Pathways News

One of the key findings from the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme is that context matters and that empowerment is a process - not a destination or something that can be bestowed on others. It is a constant negotiation involving achievements and setbacks. …

Focusing only on numbers of women getting into politics without taking account of the factors that hinder their political participation risks being exclusionary in terms of the types of women who succeed, argues Mariz Tadros in a new issue of Contestations. She cites case studies from the new Women in Politics book in which the issue of unpaid care emerges as one of the strongest predictors of age and class in profiling women in politics. …

The life of a meeting report writer is a lonely one. It is easy to get caught up in the energy and excitement of an issue when surrounded by fascinating and challenging speakers. But once everyone has flown home and you are wading through 50 pages of meeting notes, trying to decipher acronyms and cryptic quotes you sometimes feel like you are drowning in a mass of information you will never make legible to those who didn’t have the privilege of attending. So to give myself a bit of impetus and help order my thoughts I have come up with a list of what I consider the top 5 take home messages from the recent Pathways of Women’s Empowerment meeting. …

In late May around 60 gender academics and activists met together at IDS situated in the lovely Sussex countyside to debate what next for women's empowerment beyond 2015? The conversations were framed within presentations of the findings of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme.  …

What if Women Ruled the World? was the provocative question posed to an expert panel of women from Brighton and beyond at a lively Brighton Fringe Festival Event in May. The session was kicked off by the Real World film 30%: Women and Politics in Sierra Leone. The panel included IDS Director Melissa Leach, Head of the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex Andrea Cornwall, Caroline Lucas MP, Chief Executive of Brighton and Hove Council Penny Thompson and activists from Outreach Bristol Muna Hassan and Ifrah Hassan. …

Pathways of Women’s Empowerment invites feminist academics, policymakers, activists and all those working towards promoting the cause of gender justice within development as we move beyond the Millennium Development Goals, to join us for a conference that will draw on insights from the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment programme to look back at what has been achieved since the Beijing 4th World Women's Conference in 1995 and forward to the post-2015 agenda. Panels will be organised around the themes of work, voice and representation, sexuality, and the media. …

Women everywhere are making a positive difference to the communities, countries and world they live in. But too often they are having to make these changes from the sidelines and fight to get their voices heard. …

This new IDS/Pathways/GIZ Working Paper by Mariz Tadros examines the nature of the political struggle over the status, role and identity of women in Egypt in between the two revolutions (January 2011 and June 2013). …

Changing Narratives of Sexuality, edited by Charmaine Pereira, is a new book in the Pathways/Zed Feminisms and Development series. …

Women in Politics, edited by Mariz Tadros, is a new book in the Pathways/Zed Feminisms and Development series.  …

A new review of the Real World film '30%: Women and Politics in Sierra Leone' by Animated Documentary describes its animated sequences as: …

As glib and glossy visions of women’s empowerment, designed to avoid actual power structures, are being avidly promoted by corporations and the development industry alike, Andrea Cornwall says that Srilatha Batliwala's new book on Engaging with Empowerment compels us to revisit and revalue what we mean by 'empowerment'. …

If messages about equality are for all, gender and development practice should not be about elite meetings and confusing jargon argues Mariz Tadros in this article for The Guardian.  …

Pornography, Pleasure, Gender and Sex Education, a study by Sabina Faiz Rashid and Owasim Akram reveals how local ideas of sex and sexuality in Dhaka, Bangladesh are gradually being transformed; how emerging urban spaces in the city are serving as alternative sites of communication, knowledge and information on sex; and how men’s sexual expectations and realities are shaped by larger social, political and economic structures. …

Pathways are pleased to announce the development of a new learning resource being launched on International Women's Day to celebrate the theme of inspiring change. …