This two day course will provide 20 women, from diverse backgrounds and from a spread of voluntary sector organisations, with training in leadership skills. Research indicates that the prohibitive costs of leadership training courses, coupled with a shortage of suitably qualified and skilled women leaders, are creating difficulties for the future of the women’s voluntary sector. This project attempts to address this by providing an opportunity for women to develop their leadership skills which they can then use within their own organisations and/or to seek leadership roles more generally in the sector.

The course will enable participants to develop their leadership potential within a supportive environment. The training will examine the role of women leaders and will incorporate areas such as networking, assertiveness, team building, public speaking, problem solving and developing strategies to deal with the challenges of leading women’s organisations through the current political and economic climate. They will have the opportunity to discuss ideas and strategies with women who are already in leading positions within organisations. Participants will also be encouraged to create a peer support system. They will receive ongoing support following the training.

Cine 25 is a unique one-day event at City Screen in York and is part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York. The aim of the showcase is to address the current position of gender in film and media and to create networking opportunities. We hope to inspire future events providing space for a community of artists and academics who work on gender and media.

The day will include an academic panel discussion, featuring seven participants from institutions across the UK. These are experts in fields of film, television, sound, music and other media arts. A short film programme of 7 films exploring gender will conclude with the opportunity for the audience to speak with the artists. The screening of the feature-length film ‘The Viva Voce Virus’, directed by Kathleen Bryson and Kimmo Mokky, will be the UK premiere of what is already being hailed as a camp classic of queer cinema. This film has been shown in Portland, USA and will be appearing in Berlin the same weekend as Cine25. Kimmo and two of the film’s actors will be at the premiere to chat with the audience about the film.

A low-budget filmmaking workshop will be led by Alissa Juvan, of Girls on Film, a collective that organises multimedia nights by women artists. She is also a Coordinator for Fabric, the arts development organisation for Bradford. Participants will receive advice on funding and exhibiting media from Alissa along with representatives of the Arts Council, The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and several of the artists from Cine25. 18 participants will take part in Cine25 and we expect to attract an audience of approximately 50 from across the UK.

The Feminist Review Trust funding is an invaluable contribution to the running of Cine25. Most importantly, it has enabled us to help towards the costs of our participants attending the event and also to subsidise ticket prices, allowing us to make the event as accessible as we could.

Asylum Aid is an independent charity working with asylum seekers in the UK. It exists because people seeking safety in this country from persecution and human rights abuses abroad, need specialist legal help if their asylum applications are to be fairly assessed. Asylum Aid established the Refugee Women’s Resource Project (RWRP) to advocate for the fair and non-discriminatory consideration of women’s asylum claims, using an evidence base provided by the Project’s dedicated legal casework, original research and policy work. The RWRP is the leading voice in the UK on gender and asylum, with a strong track record of achieving significant improvements to the UK asylum process for women seeking protection.

The RWRP at Asylum Aid is promoting a Charter of Rights of Women Seeking Asylum. The Charter is a framework of principles aimed at persuading the UK Border Agency to take both a strategic approach to the needs of women seeking asylum and to put in place the operational procedures and safeguards that will remove the discriminatory barriers they face. A multi-level approach to promoting the Charter, encompassing strategy, operational policy and service delivery, will be adopted in relation to the UK Border Agency. You can see the Charter at: http://www.asylumaid.org.uk

The project aims to set up a Feminist Art Studio “Spero” in the capital city of the Republic of Georgia – Tbilisi. The project will promote feminist art in Georgia and enable women artists to work and become more visible. The project will consist of three main components – feminist art studio “Spero”; workshops on feminist art and women artists; exhibition of the works by women artists working in the studio “Spero”.

The studio will be equipped with all necessary materials for painting and drawing in order to create a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere for working. The studio will serve specifically to professional and amateur women artists, who are unable to afford expensive art materials and studios for working. Women will be able to use all the studio resources free of charge in order to create artworks. During the project implementation, three workshops will be organized, which will be devoted to the work of raising women artists’ consciousness about feminism and feminist art. In the last month of the project implementation an exhibition will be organized showing the selected works of women artists created during their work in the studio. The studio will ensure women artists’ access to expensive art materials and will enable them to exhibit their works, which will be documented in a catalogue. The planned activities will raise public interest in feminist art and women artists’ work.

Goal: WTB's project focuses on Jewish and Palestinian women's ability to enjoy a basic amount of contraceptive autonomy, ability to access knowledge about reproductive options, and activate their right to choose the way in which to use state provided health insurance in the management of their reproduction.

Background: In Israel, women's rights and education on issues of abortion and contraception remain extremely sensitive issues, raising very little public and medical discussion, thereby diminishing women's freedom regarding their reproductive choices. The lack of public discussion is directly linked to current health policies: While all assisted reproductive technologies are heavily subsidized in Israel, long term and emergency contraceptives are not funded at all. Today, all women in Israel are required to cover the full cost of their contraceptives or abortions, regardless of their financial abilities.

The two stage mini-project: (A) Collecting the material: Stage A answers the immediate need for intensive critical research on policies, costs and available procedures of Elective Abortion in Israel. The research additionally focuses on grass-root levels, in order to present the experiences of Israeli women of all socioeconomic, ethnic and geographical locations.
(B) mainstreaming this knowledge by disseminating the data in simple accessible language to all female [and male!] residents in Israel. The materials will be distributed as a chapter on Abortion in the newly researched and culturally adapted editions of "Our Bodies Ourselves" in Hebrew and Arabic; on the WTB web data base free which will be available free for all users; and through workshops run by WTB.

Rights of Women is a well established not-for-profit feminist women’s organisation committed to informing, educating and empowering women on the law and their legal rights. It runs two national confidential legal advice lines for women provided by women solicitors and barristers; one specialising in family law issues, including domestic violence and the other providing legal advice and support for survivors of sexual violence. It also produces publications and runs training and other events on key areas of law affecting women.

This award will fund the distribution of ROW’s two most recent publications, From A to Z: a woman’s guide to the law and Pathways to Justice: BMER women, violence and the law, free of charge to individual women and key professionals and organisations working with women to increase their knowledge and understanding of their legal rights and remedies enabling them to access justice and attain equality.
From A to Z is a unique and accessible guide to an extensive range of legal topics affecting women. It covers a wide range of areas of law including asylum and immigration law, criminal law, discrimination and employment law, the English Legal System, family law, housing law, human rights law and welfare and consumer rights.
Pathways to Justice is a practical, accessible and empowering guide to the legal rights of Black, Minority Ethnic and Refugee, including asylum seeking, (BMER) women. It provides extensive coverage of issues including forced marriage, female genital mutilation, immigration and asylum, trafficking, child abduction and honour crimes. Distribution of free copies of these publications will enable more women to have access to and benefit from them, particularly those in hard to reach or disadvantaged communities.

Studies of Muslim women in the Indian context tend to treat ‘Muslim’ as an unproblematic, fixed, and unified identity and look at ‘Muslim women’ as a coherent group with a common set of interests. These studies focus on a series of tropes through which Muslim women are defined often based on categories laid down by Muslim Personal Law, thus taking for granted the boundaries between religious groups. The study questions the notion of a unified Muslim identity and begins with an analysis of the way that people construct their multiple identities through their discussions of locality. Rather than attempting to describe Indian Muslim women as a group, the author focuses on the experiences of a group of women living in a majority-Muslim area of South Delhi, Zakir Nagar. This contextualisation aims to question to primacy of ‘Muslim’ in discussions surrounding identity by looking at the ways that the neighbourhood is constructed around various identities including class, regional, and professional identities, alongside religion. The study neither assumes that Islam is the only factor affecting women’s lives nor that it is irrelevant in a context in which religious identity is in fact increasingly important. Rather, it looks at the ways in which ‘Muslim’ becomes an important marker at different moments and in different contexts through the exploration of topics such as housing segregation, discrimination, riots, and interreligious relations. The thesis also looks at the issue of changing gender roles and argue that, though religion is one factor that mediates Muslim women’s experiences, it is not the only factor through which gender roles are defined and it is itself experienced differentially. This project attempts to unravel and displace the notion of Muslim women as a group with clear boundaries, while at the same time presenting a counter-narrative focusing on women’s identities as dynamic, situational and multi-faceted.

Ladyfest Brighton is a non-profit arts and activism collective organising a multi-media festival - with art, music, film, dance, and workshops - to showcase the talent and vision of female and queer artists and to raise money for women’s charities.

‘A Woman’s Place’ is a series of free workshops, panels and discussion groups, organised by the collective, taking place in Brighton and Hove (21-23rd October 2005) during the festival. The programme will address a wide range of issues, such as: Women’s History and Activism; Skill-sharing and self-empowerment; and Sex, Sexuality and Our Bodies.

Over 20 workshops will take place, from discussions about ‘Racism, white privilege and feminism for all’ to drag king workshops; from learning how to d.j. to surviving sexual abuse. Workshops are a vital space in which to engage in discussion, overcome isolation, learn new skills, and to encourage women’s self-esteem and creativity through hands-on participation. Some workshops will be women-only, but Ladyfest Brighton is a community event open to all. 

This award will be used to help equip an audiovisual studio in La Eskalera Karakola, a feminist social center in Madrid.

The two principal activities of this studio will be the transmission of an online streaming feminist radio program and the production of video material by various collectives within the centre.

The principal objectives of the Eskalera Karakola are to 1) share mutual support and empowerment, 2) study and analyze the transformations of women’s situations, given the continual re-articulation of patriarchy, capitalism, racism, homophobia, the labour market, etc. and 3) on the basis of this analysis, produce strong and effective statements and interventions capable impacting on public debates and images. In this latter objective, the capacity to produce quality audio-visual material is essential. The capacity to produce radio and video is both a research tool and a means of diffusion, a compelling way to intervene in public understanding and to challenge the terms of the debate. Providing access to these facilities for open collective learning and use by women is an important step not only towards women’s technological literacy but also towards the development of situated research methodologies, the production and circulation of new images and voices, and the weaving of a feminist community through shared use and participation.

When South Africa’s first democratic government came to power in 1994, its rhetoric was explicitly feminist. Apart from the gender sensitive constitution, the number of women in Parliament and the establishment of National Gender Machinery were acknowledged as major triumphs. Many believe that the African National Congress (ANC) and Women’s Section, their varied experiences and exposure to international trends while in exile, were largely responsible for the progressive input during the negotiations and transition to democracy. Women’s lobbying through the Women’s National Coalition (WNC), an ANC Women’s League initiative, was the major impetus contributing towards these changes.

I want to argue that grassroots women’s movements of the 1980 –1990s, building on traditions of earlier women’s struggles, were key agents in contributing to the success of the WNC. This thesis will explore the shifting nature of grassroots women’s political agency in the Western Cape, the dominant discourses that mobilised them, what forms they took and how they changed over time and to what extent this grassroots political activism contributed to the New South Africa.

South Africa is seen as a ‘women-friendly state’, but is this in fact so? What were the gains and successes for grassroots women and to what extent were their demands fulfilled after a decade of democracy? These and related questions would be analysed using the insights from interviews with women activists of the 1980s, some now in government and others still engaged in grassroots struggles. The achievements and challenges of South African women would be analysed using citizenship debates of representation and questioning whether one can retain the political category of ‘women’ without subsuming difference or misrepresenting the perspectives of women in different social locations.

Are women in the global South empowering themselves through the ‘empowerment approaches’ now deployed by many development organizations? Yes!, according to the mainstream development discourse: insofar as these women come to act as ‘rational economic agents’ and ‘active political citizens’ they are empowering themselves. No!, according to the leftist development discourse: insofar as these women are not challenging structural inequalities, they are not empowering themselves. Despite its critical posture, this leftist development discourse shares with its object of critique highly essentialized visions of women, literacy, economy and/or citizenship all of which surround the privileged term empowerment.

This dissertation draws on a transnational feminist perspective that emerges from a strategic combination of transnational feminism, anti-essentialist Marxist theory and discourse theory to illuminate the limits of and suggests alternatives to existing approaches to women’s empowerment. This dissertation examines three sets of essentialisms within the practice and critique of existing empowerment approaches. First, it investigates the mechanism by which women’s literacy is constructed as the determining factor of their empowerment. Second, by reconstituting Foucault’s notion of governmentality through my transnational feminist perspective, it analyzes the ways in which women, literacy, economy and citizenship are articulated around empowerment within the award-winning Women’s Empowerment Project in Nepal. Third, by examining rich ethnographies on women’s economic empowerment with help of Lacanian psychoanalysis, it illuminates the relationships between the psychic and the social in a manner that are not possible within power-essentialist Foucauldian leftist analyses. Following these analyses it speculates on the pedagogical implications of these interventions for Women’s Studies in northern universities. It offers a concrete case of how reflective transnational feminist praxis can recognize women’s agency and local practices, acknowledge transnational structural inequalities and support the formation of transnational collaborative efforts.

Educational Programme on Prostitution Migration and Trafficking in Ecuador

Support for attendance at workshops (funded by the Global Fund for Women) held for women likely to migrate abroad on the risks and dangers of so doing.

Production of a catalogue to support the 'Getting the Message Across?' Exhibition

This award will be used to produce educational material to support and extend an exhibition and conference challenging male violence against women and children.

The exhibition – entitled “Getting the Message Across?” - presents nearly 400 public education posters from around the world, all of which seek to raise awareness of the prevalence and nature of men’s violence against women and children. It is being organised by the Glasgow-based Women’s Support Project who are also organising a one-day conference on the theme of public education, media and men’s violence against women to accompany the exhibition.

The catalogue will be available to anyone attending the exhibition and conference. Beyond January 2005, the catalogue will continue to be used by the Women’s Support Project in our extensive programme of training on the issues of violence against women. 

In expanding the work of the Project, the exhibition and conference will be of interest to a variety of organisations and individuals including: schools and youth groups (special tours of the exhibition will be promoted to this audience); organisations working in the field of men’s violence against women and children in the statutory and voluntary sectors; educators; media professionals. The catalogue will be an accessible guide to the exhibition which will also contain information about successful public education campaigns and good practice guidelines for representing violence against women. The catalogue will also include training activities based around the exhibition with the aim of encouraging participants to think critically about the ways in which we represent violence against women in words and images, and the assumptions behind those representations.

Production of a documentary entitled The A Word

The A Word is an independent video documentary that attempts to research and detail the current issue of abortion and abortion law reform in Trinidad and Tobago.  The current law is one that was established in 1861 by British ruling parties and because of its ambiguous language, has proved to be ineffective and even harmful to women’s reproductive health.  Recent research shows that there are as many abortions as live births happening in Trinidad and Tobago each year, despite the criminal law that calls for the penalization of persons who both obtain and perform “unlawful” abortions.  A local advocacy organization recently proposed abortion law reform and the country has since been in a heated debate over the issue.  Most of the public discussions of abortion that have and are taking place in Trinidad and Tobago have been rooted in religious ideologies and this project seeks to move dialogue about the issue away from a religious discussion to one of national policy, law and health.  The documentary will make available factual information about the issue that has not yet been accessible to the wider public as well as insights to all sides of the debate.  It is hoped that interviews with various persons from different facets of society will help bring this taboo subject out of darkness and provide clarity on an issue that has remained under the veil of misinformation and non-action.  There will be no attempt to persuade or guide viewers to take a particular stance on the issue.  The goal is simply to present the issue as it currently exists with a hope that this information, in speaking for itself, will cause the public of Trinidad and Tobago to take an informed interest in this public health crisis and act for social justice as well as the improvement of women’s reproductive health in Trinidad and Tobago

‘Independent Heroines 2005’ is a feminist film festival taking place at the Cube Cinema, Bristol in February 2005. The aim of the festival is to bring together a wide range of films by women reflecting some of the many issues, past and present, surrounding gender, sexuality, and politics.

Workshops and seminars form a vital part of the festival, providing audience members with not only the opportunity to learn about and discuss the films they have seen, but also the chance to interact with each other as a group. We believe that feminist film theory should be made accessible and interesting to everyone, not only those with an academic background. The funding we have received from the Feminist Review Trust will allow us to programme and provide these workshops and seminars, hopefully making the festival a more engaging and enjoyable experience for participants.

The project is to produce a report on the experiences and specific issues facing lesbian, bisexual and questioning women of particular ethnic minority groups living in the UK.

The objective of the report is to:

1. Further public understanding of issues facing lesbian bisexual and questioning women from BME back grounds
2. To provide a rationale and framework for setting up similar support services for women of sexual and ethnic minority groups elsewhere in the UK
3. To raise awareness of the KISS group in the UK among LGB community groups and directly for women from South Asia, Middle eastern and North African descent.
4. To evaluate and celebrate the first five years of the KISS group
5. To document and archive the KISS support group celebration

Seminar on Tools and Legal Strategies for the Access of Women to their Rights –  Within the framework of CIPPEC’s Access to Justice Initiative, this project will organize a Seminar to improve women’s access to justice in the district of Moreno and its neighbouring zones. The objective is to strengthen the capacities of organizations working for the promotion of women’s rights by training them to increase their impact at a local level.

CIPPEC is a private, non-profit organization that strives to create a more just, democratic, and efficient State in Argentina to improve the quality of life for all Argentine citizens. It focuses its efforts on analyzing and promoting public policies that encourage equity and growth in Argentina. Our challenge is to turn sound ideas into concrete actions in the areas of Education, Politics, Fiscal Policy, Health, Transparency, and Justice.

This grant will support a Workshop on the Gender Dimensions of Bulgaria's New Migration Policy. The Workshop will review the emigration process in Bulgaria since 1989 and review policy implications of gender migration.

The Women's Therapy Centre is carrying out a two year research project to highlight the need for psychoanalytic psychotherapy for women with mental health issues. The research looks at:- the profile of Women's Therapy Centre clients

- women’s expectations of therapy at the Centre
- women’s experience of being in therapy at the Women's Therapy Centre
- the impact of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in their lives and the outcomes both internal and external changes

The qualitative research design includes in depth one to one interviews with women whose therapy has ended at the Women's Therapy Centre. The interviews last approximately 1-1.5 hours and are tape recorded. All interviews are transcribed for charting and analysis. The women who have been interviewed include women who have received individual or group therapy or a combination of both.

The project started in April 2003 with the appointment of a research and development worker and is funded by the Community Fund with Feminist Review providing additional funding for transcribing.