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An article on Pathways’ study on Women Health Workers has shown that despite the challenges that women face working in the public, their standing within the family, in the broader community and the formal space of the workplace is enhanced through their profession, indicating that the government and non-governmental Women Health Worker programmes improve women's positioning in society. …

Hania Sholkamy examines the disempowering aspects of women’s work and calls for a more progressive agenda to empower work and re-position it not only as an income generating activity, but as a social role, an ideal, and political engagement. …

The 2010 UK general election presented a rare opportunity to significantly enhance women's representation in the UK due to the larger numbers of vacant-held seats following the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009. However, despite encouraging words and commitments from the main political parties, the opportunity was missed. The proportion of women's representation in the UK parliament remains at around 22 per cent, comparing unfavourably with countries as diverse as Rwanda and Sweden, and leaving the UK ranking 52nd in the global league table. Although there is no one single answer for achieving sex parity in politics, many factors can increase women's opportunities. …

This report in Bangla focuses on the project which investigates the enabling conditions for women's participation in local governance and its influence on women's empowerment. The objectives for the study were to explore the challenges faced by women councillors, how they negotiate these challenges, their own interpretation of their engagement patterns and processes, and whether new gender norms and roles are being created for women in the public domain. …

The paper explores the increasing inter-connectivity of the economic and religious ‘right’ through consideration of recent events in Nicaragua. It examines the policy discourse of the state and the international development banks though consideration of a Conditional Cash Transfer programme and highlights how this draws on notions of family and family values, notions more generally promoted by the Church. It suggests that those that seek to resist the actions of these three actors face a difficult challenge, not least since their own counter-actions continue to be largely un-connected. The discussion highlights how on the one hand women’s movements have tended to focus on the threats to sexual and reproductive rights from neo-conservative forces, while on the other, those that work with women’s groups at the community level have tended to respond to the real economic need of the women that result from neo-liberal policies. …

Camilo Antillón Najlis identifies the interests and priorities of different actors in the development industry in Nicaragua regarding sexuality issues, through the analysis of documents produced by FED and civil society organisations (FED's framework document and 122 project proposals) in the context of two of the project selection processes one in 2006 and the other in 2007. …

This paper focuses on processes involved in the Obasanjo administration’s appropriation of feminist language and meanings in its economic empowerment and development strategy, NEEDS. This appropriation of progressive ideas takes apparently gender neutral forms, through the presentation of the government’s economic and development agenda as partitioned from political practice, as well as forms that are more specifically oriented to the terms ‘gender’ and ‘empowerment’. On both tracks, appropriation involves the erasure of power in the production of altered meanings. I argue that NEEDS works ideologically to manufacture hegemony and the illegitimacy of dissent with regard to the government’s reform programme. …

Presentation on the Pathways of Women's Empowerment and meanings around conceptualising empowerment. Translated by Cecilia Sardenberg into Portuguese. …

This 6 minute film explores the story behind the innovative Chapeu de Palha Mulher programme in Pernambuco, Brazil. The programme run by the Women's Secretariat helps to empower female sugar cane plantation workers.  …

Latin America and the Caribbean have among the highest levels of unsafe abortions, and current debate rages to change the abortion-related laws and policies. In response, the International Planned Parenthood Federation – Western Hemisphere Region has established a three-pronged framework to fight unsafe abortions, based on promoting the right to increasing access and reducing need, promoted through a range of service and advocacy components. In this case study, a Uruguayan partner organization, ‘Iniciativas Sanitarias’ (IS), adapts this rights-based framework for local application, creating the harm reduction approach. Based on the rights to information, health and women’s autonomy, the IS seeks to empower women and strengthen the commitment of health professionals to provide safer abortion information and services based on the bioethical principles of autonomy, justice and patient-provider confidentiality. …

This article by Cecilia Sardenberg focuses on the case of Eliza Samudio who was brutally murdered and it is believed her body was dismembered, although it has never been found. The perpetrator of the crime is believed to have been a famous footballer. This was a particularly shocking crime, but what is also shocking is the numerous other women who have also suffered this level of brutality but whose stories don't reach the press because their cases don't have the same high profile nature which the famous footballer provided. Cecilia discusses how this case demonstrates how violence against women in Brazil is still sadly trivialised. …

The system of reserved seats with direct elections to local government bodies has been in place for women since 1997. This article investigates how perceptions have changed about the role of women representatives in local government. By exploring the accounts of women's views, experiences and how they negotiate various structural and attitudinal obstacles, and the changes in the wider sociopolitical context, the article shows that women representatives have gained greater voice and social legitimacy in representing specific types of‘women's issues. ’These gains were partly a result of the supportive policy directives and mechanisms created by the state. …

Christina is a member of the feminist theatre group Loucas de Pedra Lil s, who have been performing together for twenty years. The film follows Christina as she and the other Loucas perform a piece of street theatre on the march that takes place in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, on 28 September every year to commemorate the Latin American and Caribbean Day for the Decrminalisation of Abortion. Across the continent, abortion has become a huge political issue; in Brazil, the struggle has intensified as the traditional opponent of women's reproductive rights, the Catholic Church, has become ever more persistent and unscrupulous in its tactics. Using street theatre and skits at public events and in public spaces, the Loucas campaign on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, combining playful humour with powerful commentaries drawing attention to the deadly seriousness of the issues at stake. …

Creuza is a former domestic worker and president of the National Federation of Domestic Workers. Put into domestic service without pay at the age of 10, Creuza received her first salary at 15 and suffered years of abusive treatment in the houses of her employers. According to the last census, Brazil has 8 million domestic workers, the majority of whom are black. Creuza has always felt it was wrong that domestic workers did not have the same rights as other workers. …

Jane is a model for the fashion label 'Daspu' (das = 'of'', pu - from puta = 'whores'), created by the NGO Davida, whose mission is to end discrimination against sex workers and secure their status as legitimate workers. She is a sex worker and a mother of three children, and she is openly HIV positive. The film follows her on a fashion shoot by one of Brazil's most prestigious fashion photographers. Sex work is not illegal in Brazil, but sex workers suffer stigma and discrimination. …