Empowering women is not only essential but much needed for the overall health and societal development of the families, communities, and countries.
Safe, nurtured, fulfilled, and productive life makes them realise their full potential, raise healthier and happier children and also contribute their skills to the workforce. All these helps create a sustainable economy and benefits societies and humanity at large.
However, girls and women continue to face significant challenges all around the world. Gender equality is a basic human right, yet they are treated as less valuable than boys, made to do domestic work instead of attending schools, married off early on for a dowry, kept away from power and decision-making roles, paid unequal pay for the same work, forced to face social, legal and many other barriers causing hindrance to their work opportunities.
While some progress is being made in various parts of the world, there is still a great deal left to be done.
How to empower women/girls?
Believe that healthy, educated, and empowered women and girls can contribute to a stronger world.
Workplace, schools, homes, communities, standing with them and investing in women is the most important and crucial to start.
Fertility rates, Literacy rates, participation in the Labour force, and involvement in Political affairs are some of the macro level indicators used to measure women’s empowerment.
Education, is the starting and key point of this journey. An educated girl can take over a meaningful job and most certainly won’t suffer an early marriage/ child marriage fate.
It’s high time, we need to address gender inequality in education so that girls can also fulfill their goal of completing education. All this can only be possible through continuous community awareness with the elders, parents, and community leaders.
Persistence, and Determination are must to lead us though this changes in generations old customs, and behaviour.
Support to such ideas and women at the heart help them with opportunities to seek their right, rise in social standing, advocate for their communities, and eventually pass this to the future generations.
A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants! – COCO channel, Fashion Designer
image credit: lillianna