Female empowerment seeks gender equality.
Female empowerment is the process that empowers and strengthens women . This is the set of actions that make visible and recognize the contributions of members of the female gender and the disadvantages they suffer compared to men, demanding equity and equal opportunities.
With empowerment , women gain autonomy and can make decisions based on their needs and desires. This empowerment is essential due to the position of submission or inferiority that the female community occupies in multiple areas.
Characteristics of female empowerment
Female empowerment seeks to increase the intervention of women in all dimensions of life, both at a personal and social level. Such participation must occur under conditions of gender equality , without men's rights prevailing over women's rights.
One of the pillars of female empowerment is enabling women to access economic resources . Eliminating financial submission is an unavoidable step to achieve greater freedom and authority, which must eliminate the gender wage gap and facilitate work-family conciliation since women usually assume the tasks of caring for the home and caring for children. .
Of course, female empowerment also demands ending all forms of discrimination and aggression, from gender violence to sexual harassment . In this sense, a cultural and regulatory change is needed for a true social transformation.
Global feminism promotes female empowerment.
Its importance
According to numerous studies and research, female empowerment reduces teenage pregnancy and early marriage . Likewise, an improvement in women's living conditions helps to eradicate poverty and contributes to the construction of a society with lower rates of violence.
It must be considered that, beyond the moral issue associated with what is fair and desirable, female empowerment generates concrete benefits for the community as a whole. Equality in access to resources and the fight against discrimination are social needs that cross all genders.
It is essential that female empowerment be promoted at all levels. From a poor farmer who needs tools to cultivate the land to an executive who earns less than a man for the same task, all women need and deserve to have the same rights, opportunities and possibilities that the male gender has.
Female empowerment drives greater political participation of women.
Examples of female empowerment
An example of female empowerment is an initiative that promotes education for girls in a region where it is common for them not to go to school to help with household chores and raising their siblings. To this end, financial assistance is provided to families who send girls to educational centers.
Reproductive rights awareness campaigns are other examples of female empowerment. Women's autonomy requires knowledge about how to take care of their bodies; In this framework, comprehensive sexual education is essential to avoid unwanted pregnancies and prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
An NGO that works for the economic independence of women is another example of female empowerment. By supporting a female entrepreneurship with financing and training, it contributes to the economic empowerment of women. This, in turn, reinforces female self-esteem.
In a broad sense, feminism and female activism are examples of women's empowerment. The #MeToo movement , among many others, promote sisterhood (solidarity between women) and demand the end of gender discrimination in each of their actions and proposals.
Classification according to type
As we have already seen, female empowerment is very broad and covers all personal and social spheres. However, different types of women's empowerment can be recognized depending on the context.
Gender empowerment is that associated with the elimination of discrimination between men and women (including all people whose gender identity is female). It assumes that all human beings must have the same opportunities and have identical rights. It also aims to put aside stereotypes in gender roles.
A distinction can also be made between individual empowerment (of a particular woman) and collective empowerment (of the female gender as a whole). Family empowerment , in turn, refers to an equitable distribution of domestic and parenting obligations.
Labor empowerment that pursues equal pay for the same tasks; legal empowerment through anti-discrimination regulations; and political empowerment to increase female representation in public office are other types of female empowerment.
How to achieve female empowerment
For female empowerment to be possible at a general level, public policies aimed at ending gender discrimination are required. All citizens can contribute to this objective through social or political militancy, demanding that rulers take appropriate measures to achieve the goal.
Regardless of this issue, and recognizing the different economic, social and cultural barriers that can affect an individual, each woman can take an active role to achieve her own empowerment. Working on self-knowledge , developing a network of contacts and betting on training and continuous learning are some of the actions that are usually recommended.