65 percent of women in Swaziland are empowered
12 October, 2013 12:44:00 with George Choongwa
In Swaziland according to the secondary research conducted by Southern African Research Foundation for Economic Development (SARFED) on women’s empowerment indicated that one of the contributing factors to women empowerment was women’s degree of control over the use of their earnings varied by background characteristics.
the data show that two in three (65 percent) of women decide for themselves how their earnings are used, 28 percent make the decisions jointly with their husband, and 4 percent reported that decisions are mainly made by their husband.
Despite being good news, the idea of empowering women is getting to levels of abuse. This ideology has created much debate in various social circles such as religion, normal work places, schools and institutes of high learning. In often scenarios, it has been mistaken with gender equality. For this, Women and other advocates due to lack of clear understanding are causing more harm than good and very soon we shall be hearing of a new advert of men empowerment, themes like ‘violence against men, men abuse and so on’ will soon come to world’s attention.
World Bank perspective
The World Bank has identified empowerment as one of the key constituent elements of poverty reduction, and as a primary development assistance goal. The Bank has also made gender mainstreaming a priority in development assistance, and is in the process of implementing an ambitious strategy to this effect. The promotion of women’s empowerment as a development goal is based on a dual argument: that social justice is an important aspect of human welfare and is intrinsically worth pursuing; and that women’s empowerment is a means to other ends.
A recent policy research report by the World Bank (2001a), for example, identifies gender equality both as a development objective in itself, and as a means to promote growth, reduce poverty and promote better governance.
A similar dual rationale for supporting women’s empowerment has been articulated in the policy statements put forth at several high level international conferences in the past decade (e.g. the Beijing Platform for Action, the Beijing+5 declaration and resolution, the Cairo Programme of Action, the Millennium Declaration, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [CEDAW]). These platforms must clearly be studies in the sense that if misunderstood then the agenda for millennium goals will be good for nothing.
It calls for social integration
process
Most of the literature researched shows that even though definitions of women’s empowerment may differ, the majority of writers at least agree on the fact that empowerment is a process, and more specifically a process of change, enabling people to gain the power so neatly incorporated in the word “empowerment.”
However, it is unfortunately that some stakeholders are too much in a rush. It must be understood that this does not call for ‘quick fix’ approach but an integral social process.
Furthermore, there is an element of “agency,” meaning that the women themselves are actors in the process. A process that would benefit the women incidentally, like the effects of an economic upturn, would therefore not truly be called “empowerment.” This does not mean that the empowerment cannot be brought about by other (or male) actors – like a government designing gender-concerned legislation – but the action must be specifically targeted to promote women’s interest and/or gender equality and, ultimately, women must figure as actors in respective areas of concern.
Getting the real definition of
empowerment
Research shows that various proponents have defined empowerment differently such as SIDA 2006 defines empowerment “in the context of South Asia” as: “The process in which women challenge the existing norms and culture to effectively improve their well-being.” Despite the fact that this definition is location dependant, Krishna (2003) gives the following definition: “The process of increasing the capacity of women to make choices and to transform these choices into desired actions and outcomes.” Furthermore, Naila Kabeer (2001) notes the following definition: “The expansion in women’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them.” Coming back to Africa, A loan officer in Ghana (Cheston, Kuhn, 2002) defined empowerment for a woman as: “Enabling each woman to reach her God-given potential.”
Levels of power
The list is endless; however, some writers classify this power in four levels:
n Power over, i.e. one person has power over another, which suggests an unequal relationship
n Power to, i.e. the ability to make decisions and find solutions
n Power with, i.e. social or political power exerted by people on a common ground
n Power within, i.e. self-awareness and esteem which enables people to influence their own lives.
