Carving out new pathways for women into jobs once considered to be ‘men’s jobs’, the State-run economic empowerment initiative, Chapeu de Palha Mulher, is transforming rural women’s lives in Brazil. For thousands of sugar cane and fruit farm workers, Chapeu de Palha Mulher offers a pathway of empowerment. In June 2012, the Secretariat for Women’s Policies of the State Government of Pernambuco was recognised by the United Nations with a first prize for excellence in gender-sensitive public service delivery. This short film describes programme’s transformational effects, not only on women’s employment prospects, but also their self-esteem, their confidence and their horizons of the possible.