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Final synthesis report from the West Africa Hub 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 West Africa research projects within the four research themes, the report analyses selected research. Highlights from the WA Hub are given along with a detailed list of research outputs. …

This pilot study was conducted over a two-month period in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Seventeen women from different socio-economic, educational, religious, and ethnic backgrounds were interviewed and they were encouraged to talk about the following: family life while growing up, marriage, work and education, the war, religion, excision, politics, their take on empowerment and general concerns about Salone society. The report includes transcripts from some of the interviews. …

Susie Jolly asks if we can reclaim sexual pleasure from the grip of the market and influence the terms on which the market engages with pleasure. She proposes a political perspective on sexuality which challenges the structures and ideologies that generate guilt and shame and make pleasure more accessible to some groups than others. …

In 2006, women constituted only 5 per cent of elected members and about 35 per cent of appointed members in 97 out of 110 district assemblies.  In this chapter, which is based on life history interviews with 32 elected and appointed District Assembly Women held by the Ghana Hub in 2007, Professor Manuh explores the personal biographies and factors that have enhanced opportunities for them to gain access to political power, including their backers and mentors at local level, and how this influences their agendas as assembly women as well as their experience of politics, how they perceive their roles and the kind of power they claim, and what they can do with it once they are in office. …

Representations of women in popular music can reinforce or challenge stereotypes. Pathways researchers, Akosua Adomako and Awo Asiedu, researched the changing representations of women in Ghanaian popular culture. They analysed the gender content of the lyrics of 250 Ghanaian popular songs from the 1950s to the present. Their textual analysis showed that the messages contained in these songs were often negative, portraying women as sex objects, or as fickle and jealous. …

This article is based on the experiences and reflections of a group of researchers in Bangladesh (of which we were members) studying women's empowerment. We investigate the kinds of epistemological and ethical dilemmas that arose from how they selectively presented their identities to gain access and tried to create ‘positional spaces’ in conducting fieldwork. We also explore how these researchers engaged in co-production of knowledge with research participants and tried to balance our multiple accountabilities in this process. By exploring these issues, we analyse assumptions about ‘feminist’ research practices and our struggles to live up to these. …

In several respects, waste pickers pose challenges to organizing: they are physically dispersed, have no employer, many work long hours, and they are socially shunned. Yet Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a waste pickers’ trade union has for nearly twenty years sustained a vibrant organization which has made tangible material and social gains on behalf of its membership. Its offspring, SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling), is growing in strength as a model for the new face of solid waste management in India; one which has put the interests of a very marginalized constituency of waste pickers in retaining access to waste as its top priority. This chapter highlights some aspects of its approach and strategies which have contributed to this progress. …

The empowerment of women has become an interesting if troubling issue for debate and action in the Arab world. Since September 11 it has been difficult for Arabs to escape the simplistic and stereotypical misconstructions of their worlds, and there has been a growing resistance to ideas such as women’s empowerment. Such a resistance makes for a highly frustrating and antagonistic climate to feminism and women’s empowerment initiatives. Hania Sholkamy offers a personal analysis of why women in the Arab world attract attention as victims of an unfair social order and yet repel the advances of those who would work to over turn this social order to ‘save’ them. …

Wendy Harcourt, records the conversation between Peggy Antrobus and Gita Sen, founders of Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN), on how they understand gender and empowerment. …

A presentation by Andrea Cornwall about Pathways of Women’s Empowerment RPC, including a background on Pathways and the research conducted, and key findings and recommendations for policy and empowerment programmatic initiatives. …

A bibliography divided into the following sections: Psychological empowerment (theory and analyses); Agency/ self-efficacy/ autonomy/ motivation/self-esteem/ well-being etc. ; Collective empowerment and organisational empowerment; Empowerment, gender and difference; Employee empowerment. The bibliography states that most of the journal articles are available via the Sussex University or LSE electronic journals login. Articles from the internet have URL links. …

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. …

The gang-rape of Mukhtaran Mai launched a nine-year court battle that concluded with a verdict by the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitting all but one of the accused. Her case illustrates how both the formal and informal systems of justice share the same hostility to women who defy social norms and demand justice in cases of rape, says Ayesha Khan. …

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. …

By focusing on three different national level women's organisations in Bangladesh, this article looks at how the movements have used different strategies to become an effective voice for women's interests and empowerment at civil society and state levels. The importance of framing their issues in a non-contentious way, building alliances with like-minded groups and the strength of personal networks can be clearly seen. Reaching out to these diverse groups has meant the organisations at times making strategic choices, which allowed the groups to create space and legitimacy for their agenda. Relying on personal networks is shown to carry certain risks for sustainability and their ineffective engagement with political parties can reduce their influence, but ultimately their strategies for mobilising support and building constituencies has gained these organisations greater legitimacy and strength as advocates of women's issues. …