Strategies for Women's Empowerment

I wrote this as an assignment, and consulted various books. I posted this with the hope that it will help students and other who are looking for quick answer.  So the basic content is broken down into 3 different posts, as a series, and the references are kept with the last post. keep on scrolling :)

1. Introduction: What is women's empowerment?
2. Approaches to/for Women's Empowerment
-A. South Asian Approaches (Batliwala)
-B.  Women Empowerment in Development (WED) or Developmental Approach
-C.  Women in Development (WID)
-D. Women and Development (WAD)
-E. Gender and Development (GAD)
-F. The Welfare Approach
-G. The Equity Approach
-H. The Efficency Approach
-I. Anti-Proverty Approach
-J. The empowered Approach
3. Strategies for Women's Empowerment (include references)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

There are various methods and means for women empowerment although a fool proof strategy is not possible.  Some of popular methods of women empowerment include education, entrepreneurial training, programmes, formation of SHGs, social action, legislation, mass communication and propaganda, etc.  These are individual as well as institutionalized methods for the empowerment of women.

(1)   Gender Sensitization and Awareness Generation:  Planning for women’s empowerment cannot succeed unless supported by an awareness generation programme covering all sections of the population including women.  Women’s empowerment is a strenuous task of rooting out gender bias and implanting positive attitudes in the hearts and minds of men, women, and children so that the family and the society would endorse and participate in the planning process for women’s advancement.  For this purpose, mass media, political parties, development agencies, educational institutions, etc can be employed. 

Women must not merely recognize that they are disempowered, but must also be aware of what they can do legally, peacefully and constructive to overcome their oppression.  Generating awareness includes dissemination information about law, entitlements, accountability and government projects for health, nutrition and sanitation, etc.

(2)     Participatory Learning & Processes: Strategies for empowering women must focus beyond economic restructuring, to include restructuring of social relations, which constraint the freedom of women.  It is powerlessness and not poverty which is the real inhibiting factors even among the poor women.  Empowerment of women must result in specific, workable and sustainable measures that would help create a social order based on gender justice.  Non-conventional model for development are the best strategy for empowerment.  Once the women acquire the ability to think of themselves as rightful claimants to better life motivation to overcome the culture of submission will follow.

(3)   Mass Movement: It is one of the accepted modes of agitation for securing justice and human rights.  An organised mass movement among women would challenge and transforms all existing social evils against women and the violations of their rights.  Such movements are targeted to changes in laws, civil codes, systems of property rights, and the social and legal institutions that underwrite male control and privileges.  These changes in the prevailing social, economic and political systems are essential for the achievement of women’s equality.

(4)   Women Organisation:  These organisations are oriented to developing new structures and culture that reflect women’s needs, interests and behavioural preferences.  Organising women means to bring women together to think through their common problems, to agree on their common issues, to decide on common action and to forge common ideologies.

(5)   Welfare and development approach:   It is all those target oriented and well monitored programmes that can help women overcome the socio-cultural constraints of empowerment.  Conception and delivery of a development programme taking special attention to deal with the gender bias, and directly involving women in the planning and implementation of projects will help in empowering women.

(6)   Intervention at ideological structure: intervening at the society level is required to break the barrier of women empowerment.  For development of positive attitudes it is imperative to infuse family, social, human and spiritual values among the masses through ideologies.   This can be done through value education in the formal and informal education stream.

(7)   Mass Media: The role of civil society in the process of women empowerment is reflected in mass media and literature.  The image of women depicted in literature and media reflects the average expectation of the population.  Communication media as well as visual are the most popular and effective means of reaching out to the masses so they are an very critical to the shaping of the image of women and in their empowerment.

(8)   Education: Education and access to education are the primary requirement for women empowerment.  Education is an important tool which enables the children to develop the necessary confidence, self-esteem, capacity for reasoning and social skills to protect their rights and dignity.  It also empowers them to become productive and fully participating adult members of the society.  When designed and carried out purposefully, education can create and build the commitment of society as a whole to respect the rights and dignity of its children. 

(9)   Religion: Religion is not only a social institution but also a strong voluntary mass movement to shape views, beliefs, outlooks, and ideology.  The role and status of women in the family and in the society are well defined in religious texts, so the sensitive and correct interpretation of religion plays a vital role in maintaining social status quo, the roles of the genders, and the position of women.

(10)           Legal Empowerment: Legal provision alone do not ensure any substantial change in the status of women, however social legislation are the beginning of a desirable social change which are advocated and supported by the social forces.  Thus it’s important that social legislation or legal provision promote social welfare, social security, social justice and gender justice, etc, which also includes the rights of women as equal citizens.

(11)           Social Empowerment: Social empowerment deals with empowerment at the level of family, community and at personal level which includes psychological and physical health of women.  It also includes religion, literature, arts, media, history, legislation, social movements and human rights.

(12)            Economic Empowerment: Financial security and independence is an important indicator of measuring the empowerment of any marginalized groups including women.  It not only improves and individual or group standard of living but also enhances self-image.  Economic empowerment can be brought about by addressing the structural causes of deprivation through changes in economic structures, ensuring equal access (participation) for all women, including those in rural areas, as vital development agents, to productive resources, opportunities and public services.  Some of the simple steps used are promoting self-employment, through credit & training, providing micro-credit, lean season wage and employment, encouraging saving habit among them.

(13)           Political Empowerment: For the realization and full implementation of the hum rights o women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, political empowerment and participation are required. Political participation can be at two level, one is in giving opportunities for equal participation to women in the political process so that woman can have an equal say in the daily running of the government and two, in legislating women right oriented laws and programmes.

----------------

Bibliography/References:

1. Kumar, Hajira; “Women’s Empowerment : Issues, Challenges and Strategies”: Daya Publications at New Delhi; 2004
2. Bisnath, Savitri and Elson, Diane, “Women’s Empowerment Revisited” UNIFEM – Progress of the World’s Women Biennial Report, New York, 2001
3. Batliwala, Srilatha; “Women’s Empowerment in 21^st Century India – Changing Meanings, Contexts and Strategies”, in Shiva Kumar and Rajani Ved (Eds), “The Wellbeing of India’s Population”
4. OECD; "DAC Sourcebook on Concepts and Approaches linked to Gender Equality", Paris, 1998
5. Malhotra, Anju; "Conceptualizing and measuring women's Empowerment as a Variable in International Development"; Paper presented at the World Bank, Washington DC, Feb. 2003
6. Oxaal, Zoe with Sally Baden; Gender and empowerment: definitions, approaches and implications for policy, October 1997 (revised)
7. Batliwala, Srilatha. 1994. “The Meaning of Women’s Empowerment: New Concepts from Action”, in Gita Sen, Adrienne Germain and Lincoln C. Chen eds. Population Policies Reconsidered: Health, Empowerment and Rights. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
8. Beneria, Lourdes with Savitri Bisnath eds. 2001. Gender and Development: Theoretical, Empirical and Practical Approaches Vols. I & II. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics series, Mark Blaug editor. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers.
9. Moser, Caroline. 1989. “Gender Planning in the Third World: Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs”, in World Development, 1989
10. Rowlands, J, 1995, ‘Empowerment examined’, Development in Practice 5 (2), Oxfam, Oxford,
11. 'Male or Female Ethics for Corporations?' People in Corporations: Ethical Responsibilities and Corporate Effectiveness, ed. Enderle, Almond and Argandona, Holland, Kluwer, 1990. 
12. Robbins, Susan P, Edward R Canda, Pratap Chatterjee; Contemporary Human Behavior Theory: A Critical Perspective for Social Work, Allyn & Bacon, London, 1998