Images of Empowerment
Rethinking global development through a new collection of beautiful free images
Powerful, positive representations of women’s work are too often invisible within global development narratives and imagery. “You can tell a powerful story with just a few pictures… and we want to see images of strength. There’s a lot of dignity out there,” says Helena Choi, Program Officer for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Through these photos, called Images of Empowerment, the Hewlett Foundation, Getty Images Reportage, and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) seeks to diversify the narratives of working women globally. This gorgeous portfolio of 1400 images of features women in a variety of informal vocations, including market work, trash picking, and sewing.
In order to maximize the portfolio’s impact, the photos are all available under a CC-BY-NC-4.0 license. “We wanted to make sure that these were put out here as a public good for the field in order to promote positive images of women in developing countries… The more we can get people to use these images, the more we can share. We wanted photos of women working and living… [and] it’s been great to see people who are often overlooked to have such visibility gained through these photos,” says Choi.
Demetria Tsoutouras of WIEGO shared eight of her favorite photographs and reportage with Creative Commons for a unique photo essay that truly showcases the diversity of women’s work around the globe.
AHMEDABAD, INDIA. Shakuntala Rameshman makes brooms at her roadside stand on a busy street in Ahmedabad. She has been hand-crafting brooms for seven years, making 150–200 rupees a day. Many informal workers labour for long hours in challenging conditions for a small income. Shakuntala is a member of the Self‐Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a pioneering union of two million self‐ employed women that works holistically to improve their livelihoods, and lives.
LIMA, PERU. Luz Elena Ramos Terrones, a newspaper vendor or canillita as they are called in Peru, sorts and collates inserts into newspapers on the street. Her organization is affiliated to the National Federation of Newspapers, Magazines and Lottery Vendors (Federación Nacional de Vendedores de Diarios, Revistas y Loterías del Perú, FENVENDRELP). Newspaper vendors are prone to respiratory diseases because they are exposed to the cold, rain, and other weather conditions; because they start working at dawn; and because they lack appropriate facilities. While newspaper vendors have a special health clinic to service them, which was stipulated by the law for this sector, the management of the entity and the level and quality of the services are poor. Newspaper vendors say that they only seek medical attention when it’s something grave.
LIMA, PERU. Sofía Bravo is a food vendor in the streets surrounding what used to be the old Wholesale Market known as La Parada. Her organization forms part of the National Network of Women and Men Self-employed Workers (Red Nacional de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras Autoempleados, RENATTA). RENATTA was an active participant in the consultation process that helped shape the street vending ordinance for downtown Lima (Ordinance 1787). Responding to the interest of the municipality to launch a consultation process to update the ordinance on street vending, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) helped facilitate the consultations.
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. Cecilia Serrano is a waste picker in Bogotá working at the collection centre La Pensilvania, which is managed by the Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá (ARB), an organization of waste pickers’ associations and cooperatives that advocates for waste pickers’ rights to access waste and to be contracted for waste collection and recycling services. By sorting, compacting, and preparing materials for reuse by the manufacturing industry, waste pickers play an important environmental and economic role in reducing the demand for new raw materials.
AHMEDABAD, INDIA. Sangeeta Ben walks her daily route working as a waste picker in an Ahmedabad slum. She provides an essential door-to-door collection service for 240 households and a hospital in the neighbourhood, helping to keep the area clean. Mahila Housing Trust (MHT), a NGO that improves the housing conditions of poor, informally employed women, helped organize the collection service so that Sangeeta now earns a regular income of 5,000–7,000 rupees per month.
BANGKOK, THAILAND. Rattana Chalermchai works with her husband, Mongkol, at home. A former factory worker, Rattana was laid off during the economic crisis in 1997. She now supplies hand-made flip-flops to a resort. She and her husband are long-time members of HomeNet Thailand, and have contributed to several policy campaigns for informal workers, including the Universal Healthcare Coverage campaign. Through HomeNet, they have also helped Thailand’s home-based garment workers to officially register themselves as a garment cooperative. As legal entity, the cooperative has broadened opportunities to get work orders, and more importantly, strengthen a movement of home-based workers.
ACCRA, GHANA. Informal worker Charity Sowu sells fish at Tema Station Market. Charity has worked as a street trader since she completed middle school, more than 35 years ago now. She used to work with her mother selling fish and then inherited the business. She now sells an array of fish, which she obtains from different parts of Ghana, including the Central and Volta regions, and prepares them in a variety of ways, including smoking and the addition of various spices. Her livelihood activities have enabled her to support her four children, and has put them through school. Charity, like other vendors at Tema Station, pays daily, monthly, and yearly licensing fees and tolls to the city government to enable her to operate there. She joined the Tema Station Traders Association, affiliated with StreetNet and the Ghana Trade Union Congress, 11 years ago. The Tema Station Traders Association, with support from WIEGO, has participated in policy dialogues that enabled members to voice their needs and demands to the city government regarding congestion, evictions, sanitation, facilities, and security.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. Domestic worker Stella Nkosi has developed a professional routine that allows her to complete her work tasks efficiently and well. By keeping the house running smoothly, she has allowed her employer to go to work while raising a family.
