Updated December 20, 2022
Empowering someone is defined as “the process of making one stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights”. But different people have different perspectives over empowerment, depending on their experiences, circumstances, hopes, and dreams. This not such a small topic there is a lot to know and discuss women’s empowerment in the context of sustainable development and controlling population growth. The article featured on this page is an endeavor put by our team Career101.in where we have tried our best to present you about women’s empowerment and “how is it works as key in controlling population growth and for sustainable development?”. So, do follow the below article to know more about it.
Coming to women empowerment, the theme is nothing much different. It is the same as empowering any individual. Women’s empowerment is simply a process of empowering women. Empowerment can be defined in many ways, however, when talking about women’s empowerment, empowerment means accepting and allowing women in every decision-making process. “Accepting and allowing women in every decision-making process puts a strong emphasis on participation in political structures and formal decision-making and, in the economic sphere, on the ability to obtain an income that enables participation in economic decision-making”.
Empowerment is the process that creates power in individuals over their own lives, society, and in their communities whether it’s men or women. People are said to be empowered when they are able to access the opportunities available to them without any limitations and restrictions such as in education, profession, and lifestyle. Feeling entitled to make your own decisions creates a sense of empowerment. Empowerment includes the action of raising the status of women through education, raising awareness, literacy, and training. Women’s empowerment is all about equipping and allowing women to make life-determining decisions through different problems in society.
How Women’s Empowerment is a Key to Sustainable Development and Control Population Growth.
Women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality are essential for our society to ensure the sustainable or any kind of development of the country because it enables them to explore their potential or capability that “what and how much could they do for their families and society?”. Sustainable development accepts environmental protection, social & economic development and without women’s empowerment, women wouldn’t feel equally important to the process of development as men and it will become impossible for any country to attain sustainable development. That’s why many leaders and scholars all over the world have argued that sustainable development is impossible without gender equality and women’s empowerment. It is widely believed that the full participation of both men and women is critical for the development of any country. It is known to everyone that any country where gender equality is not followed is undeveloped almost in every region such as in education, lifestyle, and economy. That’s why acknowledging only men’s participation will not be beneficial to sustainable development. Without gender equality and empowerment, the country could not be just, and social change wouldn’t occur. Therefore, scholars agree that women’s empowerment plays a huge role in the development and is one of the significant contributions of development. Without the equal inclusion of women in development, women would not be able to benefit or contribute to the development of the country.
when talking about women’s empowerment as key to control population growth, first we should know “what are the rights and opportunities which enable women to be empowered by accessing these rights & opportunities and how are they helpful in controlling population growth?”. Education, Self-sufficiency, and Independent decision making are the parts of women empowerment that allow them to access every right and opportunities. Of course, Population is one of the major modern challenges faced by our society. The effect of indiscriminate growth of population is both acute as well as chronic and women’s empowerment plays an important role in controlling population growth. So, let’s see how women’s empowerment works like a key to control population growth.
Education
Education is one of the major parts of women,s empowerment. When a woman is adequately educated, she has sound knowledge of maternity facilities, birth control medicines and devices and access to any sort of resources which is helpful in birth control. She could herself read about the magazines on her health, how to ensure proper childbearing in a suitable age, and how to avert any unwanted pregnancy, etc. Being educated she will also be in a position to spread the same education to other fellow women who in turn will be benefited in keeping the number of pregnancies in check.
Self-sufficiency
Self sufficient is having the ability and resources to take care of yourself without help. When there is gender equality in terms of employment, salary, wages etc. This apart from ensuring the personal growth of a woman instills a sense of confidence that she is able to raise her children even without the co-operation of her spouse and she is in complete know of her limitations as to how many children can be raised through her income. Since they generate their own income, there is no need to follow the husband’s orders.
Independent decision making
Independent decision making is an important part of women’s empowerment and without this right, they will be not able to access the opportunities available to them. When decision making is equally enjoyed by the women in a family, the priorities set by man could not be thrust upon the woman. This means the woman will be in charge of deciding how the family will grow and will not succumb to the situations arising out of likely poverty, unemployment, etc. She will be in a position to decide as what should be the suitable number of children the family should have in order to go about happily with available resources and income.
Women’s Empowerment is Very Much Crucial
So, it is observed from all the above aspects that women,s empowerment contributes greatly to control population growth and in sustainable development of the country. It has to be understood though, the population is not bad in itself so long it remains human resources which essentially requires imparting education, training, and skill to the population. The population growth as usually perceived is also not bad until it is not getting burdened on the available resources of country. It is also not bad until it replaces the unproductive population by slight measures. Most importantly, the entire population of a country is reflective of a balanced approach in maintaining a family size and the family size has the direct bearing of a woman’s education or broadly speaking a woman’s empowerment. So, to sum up, women’s empowerment is a great tool to control disproportionate population growth.