiative. It reflects on the value of learning and sharing strategic thinking while remembering that opportunities for litigation, policy change, shifts in programming, or even changing public opinion are often place and time specific, so that what leads to victory in one place cannot necessarily be repeated in another. The task is to build the evidence, the legal and health system capacity, the engagement with the public and policymakers to be able to take advantage of windows of opportunity as they arise. The article also suggests that while many gains have been made in winning a broader base of support for the idea of sexual and reproductive rights internationally, there is an urgent need to reinvigorate this movement, particularly through greater leadership, organisational and strategic engagement by activists from developing countries. …

Cecilia Sardenberg’s chapter is an essay on the control over the body that a culture of eternal youth imposes on aging white, middle class women in Brazil. Sardenberg draws attention to the ideals of femininity inherent in media representations, the products, services and body technologies geared towards women’s beautification and the fight against aging. …

In this paper presented to the Sexuality and Development Workshop, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, 3-5 April, Sardenberg proposes to reflect upon some of the dilemmas faced by women over fifty living in the “culture of eternal youth” which, nowadays, rules Brazilian society. She recognises that the battle against age is one that cannot be won, and therefore proposes a new discourse - a feminist discourse on the female body in the process of aging. She shares some reflections, based on her own person experience, around the control over the body that the culture of eternal youth imposes on us and looks at these issues from a feminist perspective, reflecting upon how gender, age and generation, along with race and class, structure the construction of body and self. She focuses here primarily on how narratives of decline and the positive ageism of the cosmetics industry at large speak to aging white, middle-class women. …

This 6 minute film explores the story behind the innovative Chapeu de Palha Mulher programme in Pernambuco, Brazil. The programme run by the Women's Secretariat helps to empower female sugar cane plantation workers.  …

This article by Cecilia Sardenberg focuses on the case of Eliza Samudio who was brutally murdered and it is believed her body was dismembered, although it has never been found. The perpetrator of the crime is believed to have been a famous footballer. This was a particularly shocking crime, but what is also shocking is the numerous other women who have also suffered this level of brutality but whose stories don't reach the press because their cases don't have the same high profile nature which the famous footballer provided. Cecilia discusses how this case demonstrates how violence against women in Brazil is still sadly trivialised. …

Christina is a member of the feminist theatre group Loucas de Pedra Lil s, who have been performing together for twenty years. The film follows Christina as she and the other Loucas perform a piece of street theatre on the march that takes place in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, on 28 September every year to commemorate the Latin American and Caribbean Day for the Decrminalisation of Abortion. Across the continent, abortion has become a huge political issue; in Brazil, the struggle has intensified as the traditional opponent of women's reproductive rights, the Catholic Church, has become ever more persistent and unscrupulous in its tactics. Using street theatre and skits at public events and in public spaces, the Loucas campaign on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, combining playful humour with powerful commentaries drawing attention to the deadly seriousness of the issues at stake. …

Creuza is a former domestic worker and president of the National Federation of Domestic Workers. Put into domestic service without pay at the age of 10, Creuza received her first salary at 15 and suffered years of abusive treatment in the houses of her employers. According to the last census, Brazil has 8 million domestic workers, the majority of whom are black. Creuza has always felt it was wrong that domestic workers did not have the same rights as other workers. …

Jane is a model for the fashion label 'Daspu' (das = 'of'', pu - from puta = 'whores'), created by the NGO Davida, whose mission is to end discrimination against sex workers and secure their status as legitimate workers. She is a sex worker and a mother of three children, and she is openly HIV positive. The film follows her on a fashion shoot by one of Brazil's most prestigious fashion photographers. Sex work is not illegal in Brazil, but sex workers suffer stigma and discrimination. …

For Negra Jho, a hairdresser whose salon lies in the heart of the old centre of the city of Salvador - where more than 80% of the population are black - beauty is politics. In a context in which centuries of racism have shaped ideas of beauty, the politics of our hair gains new significance. Brazilian society has privileged images of white women as icons of beauty. Black women have grown up being told that their hair is ugly, and that beautiful hair is straight and smooth. …

Sonia Alvarez reconsiders what she had earlier labelled ‘the Latin American feminist NGO boom’ of the 1990s. She offers reflections on how and why, at least in that region of the world, we may be moving beyond it. Alvarez revisits the notion of NGO-ization, then reviews the crucial ‘movement work’ performed by NGOs that was often obscured by that notion. She proposes that Latin American feminisms and other social movements may be moving away from the particular organizational forms and practices – actively promoted and officially sanctioned by national and global neo-liberalism – that characterized NGO-ization in the past. …

Within the last decades, feminist movements in Brazil have advanced significantly beyond borders, gaining increasing recognition in global spaces, UN ones in particular, for positively influencing Brazil’s official position. Unsurprisingly, Brazil has served four terms in the CSW and, in the eyes of more progressive delegations, is a much needed presence to ensure no lost ground on what has been achieved in previous conferences. However, the actual presence of Brazilian feminist activists in the delegations and the NGO Forums has dwindled considerably. What have been the strategies and mechanisms at play in maintaining a radical vein in our official position? Can it be sustained without the more active involvement of feminist activists – say, throughout Brazil’s new role as president of the 60th CSW session? These are some of the issues I address in this article, sharing the views of activists present at those events. …

This article discusses a state-run economic empowerment initiative Chapeu de Palha Mulher which is having a transformational effect supporting women to follow pathways into jobs which were once considered to be ‘men’s jobs’. …

Brazilian feminists have made steady progress at both national and regional levels with establishing sexual and reproductive rights, and they have an important stake in the discussions at 2010's UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Cecilia Sardenberg calls on them to be alert against retrogressive steps. …

This report follows research which aimed at 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 Organizations. 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 participated in the 52nd, 53rd, and 54th CSW meetings. …