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The final synthesis report of Pathways of Women's Empowerment (Pathways) - an international research and communications programme that has focused for the five years from 2006-2011 on understanding and influencing efforts to bring about positive change in women's lives. After an introduction to the themes of the research the report details 12 key research messages with cross references to the many international research projects undertaken by Pathways. Key resources and very detailed references follow. …

In this article, Schwenke reflects on women’s empowerment from a trans perspective, arguing for the need to include morals in development discourse and to navigate and be guided by moral values in order to think critically and reflectively, and to make a persuasive justification based on moral sensibilities allows us to evaluate our priorities, confront the status quo, and expand our human agency. Empowerment is rooted in societal acceptance of variant gender identities, and transformation of empowerment begins with a change in gender assumptions – a dialogue in which trans people have a unique perspective and can be extremely valuable. She stresses the importance of ‘human’ in human development and as a precursor to women’s empowerment. …

In this article, Connell argues that true empowerment of women requires radical institutional change – a democratizing of institutions. She reflects on MGD3’s claim that development requires gender equality, arguing that much development is done with the subordination of women. She discusses the rhetoric of empowerment as being politically effective but also problematic in its simplification of the category of women, and says that in order for progress in women’s empowerment and for gender justice, men need to be involved. She argues that any worthwhile concept of development must involve communities, institutions and populations as well as institutions, and must have a sense of limits and justice. …

Eileen Kuttab contextualizes empowerment historically in Palestinian practices of mobilisation and resistance. She draws on interviews and focus group discussions to explore the meanings the term has come to acquire in the Palestinian context. Kuttab examines alternative ways of understanding empowerment that go beyond instrumentalism to recapture some of the original associations the term had with power and resistance. …

This chapter contextualises empowerment historically in Palestinian practices of mobilisation and resistance. The author draws on interviews and focus group discussions to explore the meanings the term has come to acquire in the Palestinian context. …

This paper explores Muslim women's experiences of empowerment in northern Pakistan by drawing upon the life history of a woman informant named Dana. It also outlines some of the methodological concerns related with researching empowerment in a situation where the researchers and the researched share common context. The paper re-conceptualises the utility of empowerment by unveiling it as an intricate process, which involves the negotiation of roles, responsibilities and values by individuals. The findings evidence that empowerment is not always exhibiting absolute power over others or open defiance against standard norms; neither is it resistance against coercion at all times. …

Mwaura-Muiru highlights the need for the women’s movement and donors to work towards and support woman-led (especially poor woman-led) transformation. Collective organizing and social networks is a means of empowerment that allows women to respond to challenges, but grassroots organizing is being threatened by social and macro economic models of development. The women’s movement’s renewed interest in grassroots women’s coping strategies could potentially be a huge step forward for the women’s movement, but, Mwaura-Muiru argues, the views of the less privileged should be seen as the critical voice in the design of appropriate interventions. She critiques Gender and Development as being too focussed on technical and professional training, which continues to marginalize poor women, and argues that there is a need to rethink development and women’s empowerment, and stresses that strategies towards women’s empowerment need to consider grassroots women’s needs and diversity. …

Alan Greig uses his experience as a development practitioner to reflect on the lessons that have been learned with regards to women’s empowerment, what questions remain unaddressed, and what the frictions, hopes and challenges are for women’s empowerment. He discusses the things that need to be considered more attentively in the broader attempts to ‘empower’ economically and politically, and offers his opinion on the determining factors for women’s empowerment. …

Blagojevic reflects on empowerment. She looks at the history of ‘empowerment’ in Serbia, from the debate over its translation to the co-opting of the concept by donors to enforce democratic, neo-liberal policies, with the result that empowerment simply instrumentalized women. She provides a definition of empowerment that links it with rights and introduces the concept of ‘de-development’ to indicate when development does not equal progress, linking this concept to MGDs. In relation to the Balkans, Blagojevic suggests that gender equality instead of empowerment may be a better term to use. …

In this article, Marinova draws upon her experience of being a woman in Bulgaria to reflect upon the importance of personal empowerment of women and girls in development. She provides her own definition of empowerment and stresses the importance of empowering environments over egalitarian policy. …

Kamau draws upon her experience at ActionAid International Kenya to reflect on development interventions and what makes them successful. She views empowerment as both an individual and collective process of understanding and action, and highlights the importance of education and access to information as essential to empowerment. She concludes with an ActionAid Kenya case study that illustrates the success of the rights-based approach in aiding an empowering development process. …

Wendy Harcourt, editor of Development, talks with Khawar Mumtaz and Jacqueline Pitanguy about how they understand empowerment in relation to their national and international work for women’s human rights. …

For people with disabilities in the UK, Lorna Couldrick and Alex Cowan’s chapter shows, the situation is in many ways similar to women living with HIV: there is a presumption that people with disabilities are, or ought to be, asexual and little open recognition of their sexual needs and desires. Couldrick and Cowan point out that this lack of acknowledgement of the role of sex and sexuality in the lives of people with disabilities can be exacerbated by health and social care practices, arguing that, ‘the very delivery of health and social care may undermine the sexual health of disabled people and perpetuate the myth that if you are disabled, intimacy and sex no longer matters. ’ This chapter begins with a little information on the context of the authors’ experiences which underpin their positions. Then, after defining sexuality and sexual health, they explore why any discussion of disability and sexuality must encompass intimate relationships and sexual pleasure and not be limited to sexual dysfunction. …

Stigma and legal sanctions against homosexuality, as well as gender norms among men who have sex with men, lead to an emphasis on aggression, power play and penetration in male-to-male sex in India. This in turn contributes to low levels of condom use among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people, and increases the risk of HIV and ill-health. This article explores the potential for promotion of more sensuous, pleasurable, and communicative sex which could also be safer. The article draws on the author’s research as well as on his personal experience working as a masseur in Kolkata Massage parlours which provide commercial sexual services to male clients. …

Sylvia Tamale describes how women have become subject to moralism, shame and sex negativity. Tamale explores how the institution of Ssenga among the Banda in Uganda, has endured and changed. Formerly an education by aunts for nieces on how to become good wives and pleasure husbands, it is now as often a commercial service for better sex and relationships. Both earlier and current versions of Ssenga largely focus on conformist scripts, privileging men’s pleasure over women’s. …