Conceptions of Women's Empowerment - Resources

Useful Resources

Ruth Paterson, 2005, 'Women's Empowerment in Challenging Environments: A Case Study from Balochistan', MA Governance and Development Candidate 2004-2005, IDS Dissertation (pdf file 1.3 MB).

Summary:

Women's empowerment is a commonly cited objective of development projects. There is a growing literature on what women's empowerment means, and how it can be facilitated. An innovative program in Pakistan addresses several of the gaps in the literature by mitigating and addressing resistance through involving the participants' families, by using collective learning but not collective action, and by selecting participants based on aptitude without consideration for their socio-economic status. This paper draws lessons for women's empowerment policy and practice from this case study.

'Fracturing Binarisms: Gender and Colonialisms in Africa', Odile Goerg, Marie Rodet and Natalya Vince (eds), Vienna Journal of African Studies, No. 12, 2007