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In this article, O’Connell discusses the necessary factors for meaningful, equitable and sustainable ‘development’. Speaking from her experience and from lessons learned from various commitments and approaches to gender equality, O’Connell suggests that to achieve gender equality, approaches to development should encompass feminist and alternative thinking on economics and politics, and that central to making progress towards full human rights for all women and gender equity are vibrant, inclusive, feminist and well-resourced women’s organisations and networks. …

In this paper Cecilia Sardenberg argues that, despite the great diversity in the uses of the term ‘empowerment’, it is possible to distinguish two basic approaches in conceptualising women’s empowerment. The first, identified here as ‘liberal empowerment’, regards women’s empowerment as an instrument for development priorities, be they the eradication of poverty or the building of democracy. Consistent with liberal ideals, the focus in this approach is on individual growth, but in an atomistic perspective on the notion of the rational action of social actors based on individual interests. Moreover, it de-politicizes the process of empowerment by taking ‘power’ out of the equation. …

The term ‘women’s empowerment’ is viewed with a certain amount of distrust by feminists in Latin America. There has been some ambiguity surrounding the term in the region and in some cases it has been appropriated to legitimize actions that may not actually empower. This paper reflects on feminist conceptualisations of empowerment and how the process is believed to unfold. It outlines two basic approaches to conceptualising empowerment: ‘liberal’ and ‘liberating’ empowerment. …

A witness account from Lina on the politically motivated sexual assaults targeting female protestors of the Arab revolt in Cairo. These have been taking place since the revolution in 2011 which deposed President Mubarak. …

In this paper Islah Jad argues that the spread of universal women’s rights discourse, based on the liberal individual notion of rights, potentially ignores the different contexts in which ‘indigenous’ forms of resistance by feminist movements takes place, and risks sidelining some important knowledge and gains that have been achieved by these movements. In the Palestinian context detaching feminist struggle from the wider context of the emancipatory struggle for national liberation has led to the marginalization of women’s movements and the subordination of their claims for rights to a universal donor agenda. …

Palestinian women’s political participation is marked by the Israeli occupation and a volatile political situation. This chapter argues that the political chaos following the Oslo Agreement of 1993 has led to civil society fragmentation and the marginalisation of certain groups. However, women’s traditional involvement within the Palestinian national movement led to their assumption that society would adopt a non-gender biased perspective during elections. …

This paper, presented Strategic Planning Workshop of the Feminist Network on Gender, Development and Information Society Policies, IT for Change, Bangalore, India, 5-7 October, briefly addresses some of the issues in debates on the rise of the information society and its impact on feminism and women’s movements in a world scale, as well as its importance as a tool for the empowerment of women and significance to contemporary expressions of sexuality and identity. In this paper, Sardenberg focuses more specifically, on those debates relating to expressions of sexuality and identity in the information society, as seen from a critical Latin American feminist perspective. She raises these issues in the hopes that they can be of significant consequence for policy formulation on the uses of the information society with greater gender equity. …

India’s economic growth will accelerate more rapidly, democratically and effectively if India invests in people and their economic potential. Investing in people, especially women and their living and working environments, is imperative for nation-building. In this chapter, Bhatt looks at SEWA and its involvement in the process of organizing poor working women since 1972, its successes and its struggles. …

The Lady Health Workers Programme is a major public sector initiative to provide reproductive health care to women in Pakistan, employing almost 100,000 women. This qualitative research study is based on interviews with LHWs and community members in four districts to explore dimensions of women’s empowerment. They are analysed in terms of how context and circumstance can positively shape the LHW experience. Four possible trajectories are illustrated based on case studies. …

Deevia Bhana explores young women’s expressions of sexuality in post-apartheid South Africa, in a township context marked by historical inequalities, violence and vulnerability to HIV. Bhana shows that whilst the women’s understandings of sexuality are not entirely centred on poverty, violence and disease, their perspectives are nevertheless embedded in social and economic relations of power. …

A short article based on research undertaken with Rebecca Napier-Moore into how women's empowerment is conceptualized by international development organisations. …

The spread of HIV is affected by a wide range of factors including household income, domestic divisions of labour, seasonal workloads and expenditure, communication, relationships, gender violence, and sexual pleasure or dissatisfaction. Drawing on material from North and South America and Africa, the author concludes that the links between these issues are both universally experienced and critical to HIV prevention and mitigation. The author also challenges the rejection of ‘anecdote’ in formal research settings, particularly when the stories told by women – and men – are so similar and so widespread. The Stepping Stones training methodology supports participants’ own analyses of these links in their lives, and has enabled them to work out their own mutually agreeable solutions. …

This book explores the role that religion, culture and society play in the social and political positioning of women. The collection of essays in the book aims to capture the variety of policies, discourses, debates and interventions that have influenced the lives of women in South Asia and to identify those that have led to greater empowerment of women. The contributors assess the current situation and provide a rallying call for progressive politics that is committed to universal values. The essays also review as well as show us the new directions that are opening up new pathways for women to traverse. …

A witness account from Marian on the politically motivated sexual assaults targeting female protestors of the Arab revolt in Cairo. These have been taking place since the revolution in 2011 which deposed President Mubarak. …

In this article, Naila Kabeer looks at the rising global phenomenon of the female breadwinner. This phenomenon has had an impact on relations of social reproduction, family structure and size, and on global trade, which has, as a result, seen a rise in global mail-order bride services and the globalization of the sex trade. …