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Economic Empowerment Around the World

Luis Camacho

e3 Civic High
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Abstract

Economic empowerment is a challenge because some people may not be able to have a good

enough job to help themselves or their families this is worldwide not just in one country.

Economic empowerment is around the world and it can drastically affect the lives of any woman

or man. Economic empowerment mostly affects more women than it does men. There has been

progress made in many countries for economic empowerment. An example would be Africa

there has been a widespread ratification but there is still the problem that places in Africa still

have the issue of economic empowerment. Even though you cant see that everyone gets the

same amount of treatment in the workplace or anything else in that matter does not mean that it

does not exist. In many countries there is the issue about economic empowerment in the

workplace.

Keywords: economic empowerment, africa, worldwide, workplace

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Economic Empowerment Around the World

Economic Empowerment is an issue that can be found around the world even if it is in a

way that you do nott notice. Economic Empowerment is a struggle that women have to deal with.

In the book Half the Sky it mentions other issues besides Economic Empowerment the other four

mentioned are Maternal Mortality, Sex Trafficking, Gender-Based Violence, and Education. The

reason that I chose to write about Economic Empowerment is because I wanted learn more about

it and then in turn explain to other people what it is and how it is affecting people's lives.

Another reason I chose this is because I wanted to make people aware about Economic

Empowerment and who is affected by this the most. Although in the past males have had more

power over females and people have made their efforts in creating equality between males and

female. Even with people's efforts there still is not equality between both genders. People may

think that Economic Empowerment is not as big an issue as the other issues that I mentioned

earlier but that is not true because Economic Empowerment is slowing down the progression of

people because of unfair treatment in the economy and it does not benefit the growth of the

economy. Economic Empowerment is something that everyone should have despite their gender.

One way to commence the economic empowerment for people worldwide is by

increasing access to jobs using programs that train women. Economic Empowerment can

commence by raising the economic condition of places worldwide starting with the countries

with the worst economic condition or starting with sections of a country with the worst economic

condition. Another way that can help economic empowerment for people worldwide besides
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improving the economic condition is by transportation. Transportation can help improve

Economic Empowerment because it will help women get their jobs or get a new job that pays

more. The jobs that some people have they only have because they can not go back and forth to

their house from the jobs. Transportation can help increase the amount of higher paying jobs that

women can work at if they need help getting to higher paying jobs. Another way that can help

women around the world get better jobs or even jobs at all besides improving the economic

condition and improving or adding transportation is be decreasing the standards. Women

globally will be able to get jobs or higher paying jobs if the standards are decreased because not

all women have the chance to get training for work so decreasing the standards would be another

way to go at this because not all women receive training so it is hard for those women to get jobs

or good paying jobs without training. If the standards are decreased for jobs then it will become

easier for women to get better jobs or for those do not have jobs they will hopefully be able to

get a job with the standards decreased even though people think this could make jobs less

productive. This could be a way to increase the productivity because women are underestimated

but they can do just as much work or even more work than any person. Another way to help

women earn money is by increasing microloans.

Increasing access to microloans allowing programs to operate in developing nations what

a microloan is a small amount of money that is lent a low interest rate to a new business. A way

that microloans can help is by helping women with new business reach financial freedom what

financial freedom is the point that your assets produce enough income to cover your baseline

expenses. Microloans can help women because when women start up a new business and

hopefully do well with what their business is doing and then eventually they can earn enough
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money to buy the essentials of what they need and then grow their business and then earn enough

money to have life they dreamed of. With Microloans and women being able to start up their

own businesses and then being able to get the essentials of what they need they will be able to

have their physical being taken care of. What I mean when I say their physical being taken care

of I mean their health besides other essentials like food or water they will also be able to go to a

doctor and buy medicines. If the access of micro loans were to increase then women will be able

to have food, water, medicine and be able to checked up on by a doctor. If women have access to

a doctor then there physical well being will be taken care of and they will be able to live a

healthier life with the business that they are making with the microloans. Besides the fact that

women will be able to buy food, water, medicine and get to see a doctor they will also gain a

sense of pride by owning a business. A sense of pride is important because it can show people

how much you care about what you are doing. The pride that women will gain when owning a

business will demonstrate that they have the will and the amount of hard work that they put into

their business. When you see someone with pride means that they will do what is right no matter

how hard it is instead of choosing the easy way out and then when you notice that they have this

they will be someone that you can trust. Besides increasing access to microloans another way to

increase the money that women earn is by decreasing how much they earn because of their

gender.

Decreasing gender discrepancies in wages by allowing political action programs more

access what this means is that there should be a decrease of money earned because of gender

differences. One way to go about changing the amount of money people earn because of their

gender differences is by changing the laws. What I mean by changing the laws is for example
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having a law that stops or does not allow companies or business to pay their workers unfairly

because of their differences in gender even though some may work harder than others but not get

paid as much as other. Changing the laws or adding a law like this can help but that doesnt mean

that everyone will abide by this law and may try and get passed it that's why it may be an

efficient way to help stop economic empowerment in the workplace or other places. Besides

changing the laws you can also try and convince or persuade people from a large or small

business/company that it is wrong to pay their workers an unequal amount of money by showing

statistics on women head of households. By showing people statistics of women that are head of

households you can show people of how much they do and why women should get an equal

amount of money when working. People will realize how much women can do when they see

statistics of what they do and how much they do in one day. Besides changing the laws to help

stop economic empowerment and showing statistics on women head of households you can help

people realize how hard women work and the set of the skills that have that most men will

probably never have. A women can be more help in the workplace because of what they do at

home taking care of children they can make a color coded diagram and they can organize and

research. There are many things that women do and what they pick up on how to do in a short

amount of time. Women in the workplace can be more help than and most likely increase the

productivity of a business or company. Women can help business companies and countries grow

if they are treated with an equal amount of pay and an equal amount of rights that the men are

given.

COUNTER ARGUMENT

Although the economic empowerment of women around the world is important some
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people may disagree with that or disagree with the methods to help with economic

empowerment. There are some people that think that economic empowerment for women is not

an a matter that needs their immediate attention or that it should be solved with the education of

children. The problem of economic empowerment is something that need attention and yes

educating children would be a good way to stop economic empowerment but it doesnt solve the

immediate problem of economic empowerment it would take too long for the education of

children to stop economic empowerment. That is not the only reason that education wouldnt be

the best idea because there are some countries that do not allow girls to go to school and have an

education that is why increasing the amount of money that women earn can be more helpful

because if women earn more money that can also possibly help girls in countries that dont allow

girls to go to school it could help them go to one. There is still another problem with education

over economic empowerment even if you educate children they still may not understand the

importance of economic empowerment for women. The education of children is a necessity as

well but economic empowerment is a big threat to women around the world if they can not get

jobs and taking care of their children. Women are important that is precisely why they need an

equal amount of pay and also to get jobs. If the economic empowerment were to keep going on

women would still be getting unequal pay and then the problem of women around the world

especially in developing countries where women have a hard time getting money and work.

Conclusion

The economic empowerment of women is important around the world and by helping the

women in the developing countries by Increasing access to jobs, Increasing access to microloans

and Decreasing gender discrepancies in wages are good ways to help but these are not the only
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way that people can help stop economic empowerment for women there are many other

possibilities to stop economic empowerment. There are websites that you can visit to learn more

about the people helping to stop economic empowerment or you can contribute by making

donations. The importance of women needs to get out and needs to be noticed that is why

economic empowerment needs to stop.

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Annotated Bibliography

Kristof, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for

women worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

In this book Kristof and WuDunn wrote about the things that they saw and what they

experienced when they were traveling. They wrote about how the women in the countries

are treated and how they have been helped. What I think the reason the authors wrote this

book was to make people aware of what is happening in other countries.They wanted to

make people realize what women in impoverished places where going through and want

peoples support to help these women. The reason that I am using this book as a source is

because as I stated before the authors went traveling to see what was happening and they

saw and experienced some of these things for themselves.

Margaret A. M. (2008). Gender equality and the economic empowerment of women. Illinois:

Forum on Public Policy.

What this Journal article talks about is that the feminist debate at the international level

concerns the issue of human rights. The author states that feminism and human rights

seem to be natural allies. What this article mainly talks about is the issue that women are

not offered the same basic protection and freedom and other that men are offered. The

article also mentions the liberal feminist view and how they criticize the notions of

human rights. The author states that they argue that rights are a culture bound construct
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10

that does not do justice to more relational understanding of self, or to communal

cultures.

Safire W. (1990, July 15). Empowerment And Denouncement. New York: The New York Times.

What the newspaper article by The New York Times talks about is first when the word

empowerment was used and talks about a heritage release that wants empowerment. The

author also mentions something about the empowerment act and how voter registration

groups pushed electoral empowerment. Then the author mentions about the protest on

empowerment and it also mentions Jack Kemp and President Bush and how Jack Kemp

was asked to give his own short definition of the word empowerment. To finish of the

newspaper article the author states that the word has crept up on lexicographers the word

empower has deep roots in the language and its usage as a political noun.

United Nations Population Fund. The United Nations. Gender Equality.

http://www.unfpa.org/gender-equality. Author.
This website created by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was made to

inform people about the problem about women economic empowerment around the

world and explains why gender equality is something that has to be done. It also

addresses what the effects of not having gender equality is having on women all over the

world . The reason I think this is a reliable source to use on gender equality is because

this website talks about many of the problems that gender equality causes and also

because it was created by the lead UN agency to help with economic empowerment.