Empowerment
refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, educational, gender, or
economic strength of individuals and communities.
Capabilities
of Empowerment
Empowerment
includes the following, or similar, capabilities:-
- The ability to make decisions
about personal/collective circumstances
- The ability to access
information and resources for decision-making
- Ability to consider a range of
options from which to choose (not just yes/no, either/or.)
- Ability to exercise
assertiveness in collective decision making
- Having positive-thinking about
the ability to make change
- Ability to learn and access
skills for improving personal/collective circumstance.
- Ability to inform others’
perceptions though exchange, education and engagement.
- Involving in the growth process
and changes that is never ending and self-initiated
- Increasing one's positive
self-image and overcoming stigma
- Increasing one's ability in
discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong
Keys
of Empowerment
The three keys that managers must use to empower their
employees are:
- share information with everyone
- create autonomy through
boundaries
- replace the old hierarchy with
self-managed teams
The
process of empowerment
The process which enables individuals/groups to fully access
personal/collective power, authority and influence, and to employ that strength
when engaging with other people, institutions or society. In other words,
“Empowerment is not giving people power, people already have plenty of power,
in the wealth of their knowledge and motivation, to do their jobs
magnificently. We define empowerment as letting this power out (Blanchard,
K)." It encourages people to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow
them to overcome obstacles in life or work environment and ultimately, help
them develop within themselves or in the society.
To empower a female "...sounds as though we are
dismissing or ignoring males, but the truth is, both genders desperately need
to be equally empowered." (Dr. Asa Don
Brown) Empowerment occurs through improvement of conditions,
standards, events, and a global perspective of life.
Empowerment
of women
Empowerment of women, also called
gender empowerment, has become a significant topic of discussion in regards to
development and economics. Entire nations, businesses, communities, and groups
can benefit from the implementation of programs and policies that adopt the
notion of women empowerment. Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns
when addressing human rights and development. The Human Development and Capabilities Approach,
The Millennium Development Goals,
and other credible approaches/goals point to empowerment and participation as a
necessary step if a country is to overcome the obstacles associated with
poverty and development.
That is women realizing that they have
control of their lives. They don't need a guy to depend.
Measuring
gender empowerment
Gender empowerment can be measured through the Gender Empowerment Measure, or the GEM.
The GEM shows women’s participation in a given nation, both politically and
economically. Gem is calculated by tracking “the share of seats in parliament
held by women; of female legislators, senior officials and managers; and of
female profession and technical workers; and the gender
disparity in earned income, reflecting economic independence. It
then ranks countries given this information. Other measures that take into
account the importance of female participation and equality include: the Gender Parity Index and the Gender-related Development Index
(GDI).
Criteria
for measurement
Five important dimensions of female
empowerment.
1.
Economic participation
2.
Economic opportunity
3.
Political empowerment
4.
Educational attainment.
5.
Health and well-being
1.
The Economic participation of women – their presence in the quantitative terms
– is important not only for lowering the disproportionate levels of poverty
among women , but also an important step toward raising house hold income and
encouraging economic development in countries as a whole.
2.
Economic opportunity concerns the quality of women’s economic involvement,
beyond their mere presence as workers. This is a particularly serious problem
in developed countries where women may gain employment with relative ease, but
where their employment is either concentrated in poorly paid or unskilled job
“ghettos”, characterized by the absence of upward mobility and opportunity.
This is most commonly the result of negative or obstructive attitudes.
3.
Political empowerment refers to equitable representation of women in decision
making structures, both formal and informal and their voice in the formulation
of polices affecting their societies.
4.
Educational attainment is , without doubt , the most fundamental prerequisite
for empowering women in all spheres of society , for without education of
comparable quality and content to the given to boys and men, and relevant to
existing knowledge and real needs, women are unable to access well-paid, formal
sector jobs, advance within them, participate in, and be represented in
government and gain political influence.
5.
Health and well-being is a concept related to the substantial difference
between women and men in their access to sufficient nutrition, healthcare and
reproductive facilities, and so issues of fundamental safety and integrity of
person.
Beijing conference 1995 indicators of women empowerment,
qualitative and quantitative
Qualitative Indicators
1.
Increase in self-esteem, individual and
collective confidence.
2.
Increase in articulation, knowledge and awareness on health, nutrition
reproductive rights, law and literacy.
3.
Visible increase on decrease in violence on women and girls.
4.
Change in roles and responsibility in family and community.
5.
Positive changes in social attitudes.
Quantitative
Indicators
1.
Demographic trends
- maternal
morality ratio
- fertility
rate
- sex
ratio
- life
expectancy at birth
- average
age of marriage
2.
Number of women participating in different development programmers
3.
Visible change in physical health and nutritional level
4.
Change in literacy and enrollment levels.
Policies adopted in the Five Year Plans
India’s
administrative measures listed plans to accelerate equality and justice in
imparting gender free education.
Ø The
First Year Plan(1951-1956) held that women have the same opportunities as men
for talking all kinds of work, and this presupposes that they get equal
facilities.
Ø The
Second, Third, Fourth Year Plan(1956-1961, 1966-1969, 1969-1974) considered the
need for increasing the proportion of women into secondary and high education.
Ø The
Fifth Year Plan(1974-1979) prioritized free and compulsory education along with
free uniforms, books and scholarship as incentives.
Ø The
Sixth Year Plan(1980-1985) emphasized the need of universalisation of
elementary education by promoting Balwadis to the girl child.
Ø The
Seventh and Eighth Year Plan(1986-1991,1992-1997) , flexible school times to
help girls were introduced.
Ø The
Ninth Year Plan(1997-2002) conceptualized Empowerment of Women by covering
existing services available in both women –specific and women-related sectors.
Ø The
Tenth Year Plan(2002-2007) emphasized Education for Women’s Equality as
advocated in the National Education Policy.
Barriers of women empowerment
Many of the barriers to women empowerment and equity lie
ingrained into the cultures of certain nations and societies. Many women feel
these pressures, while others have become accustomed to being treated inferior
to men. Even if men, legislators, NGOs, etc. are aware of the benefits women empowerment and
participation can have, many are scared of disrupting the status quo and
continue to let societal norms get in the way of development.
Empowerment may also have a negative impact on individuals,
corporations and productivity depending on an individual’s views and goals. It
can divide the genders or the races. Strong skills and critical capabilities
are often held back to open doors for those who meet the empowerment criteria.
Those who use empowerment as a selfish advantage tend to become difficult,
demeaning and even hostile colleagues. The end result is a weak business model.
Ways
to Empower Women
One way to deploy the
empowerment of women is through land rights.
Land rights offer a key way to economically empower women, giving them the
confidence they need to tackle gender inequalities. Often, women in developing
nations are legally restricted from their land on the sole basis of gender.
Having a right to their land gives women a sort of bargaining power
that they wouldn’t normally have, in turn; they gain the ability to assert
themselves in various aspects of their life, both in and outside of the home.
Another way to provide women empowerment is to allocate responsibilities to
them that normally belong to men. When women have economic empowerment, it is a way for
others to see them as equal members of society. Through this, they achieve more
self-respect and confidence by their contributions to their communities. Simply
including women as a part of a community can have sweeping positive effects.
In a study conducted by Bina Agarwal,
women were given a place in a forest conservation group. Not only did this
drive up the efficiency of the group, but the women gained incredible
self-esteem while others, including men, viewed them with more respect.[5]
Participation, which can
be seen and gained in a variety of ways, has been argued to be the most
beneficial form of gender empowerment. Political participation, be it the
ability to vote
and voice opinions, or the ability to run for office with a fair chance of
being elected, plays a huge role in the empowerment of peoples. However,
participation is not limited to the realm of politics. It can include
participation in the household, in schools, and the ability to make choices
for oneself. It can be said that these latter participations need to be
achieved before one can move onto broader political participation.
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