Investing in women is smart. It makes sense; provide women with the skills, education and the opportunity to earn money, and it not only affects them but their entire families. An economically empowered family affects a community and a community affects your town, state and so on. As Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank Group puts it,
“One motivation for women’s empowerment is basic fairness and decency. Young girls should have the exact same opportunities that boys do to lead full and productive lives. But second, the empowerment of women is smart economics...In fact studies show that investments in women yield large social and economic returns.”
This isn’t something new, although it seems to be more apparent now to big organizations like The World Bank in this time of global economic recession. It doesn’t take rocket science to know that giving women the skills to earn a living has social impact—social impact here in the Unites States and social impact half way across the world. The simple act of providing women with skills to earn an income is economically liberating wherever you are. To not depend upon another human being for food, healthcare, clothing and daily living expenses is economic freedom whether you are working as a sales person in a department store in Chicago or as a poultry farmer in a village in Southeast Asia. Worlds apart, the common achievement of earning your own living will not only affect yourself but your community.
It’s comforting to know that big economic organizations are taking notice at a point in time when:
• Girls make up 60 percent of the world’s children not in school.
• At least two-thirds of illiterate adults in the world are women.
• Women account for 60 percent of the working poor earning less than US$1 a day.
• Women are more likely than men to work in the lowest-paid informal or non-standard wage employment.
Statistics from "The Business of Empowering Women."
Whether it’s fighting for girl’s education in developing countries or equal pay in developed countries, women lag behind on crucial fronts. Providing assistance to those who need it the most is something that even private companies like Nike are addressing. Nike Foundation invests in programs and advocacy for adolescent girls in countries like Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Liberia and India.
“We have limited resources and unlimited opportunities, so from a practical perspective we were very motivated to find a very focused and targeted investment that would deliver greatest impact. We found that the most neglected, at risk, and unsupported part of the world’s population also happened to be the part of the world’s population that could make the biggest impact if supported with economic opportunities,” Mark Parker, CEO Nike.
Parker’s words sum up really what working for women’s economic empowerment is all about—supporting women who need the most assistance and knowing that they will probably make the biggest difference in their communities and among their peers. It’s comforting to know that global economic institutions and private companies have stood up and taken notice to something women around the world have known for ages.
Or is it?
Is this just another way women are being exploited? Journalist Claire Provost makes an interesting point in her blog for the London-based newspaper Guardian, “making women work for the market may not be the same thing as making the markets work for women.”
The emphasis put on making women work for the economy rather than looking at other factors which are also hindering their economic development like government policies, cultural and traditional value systems and unequal gender relations is detrimental to the cause of women’s economic empowerment. For example, women maybe economically empowered to earn money but their male family members may have control over it. Furthermore, adding women to the workforce without addressing the domestic tasks many women are already tied to seems unfair when formulating economic empowerment polices. How can women be happier and more content with their life are questions that should be addressed along with economic empowerment.
Considering all aspects of this debate, it is important to realize that by focusing on only one facet, it may result in being blind to others. Taking a holistic approach rather than a simplistic one, would be the rational way to solve a complicated issue that has been years in the making.
On the frontline,
Sabina Bangash
YWCA Economic Empowerment
“One motivation for women’s empowerment is basic fairness and decency. Young girls should have the exact same opportunities that boys do to lead full and productive lives. But second, the empowerment of women is smart economics...In fact studies show that investments in women yield large social and economic returns.”
This isn’t something new, although it seems to be more apparent now to big organizations like The World Bank in this time of global economic recession. It doesn’t take rocket science to know that giving women the skills to earn a living has social impact—social impact here in the Unites States and social impact half way across the world. The simple act of providing women with skills to earn an income is economically liberating wherever you are. To not depend upon another human being for food, healthcare, clothing and daily living expenses is economic freedom whether you are working as a sales person in a department store in Chicago or as a poultry farmer in a village in Southeast Asia. Worlds apart, the common achievement of earning your own living will not only affect yourself but your community.
It’s comforting to know that big economic organizations are taking notice at a point in time when:
• Girls make up 60 percent of the world’s children not in school.
• At least two-thirds of illiterate adults in the world are women.
• Women account for 60 percent of the working poor earning less than US$1 a day.
• Women are more likely than men to work in the lowest-paid informal or non-standard wage employment.
Statistics from "The Business of Empowering Women."
Whether it’s fighting for girl’s education in developing countries or equal pay in developed countries, women lag behind on crucial fronts. Providing assistance to those who need it the most is something that even private companies like Nike are addressing. Nike Foundation invests in programs and advocacy for adolescent girls in countries like Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Liberia and India.
“We have limited resources and unlimited opportunities, so from a practical perspective we were very motivated to find a very focused and targeted investment that would deliver greatest impact. We found that the most neglected, at risk, and unsupported part of the world’s population also happened to be the part of the world’s population that could make the biggest impact if supported with economic opportunities,” Mark Parker, CEO Nike.
Parker’s words sum up really what working for women’s economic empowerment is all about—supporting women who need the most assistance and knowing that they will probably make the biggest difference in their communities and among their peers. It’s comforting to know that global economic institutions and private companies have stood up and taken notice to something women around the world have known for ages.
Or is it?
Is this just another way women are being exploited? Journalist Claire Provost makes an interesting point in her blog for the London-based newspaper Guardian, “making women work for the market may not be the same thing as making the markets work for women.”
The emphasis put on making women work for the economy rather than looking at other factors which are also hindering their economic development like government policies, cultural and traditional value systems and unequal gender relations is detrimental to the cause of women’s economic empowerment. For example, women maybe economically empowered to earn money but their male family members may have control over it. Furthermore, adding women to the workforce without addressing the domestic tasks many women are already tied to seems unfair when formulating economic empowerment polices. How can women be happier and more content with their life are questions that should be addressed along with economic empowerment.
Considering all aspects of this debate, it is important to realize that by focusing on only one facet, it may result in being blind to others. Taking a holistic approach rather than a simplistic one, would be the rational way to solve a complicated issue that has been years in the making.
On the frontline,
Sabina Bangash
YWCA Economic Empowerment
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