{"id":960,"date":"2020-11-25T14:50:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T20:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wowfall2020.londietmartin.com\/?p=960"},"modified":"2020-11-25T14:50:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T20:50:31","slug":"empowering-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wowfall2020.londietmartin.com\/?p=960","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Cottonbro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Andrea Baumann<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen women do better, countries do better, communities do better, and families do better\u201d \u2014 USAID<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empowerment:<\/strong> \u201cThe process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or to control what happens to you<\/em>\u201d \u2014 Cambridge Dictionary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women can move beyond the domestic sphere through empowerment:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once upon a time, women fought through legal means for \u201ccivil rights\u201d to obtain equality. This equality was to extend to every person within the democratic nation. But, now women can push beyond just legal means for empowerment, they can take back their stories and move away from powerlessness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaining equal rights and gaining admittance into once \u201cmale-only\u201d arenas, is not the equivalent of empowerment. A career woman who also juggles daycare, essentially pulling double-duty, is not empowerment. It is just double the duties and double the responsibilities, meanwhile their male counterpart position hasn\u2019t changed. Because this is typically a personal battle for women, it is not supported by society or their individual partners. This makes the transition from burden to empowerment difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLiberal feminism advocates political equality and individual liberty\u201d (Roland-Serdar). If one is secure with themselves, only then can they make the choice to become empowered through utilization of their rights. The new concept for women empowerment is to take ownership of self development. Women need to construct and define their own sense of gender identity, their own political identity, and their own choices. Powerlessness comes from becoming subordinate in public and private to their partners and men in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Woman
Photo by Chokniti Khongchum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Powerlessness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devaluation of women through cultural norms is perpetuated within family, foundational messages, and society. One might think that within a family there would be a safe and harmonious place; however, this is where the subordination of women is typically the harshest. Women were expected to support their male partner\u2019s views in politics, religion, and domestic policies and were viewed as subordinate inhabitants and any contributions by women was disregarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culturally, it is communicated that women have a \u201cproper\u201d place. Even though women are achieving more equality and equal rights, they are still powerless due to this component. The deeper this message, the harder it is for women to envision empowerment. The belief of a \u201cproper\u201d place is so embedded in society, women struggle between rights and responsibilities as they relate to relationships and men. Now that the United States of America has Kamala Harris, female vice president-elect, sitting in a very powerful and visible position in the government, I am hopeful that the message that women are strong and capable will help to eliminate this \u201cproper\u201d place mentality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another issue causing the feeling of powerlessness among women is that when a woman decides to stay at home she begins to feel that she has no rights or control of her life. Her livelihood is dependent on her male partner, who leads their public life. The difficult task of being the domestic partner is not valued in society, and thus, causes conflict for women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resolving the Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A female child learns that her sexuality becomes part of her identity and her sexual needs are at the service of powerful men. Girls are taught to be nice and that their clothing and appearance is of paramount importance. These cultural norms lead female children to obsess over body image which can lead to eating disorders. The female child is thus denied the ability to forge her own path and transform her life according to her own vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n