WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

I support (WE) Woman Empowerment

    What is woman empowerment?

Woman empowerment can be define as their improvement of political,social,economic and health status. Promoting their sense of self worth and their ability to determine their own choices and their right to influence social change for themselves and others. 

"To all the little girls, never doubt that you are valuable, and powerful, and deserving of every chance and opportunity to pursue and achieve your dreams." -Hilary clinton

     Woman empowerment is often associated with women's rights movement. In the philippines, the government adopted the magna carta of women in 2009. It seeks to end all discrimination and to promote rights of women. However, women still continues to face discrimination and violence in their everyday lives.

Why is empowering girls so important?

     In 2017, it is reported that 1in 4 filipino women aged 15 to 49 has experienced physical,emotional,or sexual abuse. Sadly, authorities revealed that this statistics has risen since the lockdown. Around 602 women or an average of 8 per day were maltreated or raped across the country in a span of 3 months. 

       Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities and countries.

       When women are living safe, fulfilled and productive lives, they can reach their full potential. contributing their skills to the workforce and can raise happier and healthier children. They are also able to help fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.

       A key part of this empowerment is through education. Girls who are educated can pursue meaningful work and contribute to their country’s economy later in life. They are also four times less likely to get married young when they have eight years of education, meaning that they and their families are healthier.

 

"A strong woman looks a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink." Gina Carey

  

Real stories of WomenEmpowerment

        Patricia Licuanan started as a young social scientist. While she was studying development programs, as a social psychologist, she saw how women were not benefitting from the programs.

        “They would develop programs for farmers and programs for the farmer’s wives. But women were the farmers themselves,” says Licuanan “They are involved in all the aspects of agriculture. Yet the programs were not designed for them. They were designed for their husbands. The government programs should realize that women do so much important things in the agriculture ... ”

         This pushed her to write “Some are More Unequal than Others,” one of the many scholarly works that she published as an early advocate for women’s rights and issues. Licuanan became the Chair of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCFRW) and headed Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW), an non-government institution network, from 1987 to 1992. 

      “Women should have choices. It is their choice if they want to go abroad. However, going abroad should not lead to their victimization and oppression. They are there because they want to earn a decent living and that should happen.” — Patricia Licuanan

     She was also one of the early voices of Overseas Filipino Workers and the problems of their families. Strong voices, according to Licuanan, would dismiss the issue and insist that these circumstances justify the fact that women must stay at home. “Women should have choices. It is their choice if they want to go abroad. However, going abroad should not lead to their victimization and oppression. They are there because they want to earn a decent living and that should happen.”

      Women’s issues were often dismissed in the academe as well. While heading the Commission on Higher Education from 2010 until 2018, with the help of activists and women advocates, she developed academic programs and formed a technical panel on gender and development. They came up with a CHED Memorandum Order in Higher Education that mainstreamed gender and development in colleges and universities. That memorandum order modified school procedures and helped set up the process to handle issues on sexual harassment. It even led to the establishment of women centers in some universities.

    Now, she considers her participation in the 4th World Conference on Women as one of her lasting contributions to the advancement of women. “I [oversaw] the substantive preparation for the Conference. I chaired the Committee that drafted and negotiated the Beijing Platform for Action. It was bloody but we were very luck. We came out with a very enlightened platform.”

     The Beijing Platform for Action, that was borne out of the Beijing World Conference on Women, is an agenda for women’s empowerment. According to Licuanan, one of its crucial mission is to “remove all the obstacles to women’s active participation in all sphere of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making.”

    

"A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others aren't determined not be done." -Marge pierce

Principles of Woman Empowerment

1. Treat all people fairly at work, respecting and supporting non-discrimination and human rights. 

2. Promote education, training and professional development for women.

3. Have the opportunity to participate in all kinds of social activities at will, equally enjoy political, economical and cultural benefits, and share responsibilities.

4. Have an equal opportunity for realizing women and mens full rights and potential to be healthy, contribute to health development, and benefit from the results.

         How Can I Empower Woman?

    I can empower women's by helping them , cheering,  praying or sharing resources and also by being proud of achievements of others not giving backhanded compliments or by backstabbing.

     "A girl should be two things, who and want she wants." Coco Chanel