Women’s empowerment is one of the key goals of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, achieving gender equality is not an easy task.
The underlying social issues that affect women’s ability to benefit from economic empowerment may seem too complex or political for large corporations to tackle. Fortunately, companies have found ways to incorporate women’s empowerment into their business strategies.
Self-empowerment
Self-empowerment is the ability to take control of your life and make decisions that support your personal growth and well-being. It involves developing a strong sense of self-worth, self-confidence, and resilience to face challenges. It also involves acquiring the skills and knowledge to pursue your goals. Self-empowerment can be achieved by taking responsibility for your own actions, practicing mindfulness, and focusing on positive self-talk.
It’s also important to seek out mentorship and guidance from others on your empowerment journey. These individuals can provide an outside perspective that may uncover blind spots and allow you to see new opportunities.
Other types of empowerment include social and economic empowerment, which can lead to increased self-confidence, resilience, and interpersonal and political engagement. They can also promote a better quality of life, as well as encourage a healthy lifestyle and good mental health. For example, a person who feels empowered can overcome the challenge of an illness or injury by forming supportive relationships and engaging in healthy activities.
Social empowerment
Social empowerment involves promoting a sense of autonomy and self-confidence in individuals. It can be achieved by introducing them to new resources and opportunities. It can also help them make decisions and take action. It is a crucial element in fostering sustainable development and ensuring social justice.
Empowered individuals can contribute to economic growth and foster inclusive community dynamics. In addition, they can promote environmental sustainability by adopting eco-friendly practices. They can also contribute to societal progress by becoming leaders in their community and collaborating for mutual benefit.
There is a strong case for empowering women, especially those from Scheduled Caste backgrounds, who face massive social, academic and financial backwardness. This can be done by giving them representation in programme governance (e.g. project selection committees), implementing community-based social mobilisation pilots, focusing on training and enabling women’s leadership and facilitating their engagement in monitoring activities. This can lead to changes in intergenerational transmission of poverty processes and improve women’s livelihoods.
Economic empowerment
Economic empowerment is a key aspect of gender equality and social inclusion. It also leads to improved access to essential services like healthcare, education, and water and sanitation. Economic empowerment can be measured using a number of different indices, including income levels, assets, access to resources, leadership roles, and time.
Increasing women’s economic power is vital to creating sustainable economies that deliver for everyone. Women’s meaningful participation in the economy can boost household incomes and reduce poverty rates, which can lead to more stable societies.
Empowerment can be achieved by removing barriers and building inclusive economies, such as promoting women-owned enterprises and providing training, mentorship, and access to financial resources. It can also be achieved by empowering women in leadership positions and community decision-making. Achieving economic empowerment also requires addressing barriers, such as gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace. In addition, ensuring that women have access to modern forms of contraception is important for achieving health equity and economic empowerment.
Political empowerment
While women’s right to political participation has been reaffirmed in international agreements for decades, barriers to their participation persist globally. Harmful norms and discriminatory stereotypes hinder women’s aspirations to leadership, while political instability, democratic erosion, and rising populism make the environment increasingly hostile to gender equality.
To address these challenges, a range of efforts have been launched by Governments, donors and civil society to support women’s political participation. These initiatives include training women candidates and implementing voter education programmes, encouraging political parties to adopt gender quotas, and promoting civic engagement.
Nevertheless, these interventions need to be strengthened by taking into account how they affect the empowerment of women in their communities. This requires careful planning and attention at critical moments of the intervention cycle, such as when the intervention is conceptualised, designed, implemented and evaluated. This will ensure that women’s empowerment needs are adequately addressed in the field. This will also help to avoid gender “tokenism” that can actually undermine prospects for empowerment.