Unleashing Potential: Advancing Women’s Empowerment for a More Equal World
Women’s Empowerment
Women’s empowerment can be defined as encouraging women’s sense of self-worth, emphasising their ability to determine their own choices and their right to influence social change for themselves and others.
In Western countries, female empowerment is associated with specific phases of the women’s rights movement in history.
This movement is separated into three defining moments. The first was the suffrage movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where the demand for universal suffrage was the key demand. The second wave was in the 1960s was the sexual revolution and the changing roles of women in society. The third wave gave rise to feminism and took place in the 1990s.
Women’s empowerment can also be said to include women enabling themselves to prioritise their needs and to live life on their terms. This would mean not letting other people’s expectations and societal norms govern their choices and their lives.
Even though the world has seen a good measure of progress with regards to women’s empowerment and dismantling the patriarchal systems of the world to a certain degree, there is lots more to be done to ensure gender parity in the world.
Discrimination and Gender Bias:
However, in a society where gender bias is still all too common, and in a world where women are more than often judged for their personal choices, no matter how trivial, it can’t be claimed that women are empowered in the true sense of the word.
Women continue to face challenges worldwide when it comes to situations such as pay parity and often face discriminatory policies at work with regard to promotion which is nothing but the infamous glass ceiling manifesting itself. Women often find themselves underrepresented in decision-making roles and lack representation in governments.
Even in the developed world, women often get paid less than men even though they both do the same jobs, face discrimination because of their gender and suffer from misogynistic attitudes and archaic rules that restrict their autonomy over their own bodies.
The situation is worse in developing countries where social evils such as female foeticide, child marriage and dowry, remain the norm. One in four girls drop out by primary school and one in five are married before their 18th birthday. Child marriage robs the girls of their bright futures and in developing countries carries a risk of death related to childbirth due to the lack of requisite healthcare.
Conclusion:
Empowering women and girls enables them to contribute to the productivity of their families and the community at large. Gender equality is a basic human right and is defined as equal access to economic and decision-making opportunities regardless of gender.
While some progress is being made in various parts of the world, there is still a great deal left to be done to right the historical problems of gender inequality inherited through the years.
