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Revisiting foundational feminist work on the concept of empowerment from the 1980s and 1990s, this paper draws on the findings of a multi-country research programme, ‘Pathways of Women’s Empowerment’, to explore pathways of positive change in women’s lives, in diverse contexts, and to draw together some lessons for policy and practice. It begins with an account of women’s empowerment in development, tracing some key ideas that have shaped feminist engagement with empowerment in theory and practice. It then introduces the Pathways programme and its methodological approach, before turning to each of Pathways’ themes, exploring key findings from our research and highlighting examples of ‘what works’. It goes on to narrate a series of stories of change that illustrate some of the dynamics and dimensions of change identified in our key conclusions. …

What lessons can be learnt from successful experiences of affirmative action to enhance the numbers of women in high political office? This was the topic of an international seminar ‘Women's Pathways into Power - International Experiences of Affirmative Action', held at the Brazilian National Congress on 20 June 2007. …

This research had the objective of investigating and analysing strategies of articulation – from local to global and back – of Brazilian feminisms, and the ensuing challenges, with a special focus on the global spaces created by the United Nations Organisations. This includes not only the influence of Brazilian feminisms and the participation of activists in international conferences, but also in specific commissions and committees, such as CSW (Commission on the Status of Women) and CEDAW (Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women). As part of this project, Cecilia Sardenberg has participated in the 52nd, 53rd, 54th and 55th CSW meetings. …

Brazil has the greatest experience in the weakness of quotas. There are no obligations for the parties to use them, and no one is held to account for not doing it. An international workshop was held to intervene in ongoing demands for political reform in Brazil to redress the low representation of women in national government, by drawing together lessons from successful efforts to bring women into office through quota systems. …

The special journal issue sprung out of a special panel at the IACS 2009 Tokyo Conference. The panel, entitled ‘Women Negotiating Islam’ had looked at how women in different locations cope with the ways that religion, either as politics or as culture, enters their lives. …

This Project aimed to identify and analyse conceptualisations of empowerment in Brazil underlying public policies for women. The project looked, in particular, at the Pro Gender Equality Programme (Programa Pró-Eqüidade de Gênero) that is being implemented by the Secretariat for Public Policies for Women. Besides taking part in meetings and activities related to the Programme, the team also carried out a case study on one of the member organisations. …

This project explored the meanings and debates around women’s empowerment within and among sets of actors with a global reach, and how they are shaping values, ideas and policy actions (or absence of actions) on women’s empowerment. …

The conditional cash transfer (CCT) pilot in the Cairene slum of Ain es Sira started in May 2009 and was scheduled to last for two years. The Social Research Center (SRC) of the American University in Cairo provided technical assistance to the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) in designing, implementing and evaluating this pilot to inform national social policy decisions. Within the pilot, 380 most vulnerable families with children were registered to participate, receiving monthly cash payments in exchange for fulfilling child development goals related to health and education. …

This research project sought to document and analyse strategies and approaches used by selected women’s organisations in Bangladesh to mobilise and advocate for women’s rights and raise demands to the State and other rights holders. The research selected a few key movements to analyse and fed back the findings and analysis to the groups being studied so that they could use that to further reflect on their practice and identify what changes they would like to make to be more effective in the future. …

Contestations is an e-journal whose aim is to elicit lively disagreements and to offer a platform for argumentation. It is inspired by a vision of deliberation that is about people feeling able to air their views, listen to a plurality of positioned responses and take from that what they will - without any pressure to arrive at a consensual conclusion. It is, above all, about the freedom to dissent with any of the orthodoxies that exist in the field of women's empowerment - and there are many - and take the opportunity to provoke others to think again about the things they take for granted. …

This special issue of 'Development' picks up some of the contentions and contestations that have accompanied the uptake of 'women's empowerment' by the development industry. Contributors reflect on their own personal and political engagement with the term and what it has come to represent. …

This special issue of Development originates from work presented at the AWID Forum on the 'Power of Movements' held in South Africa in November 2008. …

Pathways South Asia used digital storytelling to document the experiences of growth and transformation in women's lives from their own perspectives, in their own words and voices. The workshops the team held in Dhaka and Chittagong enabled participants to make a 3-4 minute multimedia presentation by themselves, providing moving testimonies of individual lives and the contexts in which empowerment/disempowerment is experienced. …

This research project looked at a small number of cases of local, national or regional initiatives on sexual rights and women’s empowerment that have succeeded in creating spaces for challenging repressive social norms concerning female sexuality. It looked at the interactions with international influences, including religious and development institutions. …

By exploring the link between the denial of women’s reproductive rights and the denial of women’s sexual agency under patriarchy, the researchers sought to elucidate the conditions under which feminist demands around abortion have been successful by drawing together experiences from across Latin America. …