Women are morally essential to achieving sustainable development and healthy societies. When they are empowered, economies grow, poverty rates decline, and families become more stable and secure.
Sadly, Western feminists and developers often reduce non-Western women to mute, passive subjects by handing them chickens and spreadsheets filled with “deliverables.” This is a problem that needs a more nuanced approach.
1. Empowerment is a process.
Empowerment is a process that involves taking control of one’s life and becoming active in community participation. It includes acquiring the necessary resources, skills and confidence to take action. It also includes the development of an empowering network that provides support and encouragement.
Women’s empowerment is critical for global development. Without it, women and girls face barriers to economic progress, greater health and safety risks, and limited political representation. The United States is committed to promoting women’s economic empowerment around the world by supporting gender equity, improving access to finance and digital literacy, advancing quality education, and more.
At the organizational level, businesses can encourage women’s empowerment by fostering an inclusive culture, encouraging open dialogue and addressing biases head-on. Additionally, businesses can provide training for managers and executives on how to empower their teams. They can also implement policies that prohibit discrimination and support women in leadership positions. They can also promote employee resource groups that offer women the chance to connect and build their skills.
2. Empowerment is a mindset.
It’s essential to recognize that women can’t be empowered if they don’t have access to education, health care and safe work environments. They also need to be empowered with skills that will enable them to make informed choices about their careers, finances and lives.
Economic empowerment involves ensuring women have access to decent and well-paying jobs; control over their own assets and financial resources; and participation in economic decision-making at all levels, from household to international institutions. It is also about challenging discriminatory social norms that keep women in poverty and stifle their ability to realize their full potential.
A key to economic empowerment is the development of enabling policy and legislative frameworks, increasing the number of women in the workforce and in leadership roles, and removing barriers that prevent the economic participation of women, such as violence against women and lack of access to education and health services. USAID is addressing these challenges through initiatives like the bipartisan Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, the first whole-of-U.S. Government initiative to economically empower women, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s inclusion and gender strategy.
3. Empowerment is a choice.
Women’s empowerment is a powerful force multiplier for economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development. But achieving it requires more than just economic investments. It also requires investing in the rights and potential of women, and addressing gender gaps that limit their opportunities.
Women should be able to choose their own path to success and feel confident enough to pursue their dreams. Achieving this means building self-confidence, financial independence, education, role models, health and fitness, and a support network.
And it means challenging the assumption that men have inherent social power over women, even in a world where most of them live with their wives. In fact, it’s important to note that a man’s choice to use his power in ways that denigrate and objectify women is not an act of empowerment. Neither is it an act of freedom for women to objectify themselves. Rather, it’s an abuse of power. And it’s wrong. We need to call it out for what it is.
4. Empowerment is a movement.
A growing movement seeks to provide women with equal opportunities and rights, enabling them to pursue their dreams and contribute to society. From grassroots movements to international summits, organizations and individuals are taking steps to empower women and create a more inclusive world.
Economic empowerment is an important step in creating gender equality and promoting sustainable development. It gives women the ability to access markets and control their own earnings, which can have significant impacts on a country’s economy. It is also known that when women are at the decision-making table, policies are more effective and sustainable.
We use a quasi-experimental design to investigate how a temporary population transfer movement in rural China enabled female empowerment. We find that the increased labor supply, marriage, and fertility outcomes resulting from the movement are not explained by observable county characteristics. Instead, we show that social interactions efficiently transmit progressive gender-equal ideologies to benefit a broad segment of the female population.