Women empowerment is a fundamental pre-requisite for the development of a country, as empowered women contribute to the uplift of their nation directly and indirectly in various ways. Firstly, literate women raise literate children and thus, improve the overall literacy rate. Secondly, many studies have made it crystal clear that women, with strong financial background, spend more money on the welfare of their households, unlike men. Thirdly, women empowerment gives a country an opportunity to engage around 50 per cent population in work force to boost an economy. Fourthly, women are tends to be soft and humble by nature and their empowerment will open a corridor for them to become a part of legislation. Afterwards, they will prevent drifting their nation in a major conflict that could cause a serious catastrophe. Fifthly, they will provide additional revenue for the betterment of their households. Finally, it is the only effective way to control the population. It is a reason that one finds women empowerment in almost all the developed nations. Thus, women empowerment is pivotal for the development of a country.
Examining the status of women in the developed and developing nations will help illustrate the importance of women empowerment for the development of a country. Women enjoy equal rights in almost all the advanced nations. They are equally literate as compared to man and are not distinguished in any employment based on their sex. In the third world countries like India and Pakistan, they are mostly engaged in low labour jobs and are also not paid salaray or wages equally for the same work. Their literacy rate also remains abysmal in these countries. Hence, the unequal status of women in the developed and developing nations proves the fact that their empowerment largely contributes to the development of a country.
There is no denying the fact that literate women raise literate children because they remain aware of the fact that good educational background is essential for their better future. Besides, they act as home tutor when their children face difficulty in understanding some subjects. If mothers are illiterate, they will not be able to pay heed to their proper education. Realising the importance of female education, Quaid-i-Azam emphasized, “Women’s education is very necessary, otherwise the future generation, which depends on women for its upbringing, will remain ignorant.” He further said, “You cannot expect a woman who is herself ignorant to bring up your children properly.” Thus, educated women play a greater role in uplifting the overall literacy rate of a nation.
It is also well know fact that women, with the strong financial background, spend more money for the welfare of their households. Owing to their emotional attachment with children and home, they sacrifice their personal interests in favour of their family. Consequently, the welfare of households leads to the formation of better societies and ultimately a better country. No doubt, a country with happy and stable residents tends to achieve fast development. On the other hand, when men, alone, is given economic responsibility, apart from family, they spend their earnings on their personal interests like purchasing expensive cars, going to clubs and attending social gatherings with friends. By nature as well, they cannot be compared with women when the betterment of a household is concerned. Thus, economic empowerment of women contributes to the development of a country through the welfare of households.
If women, with almost 50 per cent of global population, start to participate in economic activities along with men, they can skyrocket the economic growth rate of a state. For instance, a woman will contribute to the development of its home country by sending remittances earned by gaining employment in any advanced country. Many Chinese women are engaged in Gulf countries and sending remittances back to their home. Besides, providing access to the women in markets increase the working age population that can be used to boost economic growth rate. For example, women will then replace men in jobs at shopping malls and it will create more male labour to be engaged in industries to escalate overall industrial growth rate. Moreover, women can run business more efficiently than men because they are more devoted to their work and put their best efforts to achieve a given target in a shorter period of time. According to the one survey, it was estimated that companies with three or more women in senior management functions scored higher in all dimensions of organizational effectiveness. Hence, women empowerment helps a country to gain more economic benefits from them.
Women empowerment will create a peaceful world because it will open an opportunity for them to become a part of administration. Since they are soft and humble by nature, they will frame laws and policies that will not only prevent wars, but also ensure peaceful cooperation among the neighboring nations. Peace in the globe is a very important pillar for the breakthrough of states and women can help to erect such column on a stable foundation. On the other hand, men are harsh and arrogant by nature and are more likely to cause wider conflagration, when they are in power. In history, it can be seen that men caused the most of the deadest conflicts. As such, it is reached that women participation in the decision-making is imperative for the betterment of a country.
Women empowerment provides double financial support for the household. The additional revenue, earned by women, can be used for the better health and education of the young generation. In this way, every family will have healthy and literate children. These are two important factors responsible for overall economic growth of states. It will make them more innovative and hardworking and help them to found some high-tech corporations for the further development of their states. As such, women’s additional income will improve the educational status and health of the coming generation and prepare them for a task to further contribute to the development of their countries by involving themselves in some economic activities.
The only effective way to control population is to empower women. Women with good educational and financial status avoid giving birth to more babies. They also adopt the latest technology to control birth rate. They only give births to the limited children in accordance with their resources so that they could fulfill their basic rights like health and education without making distinction between baby girl and boy. It is the only reason that the population growth rate in the developed countries is less than developing nations. More population becomes burden on the limited resources of any country and impedes its development. It is, therefore, an empowered woman helps her country in preventing population growth rate beyond its safe limits.
The first step to achieve women empowerment, to develop the nations, is to raise their literacy rate. Without providing them education, all efforts to achieve the task will reduce to the ashes. The women’s literacy rate in the developing countries paints a dismal image. For instance, in Pakistan, women’s literacy rate stands at 45 per cent as compared to men’s around 70 per cent. Good literacy rate of women is pre-requisite for the development of a country. It can be achieved by making it a top priority while framing policies for education. Parents must be encouraged to send their female child to school. Besides, the governments, to teach women some skills like sewing clothes, must launch separate vocational training programs. In this way, more women will be made a part of labour force and contribute to the overall GDP growth rate of their respective countries.
There is an urgent need to eliminate cultural constraints that stand as stumbling block in the way of female education. In many countries including Pakistan, women education is considered taboo and most parents do not permit them to go outside of their home to seek knowledge. The government must adopt measures to change this mentality of parents. In Muslim countries, Islamic scholars should be involved to pursue the parents that denying women an education is against Islamic principles. In some conservative societies, a state must build separate institutions for girls and try its best to protect their honour. Thus, a country needs to eradicate a culture that resists the empowerment of women by addressing all the concerns of their parents.
Some laws should be enacted in the countries, in accordance with the problems women face, to raise their status in societies. The governments must first examine the issues confronted by them and then frame policies for their empowerment. For example, women face domestic violence at home and sexual harassment at offices, in Pakistan. The country responded quickly and devised laws entitled “Protection against harassment of women at workplace’ in 2010 and “Domestic violence prevention and protection act 2010.” Afterwards, this violence against women, if not eliminated completely, reduced to a larger extent. Similarly, the states needs to frame policies, in accordance with the problems faced by women in their countries, to boost their contribution in the overall development process.
There is an immediate need to improve criminal justice system and make it more women friendly. The system includes police and judiciary. At present, in many third world countries including Pakistan, the behavior of police officials towards women is not seen as good. They consider women as trivial objects and often give deaf ear to their demands. Besides, they avoid registering their FIR and sometimes harass them. This attitude of police must be changed and it can be achieved only through comprehensive reforms in the criminal justice system. As such, the system must be reformed to make it friendlier towards women so that they could use the system to solve their legal issues.
Thus, from the above arguments, it has been reached that the women are the important agents of development of a country. They contribute to the uplift of a nation only when they are empowered and provided equal political, social and economic rights. Analyzing the status of women in the developed and developing countries further proves this fact. It is imperative for the countries to empower the women by addressing all the issues that act as stabling blocks. Thus, through increasing literacy rate, raising healthy children, growing working age population, preventing conflicts, making their households financially strong and controlling population, the empowered women contribute to the development of a country.
