Kerala PSC » Kerala PSC Study Materials » Kerala » WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

The term "women empowerment" simply means promoting women's dignity so that they are able to make their own choices and influence societal changes.

Introduction

Women empowerment is important for women and society as well to fill gaps in the existing society. Women empowerment is necessary to enhance their participation in all aspects of life such as economic, political, health, and economic. Women empowerment is essential for achieving sustainable development. Around the world, women’s lives are at stake due to overwork, and lack of authority. In most parts of the world, women have less access to formal education.

Discussion

Women empowerment

Women empowerment straightforwardly means empowering women. Women empowerment should be done in such a way that their participation in every sector of life could increase such as in political, economic, social, and health aspects. In order to achieve sustainable growth in the country, women’s empowerment should be enhanced. Both men and women need full participation and cooperation and should share responsibilities in order to maintain their family lives. Almost in every part of the world, women are facing lots of problems and witnessing harassment.

Due to over-pressure at work and family women feel unprotected and vulnerable. In a few countries around the world, women are receiving less formal education in comparison to men. Women’s capacities, knowledge, skills, and defence mechanisms are often overlooked. In power relationships, women are less accomplished in terms of achieving healthy and fulfilling lives from public to private levels. In order to achieve policy change and programmatic action which has an impact on women’s right to access to secure livelihood, women’s participation at the government level should be enhanced. To get women empowerment at the societal level women should be relieved from extreme domestic responsibilities, remove barriers from their daily lives and increase social awareness campaigns through education and mass media programs. 

Classification of women empowerment

Women empowerment has five types such as social, educational, economic, political, and psychological. 

Social: Social empowerment is perhaps one of the most prominent forms of women’s empowerment. It gives rise to women’s social relationships and places in the social structure, giving them more opportunity outside of the household activity. Women’s contribution to society should be recognised and valued as opposed to being despised only at the creation of women. Social empowerment helps women in fighting against discrimination, allowing them to fight against race, ethnicities, religions, genders, and sexualities. 

Educational: Education is important for everyday lives and gives them growth and development, but there are still some places in the world that denies women education. This is a fundamental and constitutional right to everyone’s right to education. Gender empowerment will not be possible if proper education will not be available to everyone. Education puts everyone on an equal level and allows women to understand their responsibilities and rights. Besides this education introduces the feeling of self-esteem, confidence, and independence in women that can lead them to become self-reliant. It gives them access to take part in every aspect of society. 

Economic: “Money can’t buy happiness” is a fact but being in an economically unfavourable situation leads to becoming unempowered. Poverty, landlessness, and oppression prohibit women from the access of valuable resources that are their right to get. A way to women’s empowerment is to close the economic gaps in women.

Political: It is important to represent women at the political level so that their voice and demands can get the attention of media and government at higher authorities. Political participation of women means the devolution of power to the helpless, poor, and impotent people who are away from the policy-making process from the government and organisational level. To put it simply, having political power does not just mean making policies but implementing them at the ground level.

Psychological: Psychological empowerment of women means breaking down the traditional and patriarchal norms of society and standing for their rights. It can enable them to recognise their self-worth and confidence.

Women empowerment definition

“Women empowerment” means empowering women at every level of the society where they are oppressed. Women’s population in India is half of the total population for which they have become a significant contributing factor in society. Women’s participation in every aspect of life is important to build a strong and powerful society, but there are still few discriminations against can be seen. Women empowerment starts with conscious awareness of themselves and their potential and ability. Empowerment of women can increase their life status, offering them a significant amount of freedom and equality in all aspects of life. Women are said to be empowered when they take maximum advantage of their available opportunities without any fear and without being judged so that they can contribute to the development of society.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is worth saying that women’s empowerment is significantly important for making a strong and powerful society. Effective policies implemented at ground levels, empowering them with equal rights and opportunities are needed to strengthen overall efforts to prevent increasing crimes against women. Equal job opportunities at the workplace and political representation of women at government policy framework development are required to increase the empowerment of women. Increased crime rates against women are an obstacle in the way of women’s empowerment. Women empowerment has been seen in recent years increased but there are still many opportunities on hold.