Pathways News

This new book from the Zed Pathways series on Feminisms and Development explores what women are doing to change their own personal circumstances, and provides an in-depth analysis of collective action and institutionalised mechanisms aimed at changing structural relations. …

Join us for this roundtable debate to be held at the CSW in New York on Wednesday 12 March which will explore the steps we need to take to create strong and sustainable alliances to influence global policy processes, to challenge the myths and expose the reality of gender inequality worldwide. …

A new issue of the Revista Feminismos Feminist Journal from NEIM includes Portuguese translations of the Pathways policy papers on conceptions of women's empowerment and how development agencies can best support it, sexuality, domestic violence, cash transfers, women in politics and economic empowerment for women. …

A new Pathways of Women's Empowerment Eldis Resources Guide brings together thinking on sexuality and women's empowerment from around the world, and suggests that viewing women's empowerment through a sexuality lens provides a more realistic and complete picture. …

Voicing Demands, a new book by Sohela Nazneen and Maheen Sultan, is a collection of analytical narratives of what has happened to feminist voice, a key pathway to women’s empowerment. These narratives depart from the existing debate on women’s political engagement in formal institutions to examine feminist activism for building and sustaining constituencies through raising, negotiating and legitimizing women’s voice under different contexts. …

This ground-breaking new collection edited by Mulki Al-Sharmani in the Pathways Zed Feminisms and Development series investigates the relationship between feminist activism and legal reform as a pathway to gender justice and social change. …

This new report captures some of the dilemmas, new thinking, the interactive process, analyses, future possibilities and challenges identified within debates on patriarchy held within an international symposium hosted by IDS in Brighton in September 2013. One of the symposium’s key aims was to help revitalise and advance thinking about gender inequality in relation to patriarchy and to re-politicise ‘gender in development’. The event brought together researchers, activists, practitioners, and policy makers from a range of fields. …

Real World documentary 30%: Women and Politics in Sierra Leone has featured on the leading cultural and literary review magazine The Atlantic and includes an interview with 30%'s director Anna Cady on the role of women in ending the conflict in Sierra Leone, the current state of women in Sierra Leonean politics, and Anna's hopes for the film.  …

This Eldis Resource Guide features a collection of documents introducing some of the research on work (both paid and unpaid) undertaken by Pathways of Women’s Empowerment. The collection provides suggestions on how decision-makers can support mechanisms for improving women’s rights as workers, enhance their incomes and working conditions, and strengthen their ability to press for change. …

In this blog for the International Association for Feminist Economics Naila Kabeer contends that although Esther Duflo addresses a question of central concern to feminists in her recent paper for the Journal of Economic Literature: 'what is the relationship between women’s empowerment and economic development?' It is not a must-read for feminist economists.  …

In this article for The Guardian, Mariz Tadros suggests that this year's 16-day campaign of global activism against violence, which focuses on militarism, fails to recognise the way in which the absence of human security and rule of law is creating a perfect environment for the perpetuation of violence against women in Arab countries that have experienced tumultuous change. …

30% - the Real World film directed by Anna Cady - is proving popular at film festivals and conferences. Following its success in being shortlisted for the Sundance Film Festival, in November it will be shown at both the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Festival in Paris and the Underwire Film Festival in London where it has been shortlisted for the best sound designer award. …

Feminists in Development Organizations: Change from the Margins - a new book edited by Rosalind Eyben and Laura Turquet reflects on the progress of gender mainstreaming in development. It draws on personal stories from feminists working within the aid bureaucracy to show how these women can build effective strategies to influence development organisations to foster greater understanding and forge more effective alliances for social change. …

Women, Sexuality and the Political Power of Pleasure is the latest in the Pathways' Feminisms and Development series from Zed Books. This pioneering collection, edited by Andrea Cornwall, Susie Jolly and Kate Hawkins explores the ways in which positive, pleasure-focused approaches to sexuality can empower women. …

Shaming the Shameless - The Politics of Sexual Assault in Post-Mubarak’s Egypt Exposed In preparation for the 30th of June millioniyya [one million person protest] against the current Muslim Brotherhood-led regime, youth coalitions, women’s organizations and human rights activists are bracing themselves for a wave of politically motivated sexual assaults. Groups like ShoftTa7rosh are co-ordinating monitoring, ensuring women are equipped with self-defence measures and that volunteer men are well prepared to pull women targets of assault out from the crowds. These collective actors have not mobilised in a vacuum, but in response to the organised operations of sexual violence targeting them in public spaces over the last two years. A pattern has emerged which suggests that these were politically motivated assaults, aimed at discouraging women from participating in protest action against the powers that be. …