Research Projects

This research project explored how paid work can change women’s lives in terms of dealing with the public sphere and institutions, accessing services, commodities, resources, information, reducing isolation, increasing negotiation/bargaining skills, ability to protect themselves, etc. The context under which work can be empowering and the kinds of work that change lives was compared through comparisons of similar research undertaken by the West Africa and Middle East Pathways regional hubs in Ghana and Egypt. …

This project explored how Bangladeshi women engage with television and the meanings, choices and subjectivities they derive from it. Researchers examined changing representations of women and female sexuality and explored how women in different sites and classes engage with television and attach meaning to the images that are represented on screen. They enquired whether and where there are possibilities of empowerment that open up through women's engagement, pleasure, and learning from the media. …

The study explored women's everyday lives in order to better understand their experiences of empowerment and disempowerment as they relate to the three themes of the RPC - empowering work, building constituencies for women's empowerment and changing narratives of sexuality. Through a pilot survey of 400 women in urban, peri-urban and rural areas in the Greater Accra Region, the study examined how women's experiences of empowerment and disempowerment are associated with particular moments in their lives from childhood to adulthood. …

This ongoing study has been carried out by NEIM since the 1980s, focusing on feminisms and women’s movements in Brazil. It is the study that underpins the Pathways Latin America programme, in that the feminist movement has set the stage for the specific struggles and campaigns examined in the other projects. Pathways Latin America's research has been conducted from a feminist perspective, sustaining a “liberating empowerment” approach and, as such, their primary focus is on collective action as a pathway of 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. …

The research investigated the definition of empowerment in Palestinian women's organisations and contextualised it in Palestinian practices of mobilisation and resistance. …

Islah Jad's research examined the role of the newly elected local councils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, elected in 2005-2006. The Islamic Resistance Movement - HAMAS - participated in this election for the first time and was supported by large numbers of women.  …

This research project sought to compare and contrast conceptualisations on women's empowerment in the development area, women's organisations, and in cultural spheres such as the media and religion. Researchers on this project worked closely with those engaged on the theme of changing narratives of sexuality. These differing concepts were defined and analysed while trying to establish how one has influenced the other. …

This research explored how and why women organise in religious groups and its political implications. The preliminary studies found that women's religious groups in Bangladesh are diverse in terms of composition, political objectives and interpretation of women's role in society/politics, and they have their own visions of women's empowerment. …

This research investigated the conceptions of security, peace and empowerment among the Hill women of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The research explored the Hill women's actual and perceived role in security and peace building, the role of Hill women's organisations and their movements, major obstacles faced by Hill women and their strategies for overcoming these. …

We examine the discursive changes that are taking place in areas related to the media, predominantly satellite television and religion, viz the global upsurge of religious fundamentalisms and resurgent patriarchies in Pakistan, in the wider context of new technologies, consumerism and globalisation. We have identified and attempt to grant visibility to new pathways and sites of change in the area of media and religion and women’s empowerment. …

This pack of 20 vibrantly drawn cards provides a clear and very accessible entry into some of Pathways’ research findings and recommendations. The cards feature research from Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Pakistan, Palestine, and Sierra Leone, across the four Pathways themes of: conceptualising empowerment, empowering work, building constituencies and changing narratives of sexuality.  …