Women Empowerment And Education : A Global Issue

Women rights movement’s dates back to the nineteenth century as the female gender was seeking to have a place in the society where they have their rights and entitlement fairly given to them. It was instigated by the fact that the male population by making them feel as less beings in the society. This is because they were not entitled to having their views brought out. However, in the 1970’s efforts to secure equal rights for women by eradicating gender discrimination put by institution, laws and various behavioural pattern meet serious activism (Barrett. 2014). The reforms enjoyed currently concerning women empowerment is as a result of all the atrocities that they went through at this time. It is, therefore, evident to say that the challenges faced by women in the 1970’s rights movement gave birth to new opportunities such as coming up with severe laws on gender discrimination, pushed for the Title IX law and defining rape as a crime.

“If you educate a man, you educate one person. If you educate a woman, you educate a nation” is a quote commonly heard in development circles to emphasize the importance of education for women and girls and female empowerment in the developing world. It is essential to address the role that education and empowerment for women and girls can play in furthering development in a variety of areas. The Millennium Development Goals were first agreed upon in 2001 by world governments as an initiative to end world poverty, achieve development, and improve living standards and life chances across the globe within fifteen years. Since that deadline has passed, the goals have been revamped and nine new goals have been added with a new target year of 2030. The new goals expand on the original eight to also address issues relating to gender equality and the root causes of poverty. Two of the seventeen millennium development goals that UN member nations want to achieve by 2030 are to end poverty in all forms everywhere and achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Research from the last two decades has shown a link between gender equality and economic growth and have shown that when women are empowered, there is improvement in other areas of development as well. When women are empowered through education, the social benefits expand beyond economics and produce social benefits so society as whole.

Women’s rights in education have improved greatly since the early 1800s — when girls only learned skills that society believed would make them good wives and would be ostracized for wanting more in their education. Today, more women than men attend and complete their collage degrees.

A report from UNESCO in October 2013 shows some shocking statistics about girls and women around the world. There are 1.8 billion young people in the world. Approximately half of them – 900 million – are adolescent girls and young women, but 62 millions girls worldwide are not in school. As a result, they lack the basic skills for work: Two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are female. This will have some lifelong effects. Girls will face limited opportunities and choices in the job market. They lack basic health knowledge and will be subjected to serious health risks, and threatened by violence. They don’t know about their basic rights, so their views and concerns are often unheard. These three effects are enough to prove that girls are discriminated against as females Therefore, if education is the key to their future, what doors can it open for those girls? They will be less likely

Women’s educational rights are either in jeopardy in many developing countries or women are not offered an education entirely. The European Commission recently stated, “63% of women in developing countries overall are undereducated.” Women in underdeveloped countries deserve the right to access education to help enhance the country politically, economically, and socially. According to Anna Marie Gotez, allowing women access to education helps to develop knowledge and communication skills that can be beneficial in political debate. Economically, allowing women access to education will offer women more job opportunities which is beneficial to the economy. The Fourth World Conference, has recognized that women’s literacy is key to empowering women’s participation in decision-making in society and to improve families’ well-being.

Education is the primary requirement and source for all realization. In the contemporary world, the new development has occurred and with equal educational opportunities for women and men, women are empowered with knowledge and experiences thereby raising their status in the society. Today around the world, there are many women trying to come in front line. “As of January 2017, 10 women are serving as Head of State and 9 are serving as Head of Government.” (UN, 2017). The world celebrate Women’s day every year when they reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary

Women empowerment must be encouraged from childhood in each and every family. They should be educated well and should be given enough freedom to express their views in the society. By getting proper education they can become independent and can get most of the things they want like income , status in the society , freedom , respect etc. By proper education they can take decisions for themselves and for the family as well. They can create a bright future and if women empowerment is encouraged it is the society who would be benefited. Women empowerment is the important tool for advanced developing of the country. It is very important to understand the power of women and allow them to be independent in all ways.

Every man and woman dreams of having fruitful life (something that would be impossible without work). Thus, people spend most of their lives laboring away, never actually thinking about the concept of work. John Budd defines work as a “purposeful human activity involving physical or mental exertion that is not undertaken solely for pleasure and that has economic value” (Theorizing Work 2). He argues that by incorporating concepts like equality and caring for others, work can be more encompassing than paid employment. The problem, however, is that society doesn’t yet share Budd’s values of equality and care in dealing with women.

Today, I stand here to express my concerns about nearly 130 million girls who are out of school. As we all know, despite many advancements taken towards achieving gender equality in developing countries, there are yet many girls, who do not have access to quality education. The circumstances of those girls consist of many issues, which include early pregnancy, cost and domestic work, while terrible repercussion of standing up is encountered. Just because girls are focused to be independent to fight for themselves, are we automatically compelled to not take action on something we intuitively know is wrong? NO. It is evident that we must help women's right to education. So, today I, Malala, stand here, among one of many girls to raise my voice for those, whose voice cannot be heard.

Over 110 million of the world’s children, two-thirds of them being girls, are not in school. This is part of the evidence that nowhere in the world has complete equality between men and women, even in developed countries. This report will discuss the differences and issues of women’s education around the world, focusing on a developed country, New Zealand, compared to a developing area, sub-Saharan Africa.

Throughout the years gender equality and education have drastically changed. Some people went through different experiences depending when or even where a person grew up. In the United States Title IX was a big contributing factor in gender equality. “These areas are: Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology” (Titleix.info, History). In this project, I have interviewed three different people: A late 50s female, an early 20s male, and an early 50s female who grew up in the Philippines. All three interviewees have had different experiences that will be compared and contrasted into this essay.

I would like to start with the very famous saying; ‘If you educate a boy, you are educating one person. But when you educate a girl, you educate the whole family’. In my case, where I am much more of a feminist in my own ways, I strongly believe that every child has a right to education, and when I say every child, this includes every girl child as well.

From unprecedented population ageing to increasing unemployment, from global leadership imbalances to persisting conflicts, from resource scarcity to volatile global food supplies, the world faces a series of interconnected challenges. The Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment aims to highlight how women’s empowerment is a part of the solutions to these challenges. (World Economic Forum 3)

The oppression of women is based on false assumption and preconceived notions by the male domination world, has been obvious and responsible for paving the way for serious gender issues to emerge. Due to the narrow realms of activity in society, deprived from essential human rights, restricted educations scope, open to unhealthy physical and mental abuse, this society has not given women the opportunity to rise to their full potential. The impact of gender discrimination has not only affected the future of the women today but it has resulted in the slow progress of human mind in general.

After independence women’s education, especially higher education, took off. Education started playing a great role in the emancipation of women from traditional dependencies. Women became more vocal, articulate and assertive. Our constitution granted equal rights to women and that included the Right to education. Jawahar Lal Nehru said, “You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of