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鈥淯npacking Women鈥檚 Empowerment: Implications for Research, Policy and Practice in International Development鈥�

2018 Annual Conference

Institute for the Study of International Development

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March 15-16 2018, Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish

Since the 1970s governments and various civil society actors at international and domestic levels have engaged in legal, political, economic and social efforts to advance diverse visions of women鈥檚 empowerment. Yet, more work needs to be done to clarify what constitutes women鈥檚 empowerment in contemporary circumstances, and how to evaluate various policies or practices in terms of their impact on promoting various forms of women鈥檚 empowerment. These tasks are complicated by the diversity of development contexts, as well as the multidimensional nature of factors affecting women鈥檚 empowerment. They are also especially policy relevant given Canada鈥檚 new Feminist International Assistance Policy aimed at promoting gender equality in aid programming.

ISID鈥檚 annual conference on March 15-16, 2018 presents a valuable opportunity to 鈥渦npack鈥澨齮he agenda of women鈥檚 empowerment in global development, with an interdisciplinary group of experts who will discuss contemporary challenges and opportunities for research, policy and practice, as well as examine some of the recent evidence on empowerment initiatives in resource-poor settings. The conference will focus on various challenges that confront scholars and policy makers seeking to construct policies and assess their impact on increasing women鈥檚 autonomy, voice, and/or well-being in the household, civil society, and national politics. Some of these challenges include the difficulties associated with how to measure and benchmark progress toward achieving women鈥檚 empowerment in diverse development contexts, as well as concerns that the design and implementation of women鈥檚 empowerment policies obscure their politically contested nature. Other challenges have to do with how to incorporate evidence of social and political backlash in assessing the impact and success of various policies.

This conference will also highlight ISID鈥檚 current partnership with Canada鈥檚 International Development Research Center (IDRC), to disseminate the results of their $17.5 million women鈥檚 economic empowerment program, GrOW, taking place in over 50 countries around the world. We must take advantage of this opportune moment in Canadian politics to unpack the concept of women鈥檚 empowerment and move the national and international agenda forward.

Day 1听 -听 March 15, 2018

Panel 1: Unpacking Women鈥檚 Empowerment

Leaders and international organizations such as the United Nations have declared women鈥檚 empowerment in household/domestic, social/economic/communal, and political spheres of society to be 鈥榝undamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace鈥� (Beijing Declaration 1995 鈥� para 13). This panel unpacks some concepts and practices currently associated to the agenda of women鈥檚 empowerment, including gender equality, women鈥檚 rights as human rights, women鈥檚 political leadership and political participation, ending violence and discrimination against women, as well as women鈥檚 economic empowerment in the household, and control over reproductive decisions and health. Are these concepts and practices adequate for realizing women鈥檚 empowerment, and in ways that would count as advances towards development? What relationships and tensions might exist between these diverse faces of women鈥檚 empowerment, and how well or poorly do international formulations of the agenda of women鈥檚 empowerment connect with local social, economic and political agendas?

Day 2听 -听 March 16, 2018

Panel 2: Women and Markets

One central notion in women鈥檚 empowerment is her ability to be gainfully and meaningfully employed, to gain her financial autonomy, benefit equally from a good education, gain skills and have access to productive resources such as land and capital. Despite universal agreement that girls鈥� and women鈥檚 education is of central importance to their well-being and to development itself, the gender gap persists in many places in the world. Despite increases in labour force participation, the glass ceiling remains unbroken and the job opportunities available to women who often shoulder the burden of care of the young and elderly are often of poor quality and low remuneration. Meanwhile, considerable efforts in development programming to 鈥榣evel the playing field鈥� (e.g. microfinance, job-training, etc.) have been met with mixed results. This panel will explore contemporary challenges and ways forward to narrow these gender gaps and promote access to productive resources and opportunities.

Panel 3: Empowerment within the Household

Recent years have seen increased attention to women鈥檚 decision-making power within the household, from a wide array of scholars, practitioners and program designers. A central dimension of a woman鈥檚 empowerment is her ability to affirm her voice and exert听her preferences in relation to fundamental decisions such as her freedom of movement听and association, her degree of access and control over household resources, her听autonomy in securing livelihoods and financial independence, her control over her health听and fertility and influence on the care and wellbeing of her children. This panel will听highlight important advances in conceptualizing empowerment within the household听decision-making sphere and survey recent evidence from programs which have aimed at听improving women鈥檚 agency, voice and outcomes in household matters. How successful听have these programs been? Is increasing women鈥檚 bargaining power within the听household necessarily a zero-sum game where empowerment will lead to backlash? How听can theory help better inform practice?

Panel 4: Community and State Level Analysis

Historically, women have been systematically underrepresented both at national and local level politics throughout the world. Even now, after years of attention to women鈥檚听political engagement, we see a large gender gap in political involvement. These issues of women鈥檚 political exclusion become even more severe when we take an intersectional view and look at women from racial or ethnic minorities. In the last decades, we have seen increased attention to the empowerment of women at local and national level politics, both from researchers as well as from policy makers. This panel will look at advances and outstanding issues when it comes to women鈥檚 empowerment in community and national level politics, paying special attention to women鈥檚 leadership, while considering intersectional issues of race and ethnicity. What has been the effect of the multiple electoral quota laws enacted in the last decades on women representation? When and how do women reach positions of power and leadership at both local and national level politics, and to what effect? What added obstacles do indigenous women face at the community level?

Roundtable and Open Discussion: Implications for Research, Policy and Practice

This roundtable panel will distill the conversations that have taken place throughout the conference, and provide an opportunity for open discussion with a view to implications for research, policy and practice. Specific attention will be paid to how policy and interventions can be improved such that backlash and unintended consequences for women鈥檚 empowerment can be addressed and eliminated.