Women empowerment; prospectives, perspectives and retrospectives
Women empowerment; prospectives, perspectives and retrospectives
Global perspectives:
Women are the most dynamic and fastest-growing economic force in the world today. Women now control over $20 trillion dollars in spending worldwide. In reality it is an economic impact larger than the U.S., China and India economies combined.
Women entrepreneurship:
Women's entrepreneurship is soaring around the world. In fact, today, one in 11 working-age women is now involved in entrepreneurship. And the highest percentages of women business owners are in markets you might not expect. Nearly 20 percent of working women in Thailand are entrepreneurs, India, 14 percent. Argentina, 12 percent. Brazil, 11 percent and Mexico and Chile 10 percent. These percentages are rising every year. The real story is that the 21st century is going to be the "Women's Century."
Women's major role;
Many persons are managed by women all of their life, beginning at birth with their mother .They've done a wonderful job. There is a tremendous sense of urgency in ensuring that conditions are ripe for women to thrive around the world.
Need for creation of necessary climate;
Creating a climate of success for women globally is just simply smart business, for many companies. By empowering women and you are recharging the world.
Past studies:
There are many studies that show a direct correlation between women's empowerment and national GDP growth, business growth, environmental sustainability, and improved human health, just to name a few things. The community, social, and family implications are vast. For instance, there's no question that women influence public opinion inside the home.
What women do?
Women determine what comes into the home and in what quantity and frequency. It's probably no surprise that women account for the majority of purchase decisions for our beverages. In fact, they represent 70 percent of all grocery shoppers.
What many nations have to do?
The only way more nations will rise out of poverty and become more politically stable, will be by women achieving gender parity on a global scale. If we fail in this regard, the world's economy will fail.
Road blocks to women empowerment;
While business and society have made great progress in recent years, the journey has just begun. We still see too many roadblocks to women's empowerment. Cultural roadblocks, educational roadblocks, political roadblocks, financial roadblocks, and technology roadblocks, are just a few.
Women are often viewed as out of place in professional environments, they are subjected to more scrutiny at work than are men of the same rank, which slows down women's advancement into management positions.
Many cultures view the raising of children as primarily the job of women, with men not expected to have domestic roles. In countries where such beliefs are deep-seated, women who go against the grain are often required to perform double duty. Professional women, for instance, are obliged to manage the household and family while also performing their professional tasks. This often leaves women at a disadvantage in relation to their male colleagues.
Role of key persons:
Three concrete ways that business, government and academia can have a significant impact in generating female empowerment around the globe.
The first way we can help fuel women's empowerment is the most obvious -- Accelerating women's leadership within our own four walls.
One area of major concern for our women employees across all of our global geographies is work-life balance.
Examples of African continent:
In fact, the vast majority of coca cola sales in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique are the result of this business model. Nearly a thousand of these businesses in Africa alone are owned by women. The multiplier effect of women entrepreneurship is significant.
In Africa, only three countries (Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa) have attained the goal of having at least 30 per cent of the seats in national parliaments filled by women, in line with the UN target of 30 per cent for women in decision-making bodies. Globally, only 12 other countries had reached that level in national parliaments by 2004.
In Africa, Mozambique and South Africa use voluntary party quotas, to guarantee that a certain percentage of women are selected as political candidates. Rwanda uses legal quotas, under which the targets apply to all political parties.
While Rwanda is an extreme case, other African countries in conflict have seen major migration into the cities, away from fighting in rural areas. Such mass migrations have pushed women to become heads of households and to take on other traditional male roles
In some conflicts, such as the Eritrean war for independence from Ethiopia and the liberation wars in South Africa and Zimbabwe, women fought alongside men, asserting their equality and winning some bargaining power in post-conflict settlements. Once the wars ended, women felt empowered to claim positions of power in government, as in South Africa.
Over time, Zimbabwean women suffered an erosion of the initial gains they won following the end of armed conflict. However, they subsequently undertook a renewed drive for equal participation in leadership through the impetus provided by the Beijing conference. Zimbabwe's example shows that women's movements need not rely only on domestic support, but can also gain leverage through help from the international community.
The wars have destroyed infrastructure, stalled development and exposed women in particular to rape and abuse. But conflict has created occasions for women to transform their lives and redefine their gender roles. Conflict often results in significant demographic changes, as men go to war and are killed in combat. While this does not automatically alter the balance of political and social power between men and women, it can provide some opportunities for women when they greatly outnumber men. In Rwanda, after the 1994 genocide, there were four men for every six women. Women stepped into roles in areas traditionally dominated by men, such as politics, agriculture and the formal economy. Rwanda holds the current record for the highest level of female representation in national parliament.
The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has been very active in promoting women's participation in peace processes and in training women for leadership in many African countries, including Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
General role of women:
We've seen, time and again, that as women rise in their communities; the communities themselves rise to new heights of prosperity and health. This leads directly to the third area in which business, government and academia can help promote global women's economic empowerment and that is by staying committed to sustainability initiatives.
All of these touch and influence women's empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Multiple roles
If one wants to be a parliamentarian as well as a wife and a mother, and the husband does not support her, then it is hard to continue. When they have young children, they have to rush home .All across the world; women in leadership positions are hampered by numerous obstacles, including pervasive and often subtle attitudes and beliefs that women are unequal to men at home, at work and in government. Feminists argue that regardless of race, class or ethnicity, women are consistently defined as political outsiders whose participation in public life is conditional upon their maternal roles.
Since the First World Conference on Women in 1975, the women's movement has taken significant strides towards achieving full participation of women in all areas of society. In February 2006, gender activists and policymakers convened in New York on the 50th anniversary of the UN's CSW to take stock of progress. Established in 1946 by the Economic and Social Council (one of the five organs of the UN), the commission has the task of advancing women's interests.
When the CSW was first established, women could vote in only 30 of the original 51 UN member states. Now, across the globe, women have secured the right to vote and, in most countries, to stand for election. The frontlines of the battle have now shifted. Gender activists are focusing increasingly on raising the levels of women's representation in political and economic decision-making posts and helping women to become more effective.
Despite the challenges, a growing proportion of women are breaking through the glass ceiling. Women who have entered into leadership positions attribute their success to factors such as access to education and work opportunities, good mentoring by both men and women, support from family, employers, supervisors, teachers and colleagues, and successful lobbying by gender activists.
Independent organizations such as the London-based International Alert, established in 1985, have also played important roles. The group works with women's networks and has facilitated the participation of women in the peace processes in Liberia and the DRC. Activists say that deeper research is needed into how the gains women have made in war and transitional situations are often pushed back during peacetime, to help figure out how such gains can be secured.
Finally, activists are also working towards the day when politicians of both sexes push for policies that empower men and women.
Women Entrepreneurship;
Increasing the number of women entrepreneurs involved in starting new businesses is critical for a country's long-term economic growth Looking at what specific factors in entrepreneurism are important to economic growth uncovered some interesting results.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2000 (GEM), a 21-country study of entrepreneurship and economic growth, found that most firms are still started and operated by men, with peak entrepreneurial activity among those aged 25-44. Overall, men are twice as likely as women to be involved in entrepreneurial activity worldwide.
Today's successful women entrepreneurs are sharp, savvy and highly skilled. Some have solo-enterprises, while others run multi-national organizations.
Final conclusions:
More and more women are entering the world of business.
In fact, they are starting businesses twice as fast as men, and on the whole, they are more successful doing it.
The Internet has opened up a whole new world for women. They can not only start, run and grow a successful online business (at any age) but they can choose when they work because the Internet is open 24-7.
In stark contrast to their working mothers who did the typical works, today's women entrepreneurs can easily schedule their work around their family as well as their own needs.
For all of us in business, government, education and civil society, the implications will be vast and profound.
Everyone's success will be contingent upon women's success.
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