The meaning of empowerment

Star Magazine: Special feature- International Women's Da

Construir sobre la base local: el enfoque de la Universidad del BRAC (Bangladesh)

Este artículo analizará qué consideración se da a la educación terciaria en el ámbito globalizado, hasta qué punto la impulsan inquietudes «instrumentales» de desarrollo (una continuidad de la misión civilizadora) y si ofrece espacio para que sus sujetos, o clientes, participen en la producción de conocimiento, forjen nuevas visiones del mundo y sean líderes en programas y procesos globales. La creación de la Universidad del BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) es un ejemplo de cómo el sector de la educación terciaria de Bangladesh se ha ido abriendo a nuevos métodos organizativos y ha experimentado con ellos.Peer Reviewe

The Gendered Price of Precarity: Voicing and Challenging Workplace Sexual Harassment

There is a strong belief that employment is a crucial avenue for the empowerment of young women, through income, greater autonomy, and bargaining power within the family. However, experiences of workplace sexual harassment undermine these potential gains. This qualitative study among agro-processing factory workers and domestic workers in Uganda and Bangladesh demonstrates that sexual harassment is widespread in both formal and informal workplaces, while domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to its most severe forms. Women’s agency to challenge harassment is severely constrained by social and gender norms. Most find that the best possible strategy is to avoid and prevent physical forms of sexual harassment from happening. Language is essential for voicing and challenging sexual harassment, but the study shows that social and gender norms constrain young women in articulating transgressive and inappropriate behaviour by men. Many women hide detail, deliberately use euphemisms, and even lack a vocabulary to explain what happened to them, ultimately limiting opportunities for redressal. At the same time, formal institutions are failing young female workers. Local authorities in both countries reproduced prejudice about women ‘inviting’ sexual attention, whereas the police are generally distrusted because of corruption and the need for bribes. To tackle sexual harassment in the workplace, multipronged strategies are needed that target employers and government actors. The right policies and adequate safeguarding and reporting mechanisms need to be implemented, whereas programmes need to support women to help them gain the confidence to speak about sexual harassment and support (collective) action. Longer-term strategies need to address gender norms that condone sexual harassment.British Academy (Grant reference number YF/190009

Tackling Workplace Sexual Harassment

Employment is believed to be a crucial avenue for women’s empowerment, yet widespread workplace sexual harassment undermines this in many countries. Young and unmarried women from poor backgrounds are particularly at risk, but workplace sexual harassment is often overlooked in debates on decent jobs for youth. Based on case study research with factory and domestic workers in Bangladesh and Uganda, this briefing explains how social and gender norms constrain young women’s voices and agency in response to sexual harassment. It offers recommendations towards developing the laws, mechanisms and culture needed to reduce workplace sexual harassment and empower young women in their work.British Academy, Grant reference YF/19000

The novel's imperial past Subjectivity and sexuality in the fictional writings of Charlotte Bronte

Includes bibliographical referencesAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX221244 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Construir sobre la base local: el enfoque de la Universidad del BRAC (Bangladesh)

Este artículo analizará qué consideración se da a la educación terciaria en el ámbito globalizado, hasta qué punto la impulsan inquietudes «instrumentales» de desarrollo (una continuidad de la misión civilizadora) y si ofrece espacio para que sus sujetos, o clientes, participen en la producción de conocimiento, forjen nuevas visiones del mundo y sean líderes en programas y procesos globales. La creación de la Universidad del BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) es un ejemplo de cómo el sector de la educación terciaria de Bangladesh se ha ido abriendo a nuevos métodos organizativos y ha experimentado con ellos.Peer Reviewe

Introduction: Contentious Women's Empowerment in South Asia

Questions of women's power remain a matter of heated debate globally, but take on a heightened intensity in a South Asia featuring rapid economic growth and structural transformation in recent decades. This Special Issue aims to improve understanding of how the women of South Asia are gaining and exercising power and of the obstacles and backlash they face, moving beyond discussion of women's empowerment as a matter of control over domestic economic resources or labour market participation. Articles from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan examine the struggles of garments workers in global value chains, middle class professionals, subsistence farmers and wage labourers, tracing the actors, institutions, and movements that build or block women's pathways to power. Collectively, the articles argue for paid work to be treated as a critical arena for struggles over women's power, not an end in itself. They draw attention to the roles of states and patriarchal forces in building or blocking pathways to power, and to the resilient nature of gendered norms that serve patriarchy. And they highlight the need for research into women's empowerment to focus on key episodes of political contention, as critical junctures for the progress – or retreat – of women's empowerment