Empowering Women: – Facts and Objectives

Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities and countries. When women live a safe, fulfilling and productive life, they can reach their full potential. They are also able to help create a sustainable economy and benefit communities and humanity in general.

Progress has been made in recent decades: More girls go to school, fewer girls are forced into marriage at a young age, more women work in parliament and leadership positions, and laws are being changed to promote gender equality.

Despite these benefits, many challenges remain: discriminatory laws and social norms remain widespread, women continue to be undermined at all levels of political leadership, and one in five women between the ages of 15 and 49 reports physical or sexual abuse of a close partner within three months to twelve months period.

Here are few lesser known facts about women empowerment across the globe:-

• Worldwide, 750 million women and girls were married before the age of 18 and at least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone FGM.
• Female rates for 15- to 19-year-olds are screened for FGM (female genital mutilation) in 30 countries where the focus is on decreasing from one in two girls in 2000 to 1 in three girls in 2017.
• In 18 countries, husbands can legally ban their wives from working; in 39 countries, daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights; and 49 countries lack laws protecting women from domestic violence.
• One in women and girls, including 19 percent of women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49, has been subjected to physical and / or sexual abuse by their intimate partner. However, 49 countries have no laws specifically protecting women from such violence.
• With women entering senior political positions around the world, their 23.7 percent representation in national parliaments remains far from unity.
• In 46 countries, women hold more than 30 percent of seats in the national parliament in at least one room.
• Only 52% of married or union women make voluntary choices about sexual relations, contraception and health care.
• Globally, only 13% of women own agricultural land.
• North African women hold less than one in five jobs in the non-agricultural sector. The number of women in paid employment outside the agricultural sector has increased from 35 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2015.
• More than 100 countries have taken steps to monitor the allocation of gender equality budgets.
• In Southeast Asia, the risk of a girl marrying in childhood has dropped by more than 40 percent since 2000.

Objectives of Women Empowerment: –

• Eliminate all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
• Put an end to all forms of violence against all women and girls in the community and in the private sector, including trafficking and sex and other forms of exploitation.
• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child abuse, early marriage and forced and discriminated against women
• Identify and value of domestic work through the provision of social services, infrastructure and social protection promotions and policies of shared responsibility within the family and community as appropriate nationally.
• Ensuring the full and effective participation of women and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of political, economic and social decision-making.
• Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Action Plan of the International Conference on Human Development and Development and the Platform for Action and the results of their review conferences
•  Making Changes to give women equal rights in economic services, as well as access to ownership and control of land and other forms of property, financial services, assets and natural resources, in accordance with national legislation
• Promote the use of assistive technology, especially information and communication technology, to promote women’s empowerment
• Adopt and enforce sound policies and laws that promote gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.