Despite the growing recognition of CED with women as a viable community development strategy, there remains relatively little written about its theory or practice. There is even less in the literature that points to successful models or best practices for CED with women. However, this paper does not take the attitude that the absence of successful models or case studies is a signifier of the failings of CED as a strategy. In fact, this paper seeks to avoid recreating what has been a tendency in research to either wholesale celebrate, or “trash and burn” NGO`s and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). This paper sees CED as a particular form of community development that can be utilized as one tool by which we can improve the lives and livelihoods of economically marginalized women. This paper is an attempt to contribute to a fuller understanding of CED with women and CED in general as a process and a developing practice, the effectiveness of which is constrained or supported by a variety of external and internal forces, social actors and histories.

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