This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on gender nonconformity aspects of heteronormativity by examining its impact on the life course of hijras and their access to fundamental human rights in Pakistan. Drawing on 50 semistructured interviews conducted in two sites, the findings suggest that the participants' lived experiences associated with gender nonconformity significantly influenced the direction of their life course and their ability to have access to human rights. These experiences spanned from childhood to elderhood across a wide range of settings, such as family, school, guru dera (residence headed by a hijra guru), workplace, and interactions with authorities. The participants' human rights were not recognized, resulting in abuse, social stigma, discrimination against them, and their exclusion from mainstream society. Finally, implications are drawn for public policy and future research on third gender concerns in Pakistan and elsewhere.

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This article explores how empowerment is understood locally, and whether low-income Cambodian women perceive they are empowered in that sense. Interview data from 120 participants in empowerment projects show that although some forms of empowerment as defined by donor agencies occur, such as through increases in knowledge, selfconfidence, and decision-making ability, empowerment is rarely understood by the women themselves in individual terms. Instead, empowerment is seen as contributing to and gaining respect from others, including partners, family and community members, yet not always in line with traditional gender roles. Recommendations are provided to acknowledge these findings. ARTICLE HISTORY

The processes of globalization and debt crisis led to dramatic changes in African countries. In the context of a new economic crisis -now on a global scale -it is useful to revisit debates regarding the impact of earlier policies in response to economic crisis on the poor, with a focus on very low-income informal women workers. In this paper, we adopt a gender analysis framework to examine contending perspectives about the differential impacts of globalization, liberalization and structural adjustment programs on African women and men. We comment on two predominant schools of thought that appear to underlie and define the majority of case studies situated in African countries. While one asserts that globalization and liberalization offer entrepreneurial opportunities for women, an opposing view contends that the neoliberal political and economic reforms connected with structural adjustment policies have been devastating for poor women workers. A review of available empirical research on the responses of informal economy women workers to challenges of increased workload, reduced income and curtailed access to social services, cautions against dogmatic adherence to conceptual perspectives that either assume workers in the informal economy to be dynamic entrepreneurs when they cannot be, or condemn only contemporary policies for conditions that are the product of complex historical processes.