The term ” Empowerment ” means mandate, accreditation, authorization, delegation, promotion, commission, facilitation.
Actually, Empowerment refers to having agency over one’s life and equal opportunity to participate in society. It enables people to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. Women’s empowerment or female empowerment, is the process by which women gain influence and equal opportunity to pursue personal, social and economic endeavors, engaging in all parts of society on the same basis as men. Women’s empowerment equips and allows women to make life-determining decisions through the different societal problems.
Assets of empowering women –
Women’s empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion in development and economics. Scholars have identified two forms of empowerment: economic empowerment and political empowerment.
Economic empowerment –
- Since the 1980s, the push for neoliberalism prioritizes competitiveness and self-reliance as a measurement for economic success. Specifically, neoliberalism has negatively impacted women’s self-worth through its welfare reform policies. Women can counteract neoliberalism’s social implications and welfare reform by creating opportunities for women’s empowerment, like job training.
- Women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality help society ensure the sustainable development of a country. Many world leaders and scholars have argued that sustainable development is impossible without gender equality and women’s empowerment.
- Strengthening women’s access to property inheritance and land rights is another method used to economically empower women.Having a right to their land gives women a sort of bargaining power that they would not normally have; they gain more opportunities for economic independence.
- Race has an integral impact on women’s empowerment in areas such as employment. Employment can help create empowerment for women.
- Another methodology for women’s economic empowerment also includes microcredit. Microfinance institutions aim to empower women in their community by giving them access to loans that have low-interest rates without the requirement of collateral.
Political empowerment –
Political empowerment supports creating policies that best support gender equality and agency for women in both the public and private spheres.Some theorists believe that women bargaining power and agency in the household must be achieved before they can move on to broader political participation. António Guterres,
” the secretary-general of the United Nations mentions that women can gain knowledge, wisdom, and insights only if they are included equally in all aspects of society.”
Need for women empowerment
“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
–G.D. Anderson
Almost all countries, regardless of how progressive, have a history of mistreating women. To put it another way, women from all over the world have been defiant to achieve their current standing. While Western nations continue to make progress, third-world countries such as India continue to lag behind in terms of women’s empowerment.
However, due to female foeticide practices, which is still prevailing in the rural and underprivileged sections of the Indian societies, the girl child population is rapidly declining, affecting the country’s sex ratio.
Women’s empowerment has five components
- women’s sense of self-worth;
- their right to have and to determine choices;
- their right to have access to opportunities and resources;
- their right to have power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and
- their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally.
Few ways to empower our women
- Providing the ticket to a better life: clean water.
- Supporting girls and women in crisis.
- Mentor a girl close to home.
- Invest in a small business owner.
- Use your voice to help keep girls in school.
- Helping a new mom.
- Telling the women in your life that you care.
Women empowerment in Bangladesh
The Sixth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) of Bangladesh government, which is the national medium term development plan committed to transforming Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021 (also known as Vision 2021), considers women’s engagement in political and economic activities as a cross-cutting issue with women’s empowerment as one of the main drivers of transformation.
The current government is committed to attaining the MDG 2015 of gender equality and empowering women as well as implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Bangladesh has already substantially achieved the MDG3 as it has secured gender parity in primary and secondary education at the national level.
The UNDP has commented that ,
“Bangladesh has made significant progress in promoting the objectives of ensuring gender equality and empowerment of women”.
Women standing for women
So many female comedians, actors, performers, directors, and writers have thrived in male-dominated Hollywood, giving us hope for the future of women’s rights and providing us with empowering quotes to live by.
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”
——Michelle Obama
A nation can’t progress without the help of women. Most of the girls of our country grow up with a common inferiority complex. The patriarchal structure of society makes them demotivated to compete with the boys. But, it’s high time to change the scenario and the change should be started from the family.
Empowered women turned into the assets of a country. They can give direction and take part in economic and political issues. If the equal rights of women can be secured, they will add a new dimension to the growth of society.
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Writer
Lutfur Nahar
Intern
Content writing department
YSSE