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Of all the buzzwords that have entered the development lexicon in the past thirty years, "empowerment" is probably the most widely used and abused. Like many other important terms that were coined to represent a clearly political concept, it has been "mainstreamed" in a manner that has virtually robbed it of its original meaning and strategic value. In this article Srilatha explains that the word 'empowerment' must be reclaimed. …

Pleasure – and even sex itself – have been noticeably absent from much of dialogue surrounding sexually transmitted infections and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Safer sex and good sex are not mutually exclusive, yet most established educational programmes give the impression that they are, by using only fear of risk and disease to motivate their audience to practise safer sex. Yet evidence suggests that positive incentives provide the most effective way to get people to want to have safer sex. The Pleasure Project works with these incentives – pleasure and desire – to build bridges between the pleasure/sex industry and the safer sex world. …

At the Millennium Summit world leaders committed to reducing extreme poverty through a series of targets encompassed within the MDGs, with a deadline of 2015. One of these was to promote gender equality and empower women, and the ‘proportion of seats held by women in national parliament’ was set as a key indicator. With the MDG Review Summit meeting in September 2010, this is an opportunity to consider whether the proportion of women in parliament continues to be the most adequate proxy for women’s political empowerment. This IDS Bulletin explores what the quota has meant as a motorway to women’s accession to political power by drawing on research findings from the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programme Consortium (‘Pathways’), as well as a series of articles from a special seminar in the Brazilian National Congress as part of this programme, and contributions from other country case studies. …

Egypt has recently passed a new quota law, reserving 64 seats for women in addition to its 454 member parliament. While the executive regulations were not issued at the time of writing, the political messages conveyed about the quota are highly relevant: for example, additional seats were allocated rather than existing ones shared. This article speculates on whether the quota will challenge power hierarchies within and among parties. While the quota will undoubtedly increase women's representation in parliament, the political configurations of the existing context – a highly authoritarian one – raise questions as to which women are most likely to occupy these seats. …

An eighty-six page literature review and bibliography with study tables. The chapters in the literature review are: Types of quota; Structural factors that affect the implementation and effectiveness of quotas; Campaigns for women’s representation and influence; Challenges women representatives face in promoting their power and influence; Beyond ‘presence’: enhancing women representative’s power and influence; Questioning quotas. The annotated bibliography sections are: Conceptual Articles and Reviews; Regional comparison and analysis; Country case-studies; Useful web-pages. …

Many names are given to identities and practices that suggest or involve sexual activity between men: queer, gay, homosexual, dandy, batty man, queen, bachelor, fag, etc. In international development, however, ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) has fast become the preferred descriptor for the myriad expressions of same sex desire by men. This term was originally proposed as an alternative to ‘gay’ or ‘bisexual’ by grassroots activists and healthcare workers concerned about the impact of sexually transmitted diseases in their communities. This was a radical gesture at the time, a sharp refusal of the dominant narratives about sexual orientation and sexual behaviour that were being relayed by organisations led by white, gay-identified men. …

This article makes an argument for the added value of the use of documentary film in development research communication. It draws broadly on the specific experience of the Real World film scheme developed by the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium and Creative England, to create empowering representations of women. It argues that both researchers and film-makers have much to gain by collaborating on the political project of co-crafting a visual argument, to create a nuanced and emotive end product. …

This report presents the findings of a field study on family courts in Egypt. The aim of this twelve-month ethnographic research, which started in January 1, 2007, was to conduct an in-depth study of the litigation process in family courts in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses in regard to meeting the legal needs of female disputants and strengthening their rights. A secondary goal of the study was to examine the effect of the new structures of family courts (e. g. …

This is the executive summary for a report which presents the findings of a field study on family courts in Egypt. The aim of this twelve-month ethnographic research, which started in January 1, 2007, was to conduct an in-depth study of the litigation process in family courts in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses in regard to meeting the legal needs of female disputants and strengthening their rights. A secondary goal of the study was to examine the effect of the new structures of family courts (e. g. …

This paper examines how concepts of women’s ‘agency’ have been appropriated and transformed by neo-liberal discourses. Within this framework, the exercise of agency is sought in women’s strategies for survival rather than struggles for transformation, and at the level of the individual rather than the collective. Post-modern preoccupations with the subject and the recognition of ‘difference’ have been incorporated alongside liberal definitions of the ‘rational individual exercising free will’ to pursue and legitimise neo-liberal economic policies involving intensified exploitation of poor women’s labour. Meanwhile the emphasis on women’s agency marginalizes analysis of oppressive structures, and shifts the focus away from patriarchal ideologies. …

Even the most devoted believers in the neoliberal paradigm will have had their convictions shaken recently, as the world’s markets have played havoc with their faith. For those who have long questioned the purported benefits of neoliberal economic policies and highlighted their injurious consequences, it comes as little surprise that this 'grab-bag of ideas' is in freefall. The focus of this IDS Bulletin is particularly apposite at a time when much-cherished axioms are being re-inspected and where new possibilities and directions are so badly needed. Contributors add to a growing, vibrant debate about Gender and Development. …

This conference, held at the Institute of Development Studies from 9-10 July 2007, was co-hosted by the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme and Birkbeck College, London. The Pathways programme linked with openDemocracy to provide communications outputs from this conference. Building on recent work which highlights the need to critically reassess approaches to gender within mainstream development theory and practice, this workshop focused specifically on whether, and if so how, dominant neo-liberal discourses of development have systematically appropriated and transformed feminist concepts - and on the prospects for reclaiming and reframing feminist engagement with development. …

Jaya Sharma shares her concerns about assuming that norms govern us entirely and of constructing a binary between the ‘normative’ and the ‘non-normative’. She argues that such a binary can be arrogant and privilege as ‘ideal’ those seen as ‘non-normative’. It is perhaps closer to reality and more empowering to see the play of norms as a process of negotiation rather than placing them in a hegemonic and binary framework. …

In the first decade of the new millennium, a series of new procedural personal status laws were passed in Egypt, with great significance for women. However, many of those who pushed for these reforms felt that the lack of comprehensive changes in the substantive laws undermined the new procedural laws and maintained a legal system that legitimised hierarchical gender roles and relations.  Accordingly, since 2005 there have been initiatives to introduce a new comprehensive family law.  These new efforts have triggered a heated public debate. …

The aims of this workshop held in Cairo from 9-11 January 2009 were threefold: 1) disseminate the findings of the research on the reforms in Egyptian family laws and their impact on women’s empowerment, 2) exchange knowledge on reform trajectories in family laws in a number of Middle Eastern countries, and 3) have a regional debate about reform trajectories, strategies, challenges, and successes in regard to the question of women’s rights and Muslim family laws. The workshop was attended by members of women’s rights organisations, judiciary, lawyers, students of gender studies, researchers and academics, and representatives of relevant government bodies such as Ministry of Justice. …