HOW EMPOWERING WOMEN CAN DECREASE WORLD POVERTY
“Women make up half of the world's population and yet
represent a staggering 70% of the world's poor...”
- Global Poverty Info Bank
(2013) -
How could this be? Sadly, it starts from birth. When families favor
males, young girls are sometimes left to die, be malnourished, or suffer from
untreated medical conditions.
 |
| Image courtesy: akhilak.com |
In many cultures, genital mutilation is done with maternal
consent, leading to a life full of pain, infection, and in many cases, death.
If they make it to working years, they are often underpaid and overworked.
In fact, according to GPIB, on average, women make half of
what men make (2013). Many women are encouraged to stay home and do work around
the house. In this case, women don’t have the same opportunity for education.
When gender inequality takes a toll on women, some will turn
to prostitution or other informal work for pay, which makes them extremely
vulnerable to exploitation, violence, rape, murder, or sex slavery (GPIB,
2013).
Empowering women can lead to more gender equality in the world.
Empowering women can also help encourage economic growth nationwide in
countries with extreme gender inequalities because working women contribute
more to the economy (Kerbo, 2006).
SO WHAT DOES EMPOWERING WOMEN MEAN?
There are many ways to empower women. Here are some of large
scale types:
Empowering
women means advocating against early child marriage.
o
Prevention of early child marriage leads to less
health complications and less child birthing related deaths
o
Discouraging
early marriage will lead to a lower national population, which means more food
and money to go around
o
If
children wait to get married, more women will get educated, giving them more
career options. If a woman can get a good job, she won’t need to marry into a
new family.
o
In most cases, women who don’t get married as
children have a higher life satisfaction.
(Child Brides: Stole Lives, 2007)
·
Empowering
women means encouraging and promoting education.
o
With education, women are more likely to get
good, steady jobs, so they will pay back their loans (Kerbo, 2006).
o
With education, women are more likely to use
birth control, keeping the population in control as well, which also benefits
the national economics (Kerbo, 2006).
o According
to World Bank, “an extra year of secondary schooling for girls can increase their
future wages by 10 to 20 % (World Bank, 2011).”
What else can you do to empower women close to you?
o
Promote women’s political rights and
participation
o
Teach girls to empower each other from a young
age
o
Believe in them and help them find necessary
resources to move forward
o
Get involved with an organization or just spread
the word!
Many people still
don’t realize that gender inequality exists. Likewise, many women don’t realize
their lives (or their children’s lives) could be better with a few changes.
Written by: Tristyne Brindle
Community Service
WORKS CITED
Kerbo, H. (2006).
World poverty: Global inequality and the
modern world system. New York: McGraw Hill. Pg 47-49.
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