For sustainable development, any progressive nation should take into account critical issues like gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. As evident from surveys, higher female earnings greatly contribute to children’s education and family health, impacting the overall economic growth of a nation. Statistically speaking, women’s contribution to waged work jumped from 42% to 46% between 1997 and 2007. Evidently, achieving women’s economic empowerment is the key to solve issues like gender inequality and poverty and to foster inclusive economic growth as well.
Why Women’s Economic Empowerment Matters?
Women are known to contribute significantly to economics in the form of business, entrepreneurial work, or unpaid labor (sadly!). While women living in some parts of the developed countries have the role of decision maker and influencers, gender discrimination remains a debilitating social issue in many parts of the world, and those subaltern women are often alarmingly affected by poverty, discrimination, and other forms of vulnerable exploitations.
As any developing nation would agree, sustainable economic growth is unthinkable without women empowerment, and measures for gender inclusion is the driving factor of social progress and economic growth. Working women have an enormous contribution to education, health, and wellness and therefore achieving gender equality is indispensable to holistic developments.
Ways to Empower Women for Sustainable Development
As issues of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality gain momentum on the global stage, nations across the globe are implementing incredible measures to reduce thegender gap and promote economic equality. To play your part in the movement, some of the ways we can follow of achieving women’s economic empowerment for a sustainable development are discussed below:
1. Place women as leaders and give them decision making roles
Although many women are now powerful contributors to the economy of some states, gender equality is still a myth in the greater part of the world. Women have actively started participating in the tech industry, food production, natural resource management, domestic wellness, entrepreneurial work, as well as energy and climate change. But, most women still don’t have access to good job opportunities and resources to get a better-paid job. As the focus shifts towards inclusive economic structures, providing women with leadership opportunities and making them a part of decision making can go a long way in achieving women’s empowerment.
2. More Job Opportunities for Women:
Despite being significant contributors to social and financial development, women don’t have access to equal job opportunities. Equal rights programmes can invest significantly in promoting decent jobs and public policies, advocating growth and development.
3. Invest in Women’s Entrepreneurial Ideas, Emotionally and Financially:
An effective way of tackling gender inequality is entrusting women with entrepreneurial work. The state can take initiatives to train women in business skills for better job opportunities. Looking at the global developments, many developing countries are spending a percentage of annual revenues in women’s developments. By investing in women’s education and providing them with entrepreneurial opportunities, the unequal pay gap can be ruled out from the socio-economic scene, encouraging women to increase their participation in the supply chain.
4. Taking Action against Unpaid Labour Work:
One of the biggest concerns about gender inequality is women’s unpaid labor. Many marginalized groups, including rural women and domestic workers, are often deprived of economic independence and many times their labors go unnoticed by society. With empowerment policies striving to raise the incomes of women, resources can be appropriately managed to eradicate the issue. Unpaid labor is a growing concern among many developing countries, and this is primarily associated with rural and low-skilled workers. By controlling the driving factors and protecting women from violence and social abuses, women can be encouraged to explore and utilize their potential.
5. Mentoring Women Professionally and Personally:
Implementing fancy rules cannot drive away unequal pay gaps and the lack of job opportunities for women. To eliminate the problem from the grass-root levels, gender-sensitive economic policies should be deployed. To help women actualize their entrepreneurial goals and promote them as leaders, mentoring programmes should adopt a more holistic approach wherein both personal and the professional aspects are taken care of. Income-making skills are not always successful in building empowering personalities, and empowerment schemes can launch competent mentoring programmes to cater to the growing fiduciary demands.
Closing Thoughts:
The women empowerment programmes are investing abundantly in the welfare and empowerment of women, encouraging women to break free from their traditional roles and do away with gender stereotypes. There are various ways of achieving women’s financial empowerment and the aforementioned recommendations are only to name a few. To keep up with the changing global trends and fulfill sustainable development goals, it’s time to break barriers and explore alternative programmes for advocating equal opportunities for women and promoting financial inclusivity.