“Empowering women is key to building a future we want”-
Amartya Sen.
“The difference between a broken Community and a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued”-
Michelle Obama.
The word empowerment is giving authority or power to someone to do something.
Here the original and real meaning of women empowerment is to promote women’s sense of self-worth, and do whatever she wants to, as long as it does not trouble anyone’s rights.
To be honest, the word Empowerment itself shows that someone is giving authority or power. As such, the whole purpose of women empowerment sounds baseless and futile. Does someone really need to give power to women?? Ironically, It shows a woman cannot uplift herself, that she is depending on others again to take the power! Should we empower a woman to make her aware of her power??
Women Empowerment is sometimes misunderstood as giving more rights to women, NO!!!, it is not. All we are asking is to give equal rights. First of all, we are all Humans, then we can talk about Gender. There are rights called human rights which are the rights of all the humans irrespective of Gender, race, religion and colour. But unfortunately, the concept of human rights came into existence in 1948. What was the situation till then for women??
When the draft of the UDHR was shown to Eleanor Roosevelt by Franklin. D. Roosevelt, she found the name as “Man’s rights”. She asked Franklin D.Roosevelt, don’t the rights apply to Women?? Then they realised it should not be prejudiced towards men and changed into Human rights. Luckily, Eleanore Roosevelt spoke on behalf of all women. At the same time, they respected the idea of a woman and gave it a thought and found it rational.
Women need to be empowered in many ways. The word “Empower” is used because most of the women do not know their rights. Society had imprinted such feelings in her mind that she is only confined to domestic work and should not involve in the decision making and to blindly follow her Father/Elder or younger brother/ Husband/Son/ and even grandson! Irrespective of the age of a man, she should abide by the words that men say in her family. But luckily, this kind of impressions were erased eventually. The crucial element for this change was Education. Not just educating women but men. Empowering women alone does not suffice to bring the change.
The society is not doing any favour by giving respect and power to women and letting them to do the work they wish. It is her very right and she is born to enjoy her rights. Regrettably, Women had to fight for their Political Rights, Equal pay and equal rights. Most of the rights enjoyed by women today were won through a lot of protests and sacrifice.
Not to sound a feminist, there are numerous social evils towards women like Sati Sahagamana in Hindu Culture where wife will be burnt alive along with the deceased husband. Luckily, this evil practice was abolished in 1829 by Lord William Bentinck. One cannot merely blame men for the social evils against women. Sometimes women are also part of it. Sad to say this but, a woman does not support a woman at times.
One has to bring awareness to women that she is not an object and not meant to be domestically harassed and confined to domestic works. It is not necessary to mention that domestic work is not only meant for women, but also for men. It is very glad that people have been accepting this fact and started generalising the issue.
One should teach their child from the very beginning to respect others and their values irrespective of Gender. A woman can get education, can have a role in economical, political and social events. People need to educate their children that crying is not just meant for women. It is just an emotion that people have. Men do cry, it is not a gender thing.
There is no special need to appreciate women and their abilities and powers. There is every need to show respect and giving value to women not for the mere fact that she is a woman but as a human and her rights. Do not discriminate in any aspect based on gender. One should end all forms of discrimination against women.
In modern society, people almost accepted the change and started respecting women, which is evident through the involvement of women in all the fields from earth to space and from the surface to the core, there is no field that a woman has not entered. One cannot completely blame the then society, it was because of lack of their knowledge that they did not value women. once the awareness spread over, they started accepting the metamorphosis.
Sadly, there are still some remote areas where people are not aware of these and still living in the outdated technology and in so called their created values and morals, where women are still treated as inferior to men.
The hardest lesson I’ve learned as I grew up is no matter what you do, you will be judged and condemned irrespective of gender, but, if you are a woman, the gender card adds too. One does not necessarily need to support or praise a woman, but do not demean, derogate and pull her down. Stand for gender equality.
By: Poojitha Bapathu
Write and Win: Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
