Rethinking Empowerment looks at the changing role of women in developing countries and calls for a new approach to empowerment. An approach that adopts a more nuanced, feminist interpretation of power and em(power)ment, recognises that local empowerment is always embedded in regional, national and global contexts, pays attention to institutional structures and politics and acknowledges that empowerment is both a process and an outcome. Moreover, the book warns that an obsession with measurement rather than process can undermine efforts to foster transformative and empowering outcomes. It concludes that power must be restored as the centrepiece of empowerment. Only then will the term and its advocates provide meaningful ammunition for dealing with the challenges of an increasingly unequal, and often sexist, global/local world.

Part I Theory and praxis; Chapter 1 Rethinking em(power)ment, gender and development, Jane L. ParPart, Shirin M. Rai, Kathleen Staudt; Chapter 2 Education as a means for empowering women, Nelly P. Stromquist; Part II Women's empowerment in a global world; Chapter 3 Envisaging power in Philippine migration, Pauline Gardiner Barber; Chapter 4 Women's rights, CEDAW and internationalhuman rights debates, Shaheen Sardar Ali; Chapter 5 Feminizing cyberspace, gillian youngs; Part III The nation state, politics and women's empowerment; Chapter 6 Engaging politics, Kathleen Staudt; Chapter 7 Movements, states and empowerment, Marella Bodur, Susan Franceschet; Chapter 8 Political representation, democratic institutions and women's empowerment The quota debate in India1, Shirin M. Rai; Chapter 9 Gender, production and access to land, Reena Patel; Part IV The local/global, development and women's empowerment; Chapter 10 Rethinking Part icipatory empowerment, gender and development, Jane L. ParPart ; Chapter 11 The disciplinary power of micro credit, Josephine Lairap-Fonderson; Chapter 12 Development, demographic and feminist agendas, Lisa Ann Richey; Chapter 13 Informal politics, grassroots NGOS and women's empowerment in the slums of Bombay, Vandana Desai; Part V Conclusion; Chapter 14 Concluding thoughts on (em)powerment, gender and development, Kathleen Staudt, Shirin M. Rai, Jane L. ParPart ;