The world has is making an effort to progress toward gender equality and women’s empowerment through fair access to education and other major fields. Still, prejudice against women issues is happening in every part of the world.
Recent statistics show that only 24 percent of women are part of national parliaments globally. Just 13 percent of women are agricultural landholders, and over 19 percent of women from ages 15 to 49 have undergone the violence physically and sexually. If this is not sufficient reason to treat women as equals in developing nations, consider that women make up an excessive 70 percent of the world’s poor.
Interventions by the United Nations, World Bank, and USAID are promoting women’s empowerment projects. However, there is a need for more to be done. The well-being and literacy levels of women and girls in developing countries need to improve further as it is a trailing behind men and boys due to a lack of finance.
Why It is Necessary to Empower Women?
In the light of some facts here are some reasons why women empowerment is necessary.
- Gender inequalities harm both underdeveloped and developed economies and specifically women in all countries. Globally, over 2.7 billion women are constitutionally restrained from having the same opportunity of jobs as men. Of 189 economies estimated in 2018, 104 economies still have laws restricting women from working in particular jobs, 59 economies have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and in 18 economies, husbands can rightfully restrict their wives from working.
- Women are more likely to be jobless than men. In 2017, global unemployment percentages for men and women reached 5.5 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. This is calculated to remain almost unchanged going into 2018 and through 2021.
- All around the world, women are paid more limited than men. The gender wage difference is expected to be 23 percent. This means that women get 77 percent of what men earn, though these numbers the real range of gender pay gaps can easily be understood, particularly in developing countries where informal self-employment is prevalent. Women also face the motherhood wage penalty, which doubles as the number of children a woman has increases
- Women are still less possible to have access to social stability. Gender differences in work and job status affect gender gaps in access to social protection acquired through employment, such as grants, unemployment benefits, or maternity protection. Internationally, considered almost 40 percent of women in wage employment do not have a claim to social protection.
- Women are less likely than men to have possession of financial institutions or have a bank account. Whereas 65 percent of men report having an account at a formal financial institution, only 58 percent of women do worldwide.
- The digital difference remains gender inequality. Most of the 3.9 billion offline people are in agricultural areas, poorer, less educated are likely to be women and girls.
- Women are less expected to be entrepreneurs and face more problems in starting businesses. In 40% of economies, women’s early-stage entrepreneurial venture is half or less than half of men have.
- Violence and harassment in the world of work affect women regardless of location, salary, age, or social rank. The economic costs which are a representation of the human and social costs, to the global economy of biased social institutions and brutality against women, are expected to be almost USD 12 trillion yearly.
- Women and girls experience most from the lack of safely managed water and hygiene. Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80 percent of households without access to water on-premises. Menstrual hygiene looks after is hard in the inadequacy of water, soap, and gender-responsive hygiene facilities, whether at home, school, or work.
- Women farmers have significantly less access to, power over, and possession of the land and other productive assets as opposed to their male equivalents. The land is possibly the most valuable economic asset; women consider only 12.8 percent of agricultural landholders in the world.
- Environmental change and climate modification have excessive influences on women and children. Women often bear the consequences of coping with climate-related illnesses and anxieties or the health impacts of indoor and urban pollution, which increase their burden. As land, forest, and water supplies are increasingly endangered, privatized, or “grabbed” for commercial investment, local populations and domestic peoples, especially women, whose livings depend on them, are marginalized and displaced. Internationally, women are 14 times more prone than men to die during a disaster.
- By empowering women to engage in development opportunities, underdeveloped countries will quicken their economic and social progress. Working women spend 90 percent of their incomes back to their families, managing to greater health and education for their children. This, in turn, produces a cycle that sustainably decreases poverty.
How to Empower Women?
As problems of women’s economic empowerment and gender difference increasing their pace on the international stage, nations across the world are taking incredible steps to overcome gender bias and support economic equality. To perform your role in the campaign, some of the actions we can be taken for achieving women’s empowerment for sustained development are explained below:
1. Encourage Women as Leaders and Provide Them Decision-making Opportunities
Although numerous women are now influential contributors to the economy of some countries, still gender bias is a myth in the greater picture of the world. Women have actively begun taking part in the technology sector, food production, natural resource management, family wellness, entrepreneurial activity, as well as energy and climate modification. But, most women still do not have a way to get good job possibilities and resources to get a better-paid job. As the focus shifts towards comprehensive economic structures, providing women with leadership chances and making them a part of decision making can go an extended way in reaching women’s empowerment.
2. Provide Sufficient Job Possibilities for Women
Despite being important contributors to social and financial growth, women do not have access to get similar job opportunities as men have. Equal rights programs can invest significantly in supporting adequate jobs and public policies, promoting growth and development.
3. Entrust Women with Entrepreneurial Activity
A powerful way of stopping gender difference is trusting women with their entrepreneurial work. The country can take action to encourage women in business works for greater job opportunities. Looking at global progress, many developing countries are using a percentage of annual profits in women’s developments. By funding women’s literacy and giving them entrepreneurial opportunities, the discriminatory earnings gap can be removed out from the socio-economic picture, supporting women to increase their participation in the supply chain.
4. Taking Action Against Unpaid Labor Work
One of the most important matters about gender difference is women’s uncompensated labor. Many marginalized groups, including agricultural women and domestic workers, are usually deprived of economic freedom, and many times their labors go unrecognized by the organization. With empowerment strategies trying to increase the incomes of women, resources can be properly managed to eradicate the problem. Unpaid labor is an increasing matter amongst many developing countries, and this is primarily linked with rural and low-skilled workers. By restraining the driving factors and guarding women from violence and social injustices, women can be supported to explore and use their potential.
5. Mentoring Women Professionally and Personally
Making fancy rules cannot rule out uneven pay gaps and the lack of job possibilities for women. To reduce the dilemma from the grass-root levels, gender-sensitive economic strategies should be expanded. To support women, achieve their entrepreneurial aims and support them as leaders, mentoring programs should use a more holistic way wherein both personal and professional perspectives are taken care of. Income-making facilities are not always successful in creating empowering personalities, and empowerment projects can start enough mentoring programs to cater to the increasing fiduciary demands.
6. Bring More Women into the Workforce
Small enterprises are extremely prevalent in the least developed countries, and self-employment is calculated as 70% of total employment. Therefore, reaching gender equality in the labor force includes addressing, among other problems, hypotheses about women’s parts and the multiple obstacles for women to start businesses, as suggested in the W20 Communiqué.
Some work is traditionally gender-segregated, and such societal standards can be hard to defeat. But sometimes, small variations mean new gender-neutral jobs can be generated.
7. Encourage Disabled Women and All the Most Disenfranchised Among Us
It is essential for all women, to make sure they are constantly reviewing their own rights, says Rachel Ricketts who is the racial equity advocate, lawyer, and healer. “An empowering question to ask, particularly when we find ourselves or others feeling defensive in discussions regarding oppression, is: Whose comfort is most being prioritized right now? If it isn’t that of the most marginalized women, it’s time to stop, reassess, and start again,” she says. “This is of critical importance because it can be all too easy to center ourselves and our own comfort during challenging conversations, intentionally or otherwise, but creating equality and liberation for all women demands that we operate from spaces that best prioritize and protect the most disenfranchised among us.”
8. Support Women by Investing in women-run businesses
Women who own businesses are invariably shortchanged. Study shows male entrepreneurs are twice as likely to increase $100,000 or more as their female equivalents. So, it will be great encouragement for women to support businesses that are controlled and/or run by women, behavioral scientist and personal development coach Dinorah Nieves, Ph.D., tells mbg. “Many female entrepreneurs lack adequate support in the form of funding or sweat equity,” she says. “Invest your time and/or money in competent, capable women who are making an impact.”
9. Help Women Equal Access to Technology
Technology is working to increase gender differences. Internationally, the percentage of women reaching the internet is 12% less than the percentage of men. In the least developed countries, it is 31% less. And according to UNCTAD, The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2018 least developed countries report, the gender gap in internet use in the least developed countries increased between 2013 and 2017.
It is necessary to reduce this digital gender gap, which intersects the progress divide. least developed countries are far behind in Information and Communication Technology support and internet access. According to the UNCTAD, The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report, “only 17.5% of the population in LDCs accessed the internet in 2017, compared with 41.3% in developing countries and 81% in developed countries“.
The W20 Japan is suggesting that G20 leaders perform to promote education and equal use of technology to assure no woman is left behind. This is particularly necessary and essential for the least developed countries.
Benefits of Women Empowerment
Women empowerment have unlimited benefits for the society and country, some are listed below.
- Women’s empowerment is fundamental to achieving women’s rights and gender justice. Women’s economic empowerment involves women’s capacity to partake fairly in existing markets; their access to and authority over productive resources, access to proper work, control over their own time, lives, and bodies; and raised voice, agency, and significant help in economic decision-making at all levels from the home to international establishments.
- Empowering women in the economy and decreasing gender gaps in the world of work are essential to fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5, to reach gender equality, and Goal 8, to support full and productive employment and fair work for all; also Goal 1 on terminating poverty, Goal 2 on food preservation, Goal 3 on guaranteeing health and Goal 10 on conquering inequalities.
- When more women work, economies develop. Women’s economic empowerment increases productivity improves economic diversification and income equity in addition to other positive development results. For instance, improving the female employment rates in OECD countries to meet that of Sweden, could boost GDP by over USD 6 trillion, understanding, however, that. growth does not automatically lead to a decrease in gender-based difference. Conversely, it is determined that gender gaps take the economy lack of some 15 percent of GDP.
- Strengthening women’s and girls’ educational achievement contributes to women’s economic empowerment and more general economic growth. Education, upskilling, and re-skilling over the life course – primarily to keep speed with fast technological and digital changes affecting jobs are important for women’s and girl’s vitality and wellbeing, as well as their income-generation possibilities and support in the regular labor market.
- Increased educational achievement accounts for about 50 percent of the economic development in OECD countries over the past 50 years. But, for most of the women, meaningful profits in education have not translated into more favorable labor market outcomes.
- Women’s economic equality is beneficial for business. Companies considerably profit from increased employment and leadership chances for women, which is proved to improve organizational effectiveness and development. It is concluded that companies with three or more women in senior management functions obtain more distinguished in all directions of organizational performance.
Final Verdict:
The women empowerment programs are spending generously on the well-being and empowerment of women, supporting women to grow from their traditional responsibilities and fight with gender stereotypes. There are many ways of reaching women’s financial empowerment. To keep up with the changing international trends and achieve sustainable development aims, it is high time to break boundaries and explore alternative programs for achieving equal opportunities for women and supporting financially for a better and prosperous country.