Women’s Empowerment in 2100 Words

BY PRATHYUSHA MADHU

Although women make up a majority of the global population, they make up a

minority in the social world. Women’s rights is an issue that has been expressly
debated and highlighted across time and culture. Unfortunately, it remains a pressing
matter to this day. Feminism has gone through multiple waves or eras, as some may
call it, over time, and although the focus has shifted across these different waves,
the core message remains the same. In order to understand women’s
empowerment, it is necessary to map out the different movements that have led up
to this point.

The First Wave began around the late 1800s and went on until the early 1900s,
however, it could be argued to have started in the late 1700s as works surrounding
issues that feminism tackles were discussed. This period was about political equality
and birthed the suffragettes’ movement, and massive protests were held demanding
the right to vote. Revolutionary icons of this era had a single goal: women were to be
viewed as full citizens, not as property. However, they did have a significant
shortcoming. First-wave feminists were rather exclusionary and only fought for the
rights of white women.

The Second Wave of feminism commenced around the 1960s and was seen through
till the 1980s. Around this time, the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum.
The Women’s liberation movement essentially grew out of the Civil Rights movement
because they were beginning to see the disparity between the way men and women
were treated both in interpersonal relationships and from a systemic perspective.
Second Wave feminism built on the work produced during the previous era and
expanded on it, focusing on challenging the idea of what a woman is supposed to
do. They advocated for institutional reforms in the public sphere and highlighted the
oppressive nature of traditional gender norms. This era saw the Women’s Liberation
Movement and implemented major reforms such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The
torch was passed to the Third Wave during the 1990s and lasted two decades.
Around this era, more women were working in male-dominated spaces, and
conversations surrounding feminism, women’s rights, and women empowerment
took place more frequently.

Many argue that the third wave is still going on, while some have proposed a fourth
wave. There is no distinct end of the third wave, and many issues and demands
brought during this era are still being discussed. Therefore both waves exist
simultaneously. Intersectionality was an idea that was prominent in the Third Wave,
and that has developed further in the current wave. The most significant
characteristic of the Fourth Wave is the introduction of online activism and solidarity.
Women began to use the advantages of the internet’s interconnectedness to speak
out about issues pertaining to sexual assault, harassment, and the micro-
aggressions experienced daily. For example, the #MeToo Movement was so widely
spread and provided a platform for women from all walks of life to speak out about
their experiences.

The Fourth Wave is interesting because it challenges many ideas presented during
the earlier waves and questions what it means to be empowered. This will be
discussed elaborately under the issues and debates regarding the notion of ‘The
Empowered Woman’. Most importantly, this wave firmly advocated for trans rights as
trans issues were always disregarded when discussing feminism. Even today,
society as a larger structural power tends to gloss over trans and non-cis individuals
by denying them certain rights and passing bills that are detrimental to the
community. The idea that trans women are women is still something many have
difficulty digesting, and this complicates our understanding of what exactly it means
to become an empowered woman. More specifically, who can and cannot be this
woman.

The Empowered Woman

What does empowerment mean?
Throughout cultures, women have been advocating for their rights to be viewed as
citizens with the same rights as dominant sections of men. They also began viewing
their imposed role with a critical lens and began challenging the idea of womanhood.
However, many have dismissed these arguments and refuse to move forward from
these narrow gender roles. This conflict is what led to the idea of creating
‘empowerment’ for women. According to the dictionary definition, empowerment [in
the given context] is “…the process of becoming stronger and more confident,
especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights”.

As established earlier, women were labelled as unfit to control aspects of their lives
and hence were denied basic agency such as the right to vote, own property, and
control finances. The long and arduous fight earlier generations of women went
through is finally what provided the women of today with their fundamental rights.
Empowerment in each era changes as the needs and perceptions of women change.
Today, although we no longer have to fight to be viewed as whole citizens, there are
many systemic and institutional problems that women face. Women are still a
minority.

Although a very muddled concept, women empowerment could be understood as a

social process promoting women as independent individuals with the right to make
their own choices. Women empowerment is about encouraging women to do things
that raise their self-worth; it is about attaching self-worth to themselves as individuals
and not the person they are within other institutions such as marriage, religion, and
family. Women empowerment argues for women’s agency in all aspects of their lives
and provides opportunities through which women can influence and challenge
society and societal norms.
Women empowerment is closely related to female empowerment- a basic human
right- and therefore, a lot of the principles and issues women empowerment tackles
is pertaining to gender equality, gender discrimination and the overall upliftment of
female lives. These issues are tackled in all sections of society, from religion to
education to the workplace. Women empowerment campaigns have greatly aided in
implementing laws that help provide a platform for women and girls. As our socio-
economic position in society influences our quality of life, one of the biggest
challenges to tackle is poverty. Poverty is similar to a ship anchor as it ties one down
and alienates them from resources, education, job opportunities and much more.
Though poverty is being tackled on a broader scale, women empowerment looks
explicitly at how it’s possible to provide an exit path for women. This specific
emphasis is laid because of patriarchal norms that plague society. In developing and
third world countries, although there are laws against it, women cannot own property,
control their finances or get an education. Women empowerment schemes focus on
bringing women to a standing where they can exist independently.

Also Read:   Feminization of Poverty

Compared to women, men have had a jump start on education and prospering in
society as these rights were not always available to young girls. Education for girls is
still an issue that exists today. Families believe that educating girls is a waste of
money, time, and resources. Many children drop out of school because they were
forced to or they themselves begin to believe that their education is futile. Education
till the age of 14 has been constitutionally demanded as a requirement. However, not
all have access to education and more often than not, the quality of education
provided is of poor quality. Schemes such as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao aim to
eradicate this problem and empower young girls to focus on their education and
independent life.

The workplace is another sector in which women empowerment is given a lot of

importance. Reservations have been passed to ensure that women are present in
different job sectors, especially in government jobs and higher-positioned jobs (such
as directors). This allows women to have an influence in the workplace. Within the
workplace, there are multitudes of issues that must be deconstructed. The root of all
these issues lies in misogyny, sexism, and long-standing patriarchal norms. The
gender pay gap is an issue that is discussed from corporate jobs to high-paying jobs
in the film industry, women are paid significantly less compared to their male
counterparts even if they are doing the same work. Women empowerment schemes
look to address this issue and put it in the spotlight because many still believe these
claims to be false or have little regard for them.
The workplace is a scary world to step into for any woman because from the very
get-go, she will face problems that her male counterparts probably would not have to
go through. Companies prefer to hire more men than women. If they are hired, it is
very possible to face sexism and micro-aggression daily. During the #MeToo
movement many top directors and producers were accused of forcing and
manipulating women to do sexual favours in order to land a role. One of the biggest
reasons as to why women are less favoured when compared to men is because of
maternity leave. It is interesting to note that in the majority of cases, it is always the
woman who is expected to put her career aside to look after the child. There are
exceptions where households have stay-at-home dads and working mothers, but
from a larger scale, this is not much. The examples mentioned above only touch on
a few of the issues that women face in the workplace because of their gender.

Debates and Issues within ‘The Empowered Woman’

While women empowerment is a needed step to uplift women of all kinds, there are
issues with how it is progressing in today’s time. A lot of what the third-wave
feminists focused on was the idea of ‘Girl Power. They wanted to project the idea
that a woman could be strong, capable, and independent, they could enter male-
dominated fields and still be considered a woman. Though this gave rise to a lot of
young feminists, companies, particularly the media, have reverted to viewing women
empowerment as this shallow, one-dimensional act that falls within the walls of
‘Choice Feminism’.

According to choice feminism, anything a woman does is considered as women

empowerment simply because a woman chooses to do it. Choosing to wear lipstick
and make-up, choosing not to; Choosing to work and become financially
independent; Choosing to give birth or choosing to remain childless; Choosing to
become a stay-at-home mom; Choosing to reject traditional gender norms or
choosing to enter a patriarchal structure that actively practices these norms.
Everything is termed as ‘empowering’ and ‘powerful’ simply because a woman is
choosing to make these choices. However, it is crucial to understand that these
choices do not exist in a vacuum; they are made and influenced by societal norms,
media, and the male gaze. For example, the choice to wear alluring and provocative
clothing in an attempt to look ‘sexy’ is a concept that is marketed as empowering.
However, the idea of what is considered ‘sexy’ stems from the male gaze and is
palpable to the audience it was meant for: Men.

Choice feminism understands the inability to make individual choices as oppression,

therefore it only extends to very individual, personal and small-scale issues. It does
not try to tackle the more significant structural issues at hand. As long as a woman is
able to actively participate in the choices she wants to make, choice feminists
consider it as liberation. Critics of choice feminism argue that the choices a woman
makes have a social component to them and cannot be simply viewed as an
‘individual choice.’ For example, a woman may choose to become a stay-at-home
mom, but when viewed from a larger perspective, the disparity between stay-at-
home moms and stay-at-home dads is too large to be ignored. Having said that, it is
essential to point out that both sides are inherently flawed because they conflate the
personal with the collective. While choice feminism is only concerned with individual
choices, critics are only concerned about collective ones. Both fail to recognise that
the individual and collective co-exist, and when discussing an area with a large grey
area, both must be taken into account.
Coming back to how the media and corporations exploit the existence of choice
feminism, women must be critical of what is being sold to them for consumption.
Publishing a video that talks about women having the freedom to make choices and
parceling it as ‘women empowerment does little for the community. Rather, they
should focus on how women can be empowered by deconstructing iron-clad gender
norms and addressing systemic, institutional oppression.