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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. …

This report come from NEIM's work on women's empowerment and gender which demonstrated that advances in women's empowerment in Latin America does not benefit all women in the same way or to the same degree. Along with sexism, other matrices of domination, such as racism, classism, ageism and lesbophobia intersect to give rise to profound social inequalities among women placed at different intersections. These differences produce inequalities in women’s paths to empowerment. …

This paper adopts an upside-down approach to women’s political empowerment. While the number of women we need to get into legislatures has often assumed centre stage, this paper takes women’s pathways as its starting point. In so doing, it challenges the narrow conception of women’s political engagement as occupying formal positions and seeks to present a more nuanced perspective on the spaces, relationships and ways of working that influence power hierarchies and dynamics. The paper’s aims are two-fold. …

Domestic women workers in Salvador, Brazil, were given disposable and digital cameras with which they traced their movements and documented their everyday lives. This participatory photography project re-presented these women’s humanity as well as revealed the conditions in the places where they lived and worked. …

The 'Women in Politics: Women's Political Effectiveness' Roundtable aimed to explore and highlight examples of support and training which are effective in promoting women's participation in politics. …

What can men’s interest be in the social and sexual revolution being proposed by advocates for sexual rights? The first answer to this question is to recognise that some men’s sexual rights have long been violated. Those men who ‘betray’ their gender through their ‘feminine’ representation and/or sexual relations with other men are especially vulnerable to such violation. Violence maintains the gender and sexuality hierarchy by keeping the men ‘who are not men enough’ in their place. But what about the men who appear to be, or strive to be, ‘man enough’? What can be said of their sexual rights? Perhaps the most basic demand of advocates for sexual rights is that people be free to live their sexual lives without coercion. …

What does sexuality have to do with women’s empowerment? Research from the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment RPC shows that sexuality affects women’s political and economic empowerment in a number of important ways. For example, in the ways that women experience seeking election to political office, how women are treated and respected (or disrespected) in the workplace and in public, and how families and communities place expectations on how women should behave. Being exposed to sexual harassment and sexual violence and not being able to exercise choice in their sexual relationships affects women’s well-being and ultimately undermines political, social and economic empowerment. …

Current debates on sexuality and development need to be seen in relation to a longer historical cycle. This contribution provides a pictorial overview of the last three decades, laying out the diverse influences from the 1970s, which produced both the Washington Consensus and Foucault’s History of Sexuality, through to the current paradoxes of the 1990s and 2000s, with advances in sexual rights struggles pitted against the rise in conservatisms and fundamentalisms. This time line roots current sexual rights struggles in recent history, showing how the same themes resurface and gain new meanings over time. Throughout this history, how does development deal with sexuality? Development language regarding sexuality is far from transparent. …

What does sexuality have to do with women’s empowerment? Research from the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment RPC shows that sexuality affects women’s political and economic empowerment in a number of important ways. For example, in the ways that women experience seeking election to political office, how women are treated and respected (or disrespected) in the workplace and in public, and how families and communities place expectations on how women should behave. Being exposed to sexual harassment and sexual violence and not being able to exercise choice in their sexual relationships affects women’s well-being and ultimately undermines political, social and economic empowerment. In this policy paper, we demonstrate why sexuality is so important for women’s empowerment, drawing on evidence generated by research carried out by the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment RPC and collaborative initiatives with the DFID-funded IDS Sexuality and Development Programme. …

Images of women as victims are rampant in gender and development. This is particularly the case in discussions of sexuality, where the world is portrayed as so fraught with danger, it seems almost impossible to imagine women enjoying themselves. This focus on the negative can be paralysing – both in terms of ease with one’s own body, and in terms of mobilising around women’s wants and desires. And such narratives dovetail with religious right agendas to protect women’s chastity. …

This paper was presented at Fazendo Genero (Doing Gender) 8 held at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina from 25-28 August 2008. The purpose of the study was to identify and analyse changes in women's lives in Salvador, Bahia over three successive generations, and how these changes relate to processes of women's empowerment. …

This paper presented at Fazendo Genero (Doing Gender) 9 focuses on the Pathways Latin America project which examined the struggles for the realization of reproductive rights in Brazil, following and retracing campaigns for the legalization of abortion. The project also identified and analysed the strategies employed, and the particular contributions and roles of feminists in NGO networks, and in the academic world. …