Women Empowerment: Why it Matters?
Embarking on the journey of women’s empowerment demands not only a keen awareness of the challenges they face but also a collective effort to dismantle the barriers obstructing their progress.
As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things and we’ll be better off it”
What is Women's Empowerment?
It involves fostering women’s sense of self-worth, empowering them to make independent choices, and affirming their right to influence social change on their own terms.
Key Challenges in Women Empowerment
For many decades gender-based violence, and gender inequality, have seemed to torpedo the hopes of women’s empowerment. Women’s empowerment is all about fighting against these challenges.
Gender Gap and Financial Inequality
Women getting paid less for the same job perpetuates financial inequality, hindering long-term investments. More than 2.7 billion women worldwide face legal limitations that impede their ability to pursue a comparable range of employment opportunities as men. The undervaluation of unpaid domestic work, if quantified and compensated, would amount to a staggering 11 trillion dollars. If women engaged in unpaid home duties constituted a nation, they would boast the world’s third-highest GDP. This income disparity impedes women from making long-term investments and limits their financial resources for future needs.
Gender-based violence
Gender-based violence has plagued women throughout history, encompassing issues such as sexual assault, psychological abuse, and human trafficking. While laws and amendments exist to safeguard women, the harsh reality is that they often serve as mere symbolic gestures on paper, with the prevalence of violent situations persisting beneath the surface.
Restrictive Laws and Women's Rights
A grave concern is the rise of restrictive laws becoming perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing of women. Currently, 41% of women reside in countries with strict abortion laws, which infringe upon their right to choose whether to have children or not. No nation should impose motherhood on women against their will. Shockingly, every year, 23,000 women lose their lives due to unsafe pregnancies.
Gender Bias in the Workplace
There is a crucial need to raise awareness about gender bias in the workplace. A recent research poll involved male and female colleagues presenting the same business innovation idea to an audience. The irony lies in the fact that despite the identical innovation idea, 70% of people responded positively to the man’s pitch, while only 30% responded to the woman’s pitch. This stark contrast underscores the importance of addressing and rectifying gender-based disparities in how innovative ideas are received and valued.
Empowering Women: Catalysts for Inclusive Societal Well-being
Empowering Women
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Promoting awareness of women’s empowerment is crucial, highlighting not only the importance of fostering gender equality but also emphasizing the significant contributions women can make to societal well-being.
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By spreading awareness, we can inspire and encourage women to actively participate in shaping a better society through their diverse skills, perspectives, and talents.
Empowered women are catalysts for positive change, and acknowledging their potential fosters a more inclusive and thriving community for all.
What needs to be done?
- Holistic Empowerment Programs: Empower women and girls through comprehensive programs encompassing sanitation, hygiene, health, nutrition, livelihood training, education, financial literacy, and the facilitation of reaching their full potential.
- Fair Treatment in the Workplace: Promote fair treatment for both men and women in the workplace.
- Equal Pay Enforcement: Enforce stringent rules ensuring equal pay for both genders.
- Women’s Rights Education: Educate women about their rights and empower them to assert those rights confidently.
- Abolishing Restrictive Laws: Advocate for the abolition of restrictive abortion laws, a crucial step in saving the lives of thousands of women.
She has given a head-on-head fight in the game of scoundrel, which has made her rise from the ashes like a phoenix. She endured persistent victimisation, grappling with patriarchy, misogyny, eve-teasing, rape, and body-shaming. Despite the relentless onslaught of these hardships, she stands tall, fortified by unwavering faith, courage, and determination. Now, recognising that putting an end to these hostilities is the only viable option, she embraces the path towards cessation with resilience and strength.
From Ashes to Phoenix
In the spirit of ‘the right to live and the right to live on her own terms,’ women have the power to rise from the ashes like a phoenix, embodying resilience and empowerment.
She has given a head-on-head fight in the game of scoundrel, which has made her rise from the ashes like a phoenix. She has been a constant victim of the acts of patriarchy, misogyny, eve-teasing, rape, and body shaming. The above jargon has tried its level best to succumb to her heart, but there she is standing with unfathomable faith, courage, and determination as your mother, sister, friend, wife, and girlfriend. My heart was wrecked like the Titanic ship wreckage, when on the one hand the COVID-19 virus leaked like a genie from the Chinese laboratory and devastated the world, on the other hand, I still faced the brutal act of domestic violence.
She is aborted before stepping out of her mother’s womb, thinking that she is a burden, where all your hard-earned money would go in vain for her education and dowry. But, trust me she is an asset. Without her, the planet would look so mundane like the sky without the stars.
And now she has realized that cessation of these hostilities is the only option left in her hands to put an end to the trauma that she has been suffering for ages. She deserves equality in society for pay, and she deserves appreciation for all the multitasking roles she is fulfilling.
Give her the love respect and equality she deserves and then see this iron lady will move mountains for you. She will be the eye of the storm in every suffering of your life and then finally you will witness her power to transmogrify the world….
– Mihika
Author: Ms. Mihika Lokhande, Medical Student, Armenia
Reviewed by: Dr. Aarti Nehra
