Role of women empowerment in the economy of a country

Empowerment

Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their capacities. Employee Empowerment is giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer service.

Empowerment is probably the totality of the following or similar capabilities:

* Having decision-making power of their own
* Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
* Having a range of options from which you can make choices (not just yes/no, either/or.)
* Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
* Having positive thinking on the ability to make change
* Ability to learn skills for improving one's personal or group power.
* Ability to change others’ perceptions by democratic means.
* Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated
* Increasing one's positive self-image and overcoming stigma

Advantages can be:

* It enhances motivation;
* It increases employee commitment;
* It increases team spirit
* It frees the time of senior management and they can focus on more strategic decisions increased employee education and training;

* Employees participate in creating their own goals;
* Fewer middle management positions mean decreased cost to the company.
* Employees are more likely to agree with changes if they participate in decision making.

Disadvantages can be:

* Employees can abuse the increased power given to them;
* It is too much responsibility for some employees;
* Employees who focus on their own success rather than group's may leave;
* There is an increased cost to the organization for training and education;
* There is increased time in groups or committees which takes away from regular jobs;
* There may be increased conflict or power struggle between employees due to group work;
* Some employees may not be knowledgeable enough to make good business decisions;

Women Empowerment:

Women's Empowerment is a process in which women gain greater share of control over resources - material, human and intellectual like knowledge, information, ideas and financial resources like money - and access to money and control over decision-making in the home, community, society and nation, and to gain `power'.

Women's empowerment has five components:

* Women’s sense of self-worth;
* Their right to have and to determine choices;
* Their right to have access to opportunities and resources;
* Their right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home;
* Their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic orders, nationally and internationally.

Women in Bangladesh:

Women

A woman is an adult female human being, as contrasted to men, an adult male, and a girl, a female child. The term woman (irregular plural: women) is used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions, or both.
Women constitute about half of the total population of the country. Apart from the household activities, they are contributing substantially to the national economy. Bangladesh is one of the first developing countries to establish a Ministry of Women’s Affairs in 1978, three years after the First World Conference on Women in Mexico. The government has already prepared a National Policy for Advancement of Women and made some noteworthy progress in implementing the National Action Plan, prepared in response to the Beijing Platform for Action. In spite of these achievements, the majority of women in Bangladesh have yet to be empowered to participate actively in the social, cultural, economic and political life of the country. Gender discrimination is widespread in all spheres and at all levels albeit, the Constitution of Bangladesh
Fundamental Rights,
27. All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.
Equality before law.
28(1). The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
Discrimination on grounds of religion etc.
Fundamental principle of state policy,
10. Steps shall be taken to ensure participation of women in all spheres on national life.
Participation of women in national life.
19(1). The state shall endeavor to ensure equality of opportunity to all citizens.
Equality of opportunity.
These articles guarantees equal rights to all citizens clearly incorporated provisions for equal status of women.
Contribution of women in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh the distribution of women empowerment indicators show that 83% of the women have a very low to low economic contribution, 44% have a very low to low access to resources, 93% have a very poor to poor asset ownership, 73% have a moderate to high participation in household decision making, 43% have a highly unfavorable to unfavorable perception on gender awareness and 72% have a moderate to high coping capacity to household stocks.

This government has some women ministers-
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Agriculture Minister Motiya Chowdary
Home Minister Shana Kahtun
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni
State of Labor Minister Munnujan Sufian
And also this government declared that they will increase total number of women sit in the national assembly 33%.
Role of women empowerment in an economy
Poverty Eradication
Since women comprise the majority of the population below the poverty line. Now women empowered and have an important role in poverty eradication. By their empowerment now they can mobilize of poor women and convergence of services. For this empowerment now they can enhance their capabilities.
Micro credit
In order to increase employment micro credit plays an important role in the economy. Now women use micro credit to enhance their capabilities. So that all women who are below poverty line they have easy to access credit and increase their employment.
Women and Economy
Women’s perspectives will be included in designing and implementing macro-economic and social policies by institutionalizing their participation in such processes. Their contribution to socio-economic development as producers and workers will be recognized in the formal and informal sectors (including home based workers).
Globalization
Globalization has presented new challenges for the realization of the goal of women’s equality, the gender impact of which has not been systematically evaluated fully. Strategies will be designed to enhance the capacity of women and empower them to meet the negative social and economic impacts, which may flow from the globalization process.
Women and Agriculture:
In view of the critical role of women in the agriculture and allied sectors, as producers, concentrated efforts will be made to ensure that benefits of training, extension and various programs will reach them in proportion to their numbers. The programs for training women in soil conservation, social forestry, dairy development and other occupations allied to agriculture like horticulture, livestock including small animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries etc. will be expanded to benefit women workers in the agriculture sector.
Women and Industry:
The important role played by women in electronics, information technology and food processing and agro industry and textiles has been crucial to the development of these sectors. They would be given comprehensive support in terms of labor legislation, social security and other support services to participate in various industrial sectors. It improves economic health.
Support Services:
Support services help in the economy of a country to increase standard of living. The provision of support services for women, like child care facilities, including crèches at work places and educational institutions, homes for the aged and the disabled will be expanded and improved to create an enabling environment and to ensure their full cooperation in social, political and economic life.
Bangladesh government takes some steps for women development:

1. Provide National Policy for Women Advancement is to bring about equality between men and women and improve the conditions for women.
2. Provide full free education for S.S.C and H.S.C level for girls.
3. Take a decision for full free education in degree level studying.
4. In Public service sector 30% quota reserved for women. In teaching sector 50% quota for women
5. National Women Development Policy (NWDP) for women development.
6. Take a new policy “The issues of disparity between men and women in society would be abolished by giving proper importance to socio-economic contributions of the women and giving equal opportunities to women and girl child.”

Gender equality is an international development goal:

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the international “roadmap” for the concerted and concrete global action to eliminate poverty by 2015. Goal 3 is “to promote gender equality and empower women”. While only this goal explicitly addresses gender equality and the empowerment of women, it is now widely recognized that achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is central to fulfilling all the MDGs. In 2005, the Millennium Project Gender equality Task Force identified seven strategic priorities as critical to the achievement of Goal 3. Three specific groups of women were also identified, for whom action on these seven interdependent priorities is particularly critical, including poor women, adolescent women, and women and girls living in conflict and post conflict settings.

MDG Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
Indicator 9: Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
Indicator 10: Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old
Indicator 11: Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Indicator 12: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Seven Strategic Priorities – the minimum necessary to achieve MDG 3
1. Strengthen opportunities for post primary education for girls while simultaneously meeting commitments to universal primary education.
2. Guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights.
3. Invest in infrastructure to reduce women’s and girls’ time burdens.
4. Guarantee women’s and girls’ inheritance and property rights.
5. Eliminate gender inequality in employment by decreasing women’s reliance on informal employment, closing gender gaps in earnings and reducing occupational segregation.
6. Increase women’s share of seats in national parliaments and local governmental bodies.
7. Combat violence against girls and women.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW)
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

The Women's Resource Centre (WRC) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) present a full day capacity-building and strategy conference on the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). (Date: Tuesday 24 March 2009 9.30 – 4pm)

OAS Organization of American States
The OAS human rights system provides recourse to people in the Americas who have suffered violations of their rights by the state.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of December 1948.

Beijing +5 Special Session
From June 5 to June 9 2000, there was a conference at the United Nations, New York, continuing on 5 years from a similar conference in Beijing, 1995. (The formal name of the conference was “Women: 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century.”)
In 1985 there was a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, to formulate strategies for advancing women’s rights. This was followed by a “plan of action” defined in 1995, in Beijing.
It has been recognized and agreed for a while that successful development also involves gender equality. The goals of this conference then were to reflect on the promised provisions of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere.
Leading up to, and during the conference, many organizations had numerous issues to bring to the fore, including:
• Women’s reproductive rights
• Abduction of girls
• Child soldiers and armed conflict
• Poverty and Economy
• Education and Training
• Health
• Violence
• Decision Making
• Institutional Mechanisms
• Human Rights
• Media
• Environment
• The Girl-child
United Nations Mar 15 (IPS)
A U.N. body dealing with women's rights is seriously concerned at the growing list of formal reservations lodged by member states - even as they sign and ratify an international treaty to eliminate gender discrimination.
The United Nations Conference on Women -- Nairobi, 1985
The forward looking strategies call for-
• Sexual equality
• Women's autonomy and power
• Recognition of women's unpaid work
• Advances in women's paid work
United Nations Development Fund for Women

UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality.
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF is taking this opportunity to steer the world’s attention towards systematic rape and sexual violence against women and girls during armed conflict. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah addressed the conference, and called upon the world to do more to protect the rights and equality of women and girls.

Recommendations:

1. Roles and responsibilities of the women members should be clearly defined in the manuals and orders of local government. Work should be fairly distributed among the male and female members in such a way so that women member can meaningfully participate in all type of functions.
2. To create greater awareness among women about their low status in society and the need to improve it, motivational programs along with programs for expanding opportunities for education, health care and employment should be launched.
3. Specific programs should be undertaken by the government and non- government organizations in order to create awareness among the women in the grass roots levels that political participation would give them an access to the political decision making process relating to the allocation of resources.
4. Mass media should be used to educate and mobilize public opinion in such a way that the realization about the benefits of women’s full participation in the national development efforts is created among people.
5. Priority must be given to monitoring the status, conditions and rights of women. There must be a sustained campaign for women mobilization, regular reporting of monitoring, public information and advocacy in this realm.
6. Women should be given various opportunities for leadership training, training regarding the activities of Union Parishad and education in order to encourage them to take up political and leadership position. Supportive services should be provided to allow women participate in these training courses.
7. There is urgent need to undertake research on women’s participation in politics, their voting behavior, consciousness and participation in the political parties.
8. Finally, in increasing the number of women in decision-making positions does not in itself translate in to greater empowerment for women. Measures to increase the quantity of women representatives need to be accompanied by measures to improve the quality of participation.

Conclusion:

Of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty around the globe, 70 percent are women. Women earn only 10 percent of the world’s income. The empowerment of women is one of the central issues in the process of development of countries all over the world. By women empowerment a least development country like Bangladesh can increase their standard of living and make their economic position better.