Empowering women

04 March 2008

Women and girls make up nearly 70% of the world’s poor. And for the most part they are poor precisely because they are women.

Gender equality is a matter of both social justice and human rights. The figures make for shocking reading.

• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women (source: DFID)

• Women make up less than 17% of the world’s members of parliament (source: DFID)

• Violence against women is the greatest cause of death and disability among 16-to-44 year-old women (source: Council of Europe).

Around the world, the status of women and girls is generally lower than that of men and boys. They are discriminated against and excluded, and have less power, less access to health and education services, and markedly less wealth.

In every project Christian Aid supports, it seeks to tackle these abuses of women’s rights. The fight against poverty and injustice depends on it.

Empowering women is a man’s job, too

It is not as simple as women taking what is theirs by right. Men have an active role in levelling the playing field.

Challenging gender stereotypes underpins all the projects we back. In many societies, women’s prescribed role as mother and carer can lock them into a cycle of injustice.

Their household ‘duties’ dominate their time to the degree that they have little or no time for a public life, let alone influencing the decisions that shape their day-to-day existence. They are effectively invisible.

It means decisions – from the domestic to the political – are made without the input of half of the population. As a result, we are left not only with oppressive households but also inadequate post-natal health services and fewer opportunities for women. And so the cycle continues.

Breaking the cycle is vital to tackling poverty and injustice – and can only be achieved through women and men working together.

Gender key to tackling poverty

Promoting gender equality and empowering women are enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals.

The implication is that it is only by empowering women that the fight against poverty and injustice can be won.

It remains for us to redouble our efforts to this end – and to celebrate those already leading the fight.

source: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/issues/lifeonthemargins/stories/women.aspx