Africa-Press – Eswatini. The definition of women empowerment has been discussed and debated across the world since the advent of the 19th Century.
On one hand, some people support it; on the other hand, many criticise it. However, to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5, gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is essential.
It is crucial that young women and girls are taught on what this means, so that the upcoming generation of women is better enlightened.
BRIEF HISTORY
For someone who does not know how women empowerment came about, according to The Women’s Rights Movement (1848-1998) in the past married women were considered legally absent in the eyes of the law since they were not allowed to vote.
Colleges and universities did not allow girls and women to enroll. With only a few exceptions, women were not allowed to participate in the affairs of the church. Moreover, most occupations were closed to women and when women did work they were paid only a fraction of what men earned.
At household level, husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent that they could imprison or beat them with impunity.
The movement elucidates that by so doing, women were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect and made totally dependent on men.
It was, therefore, seen necessary to empower women to free them from being imprisoned by the men.
The Conflicts
There are so many arguments around the topic of empowering young women and girls. I have seen a recent post of some young lady declaring her loath of the whole concept.
Basing it on the fact that there are so many men that are abused outside, some abused by the much empowered women.
Others say that, empowering women promotes, nudity amongst young girls, claiming that it encourages them to wear revealing clothes all in the name of ‘my body, my rights’.
This then is said to directly or indirectly promote sexual abuse of these girls.
My understanding of these is that it all depends on how one chooses to perceive empowering of women at an individual level. A common Swazi proverb says, ‘Bantfu abayi ngenhlanye njengemanti’ which is loosely translated as ‘people do not hold the same belief about something.’
For instance, Eswatini is a Christian country, I am a Christian myself. Yet there are so many arguments about church on how some leaders manipulate their congregates for their own gain. But does that mean churches must be closed?
NO!
In case you do not get this one, another example would be every country has its own government. Yet we often complain about how much corruption exists in the government institutions.
But that does not mean government is unnecessary, right? Exactly! My point is that what could have started with pure intentions and energy could be manipulated and which gradually deforms its agenda.
Another post I once came across, was a cry that it seems like the girl child is ’always’ perceived as a victim and why is it that the boy child is left out?
Yet there are so many boys that are victims and would also appreciate support of being empowered by these non-governmental organisations.
Some guy posted a post asking, ‘who will handle these empowered women if the boy child is left out in the equation?’
Most organisations that empower women and girls usually specialise on just that. Like any brand, for example Coca-Cola, you will never find the brand selling books or MTN selling water.
It is true though that there are so many organisations that empower women as opposed to the other gender but there are those focused on men too, e.g Kwakha Indvodza.
Therefore, this must be considered by authorities to add more of them.
What Empowerment Is
According to Wikipedia women’s empowerment may be defined as ‘accepting women’s viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training.’
This means training them to be the best of what they can be by creating opportunities that will stretch them to be the best versions.
According to the United National Development Fund for Women, in most spheres a woman is structurally dependent upon her father, husband, brother, family, community or the religious group for her survival and advancement.
Women empowerment at its core is the process of freeing women from this condition of structural ‘dependency’ through the realisation of her internal strength.
In this sense, empowerment is much wider than merely political, social or economic. The real basis of women’s empowerment is internal, that is, emotional, spiritual and psychological. It all starts internally to give out the best on the outside.
In essence, empowerment is all about treating a woman as a complete human. That means giving them equal chances and opportunities.
Gender equality does not mean demoting men from being ‘heads/father’ of their households or making women masculine beings but rather in their very feminine nature, women too are capable to lead, to bring a solid reasonable opinion. It is about giving a woman the power to assert her humanness.
Hence, it is paramount that young women and girls are empowered early; otherwise, a family, community, the country and the world at large might be deprived so much from what they could offer when not empowered.
Conclusion
In my ideal world, it would be proper to bring about collaboration with the organisations that empower both women and men. Since empowering women was not meant to cause division or competition amongst the genders.
We all need each other at the end of the day. We are expected to live in harmony. Having said that, let’s end this by declaring, there’s no war between men and women. It’s not a competition people.
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