Women Empowerment - A Relationship of Equality Amidst the Challenges of Disparity

"It is said that when you educate a man, you educate an individual but when you educate a girl you educate the entire generation."

Women constitute the foundation of every society as well as the most fundamental unit of the family and the importance of women in context, in any role is crucial for the development of humanity.

As I write these lines in the background of my experience as a young woman from Pakistan who has been traveling and studying as well as pursuing my research in Europe for the last 10 years and having closely observed the European social dynamic, I have come to a realization that certain characteristics of societies in liberal and not so liberal societies are almost the same towards women.

Moreover, I am sometimes very intrigued when people believe that the West has liberated women! I think this pre assumption is far fetched from there is no such thing as absolute liberty specially when it is constructed in relation to the men.

Nonetheless, after spending a decade in European academia, I have encountered a variety of experiences working together with female colleagues, class fellows, and friends from cross-cultural and inter- social platforms. I do not hesitate to say that the issues, problems, challenges for women all around the world are the same.

There are common denominators when it comes to gender parity, representation in work, equality in employment, benefits in wages, and freedom from discrimination and gender exploitation. In my opinion, these common thresholds make the task of understanding how in the professional work market, and an overall context treatment of women ethically, morally and professionally worldwide needs to be accessed on a cumulative level regardless of race, culture, and religion. 

It is true that the level of employment in women make societies develop better institutions, structures of participation, and contribute towards democratic stability and sustainable economies. But throughout history, the factor of identity somehow constrained the female gender notwithstanding the stereotypes that surround the making of what is called the female gender.

I remember a very famous quote from a French feminist Simon De Beauvoir who in her book ‘The Second sex’ wrote that ‘‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. The idea of ‘becoming’ as explained by Beauvoir is not as simple. What is inferred from such an explanation is that societies construct women's identity always in relation to men?

The identity factor is always conflated with her role as being constructed to men as an ‘other’ individual. Of course, with the level of awareness and historical evolution, the role of women in liberal and non- liberal societies has contrasts but common grounds and similarities exist to date in guaranteeing equal share in leadership, employment opportunities, benefits of old age, etc. 

According to Juliet Mitchell who is a British researcher, professor, and author, trends of gender empowerment towards female participation in electoral activity only came in the nineteenth century.

She quotes that "The Nineteenth-century England was identified as a society where at no level women had any equal rights with men. In fact, they had virtually no rights at all. They were the chattels of their fathers and husbands. They were brought and sold in marriage. They could not vote. They could not sign contracts. When married, they could not own property". 

Consequently, the indicators of women empowerment in Europe have not been without odds. In fact, from childhood to puberty, to adolescence to middle age, women are told to follow a very strict list of Do’s and Don’ts and the fact remains that in all human civilizations it is a woman who is expected to deliver responsibilities, care, and perfection. 

Needless saying, the primitive woman was a hunter and hunted with men but with the passage of time, there was a shift in her labor. She became domesticated and dependent on her men as he arranged the fodder for her. This dependency multiplied with the stages of capitalist development.

Friedrich Engels in his book The Origin of the Family Private Property and the State clearly states that ‘the concept of the private property actually extended to women being a subject to the order.’ 

Today, as civil societies are getting more globalized, there is a need to address some very immediate concerns. The first is to pressurize the governments globally to educate a girl child. In developing societies, urgent Redressal of policies in primary and secondary education is needed to ensure that girls do not remain out of the school and an organized mechanism based on institutional and democratic level must ensure the enrolment of girls in schools, colleges and at university levels without any reasons of delay. 

Societies must ensure that any negligence towards the treatment of young girls in public spaces and even at personal spaces should be tantamount to a serious offense. As incidences of rape, molestation, acid attacks, honor killing, assault and all kinds of sexual violence continue to make headlines from all parts of the world, there is a very urgent need to teach young men that real manliness is in the act of respect and giving women the best that they deserve. 

The grooming of boys as vanguards and girls as less physically vibrant has a very inherent deficiency in it. It deprives girls of moral and physical security and induces vulnerability. The basic education at home should be on equal parity. Young girls in many traditional societies are taught since the early years that they do not belong to where they are, and their actual home is their husband’s house.

This has caused great damage to the psychosis of a girl child. Moreover, in many cultures feeding boys more in meals than a girl child is a heinous practice and more emphasis thus should be on educating minds that even religions give women the same intellectual, and moral authority, which must not be undervalued. 

In religious societies, the moral and ethical dimensions should be rationally made to realize a breakthrough in the barriers that make obstacles for women empowerment. In modern and western societies, there must be a narrative shift that can throw the age-old barricades of western superiority and racial triumphalism. 

My experience spanning a decade has made me observe that in secular and liberal societies in Europe the slogan of liberation and freedom has made women do much more even beyond their biological and physical strength. In my opinion, the word Liberation is overrated. 

In this scenario, how can one understand the link between freedom and lack thereof? The answer is simple. There must be a non- binary vision to unite our age-old bifurcation of West versus the rest as the issue of gender empowerment does not need to be put in any jargon of location. Beyond a certain point, there is no comparison as the facts speak louder than words and point directly to the call for attention. 

• The first is that even within many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa & North America, there is a gap in gender development, social and economic prosperity.
• The pressure of unemployment is multiplying each day for women more than men.
• Men earn more wage labor than women.
• The prosperity ladder is easy to cross for men than women. 
• Even in most advanced and economically vibrant countries of northern Europe, there exists a bias against the female gender in the workforce. 
• Men's employers remain insensitive and indifferent to official perks and benefits for women.
• Almost similar patterns of issues, problems as well as challenges are faced by women in both the developed and developing world.
• Regardless of the sensitivity, responsibility, and dedication women remain underpaid, underemployed, conversely, undercover with benefits of housing.

Today as we walk in the twenty-first century, young women in all fields of life are making new headlines. Women have vociferously stood against injustice, violence, exploitation, and discrimination. In developing countries, women face countless challenges as their roles in-home and in the public sphere demand extraordinary courage and determination.

Civil societies in South Asia are increasingly represented by the voices of women who are ready to take over men based on merit and competitiveness in nearly all walks of life. Although it is hard for many societies to come to terms with the pace of change yet, the change is already in the air. Walking in a busy Monday morning in the most congested business centers of Karachi, I.I Chundrigar Road (also called the Wall Street of Karachi), I was overwhelmed with the size and movement of young women walking down to enter the offices.

In a country like Pakistan, where it is believed that traditions reign supreme, the sheer change, and transformation in the workforce of women in multiple domains of professions show how fast the graph of women entering job markets has changed the entire picture of the Metropolitan city in last 10 years, Today as enterprises open to young women in professional fields of Banking, Finance and Mass Media, the pictures and graphs of employment and participation of women has gone up and thus has opened new gates of opportunities albeit with challenges.

The new generation of young women everywhere across borders and frontiers in the field of politics, business, information technology, science, education, medicine, engineering, art, and culture vociferously are replacing the status quo with innovation.

From Mumbai to Karachi, Dhaka to Kabul, to the other parts of Asia, Africa, and many industrial capitals in Europe, the US, and the Pacific, one can see the rising hope of a systemic change through dynamism and creativity.

From Mumbai to Karachi, Dhaka to Kabul, to the other parts of Asia, Africa, and many industrial capitals in Europe, US Pacific, one can see the rising hope of a systemic change through dynamism and creativity.

Women leadership at the top levels in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, Sweden, Denmark, and New Zealand are no doubt calling for an exemplary track record of bold and courageous decision making.