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Women Empowerment

Gender equality has been promoted universally over the past several decades. The idea

exists under the purpose of emphasizing human rights which, in many cases, involves the

empowerment of the women. Also, this is believed to be dispensable and a key part of the

sustainable social development. According to Acosta (n.d.), low poverty rate together with the

economic growth can be resulted by the women empowerment. Nevertheless, although the

notion has been supported by several parties and seen as the advantageous factor for the

development, women rights seems to be overlooked and insufficiently take place in some society

and circumstance. There are many cases where women are treated poorly as they are regarded as

weaker. Even worse, opportunities in many fields are reserved for only male such as certain

career chance and position which define a small role of the female population causing several

social constraints as a result. Similarly to the role of women in ​Things Fall Apart, ​women are

seen as minor ranking human-being and always have to behave accordingly to those men. Their

roles in the society are only limited to housework and wives to men. Even the basic human rights

are not given to them, like the rights to be protected by the violence, or the rights to express their

thoughts. Moreover, women have to undergo through physical torment and abuse led by their

husbands within the family. There are no laws or principle of behavior to guard them from all

these mistreatment. Hence, there are numerous factors which women have to bear with, all

hardship in the gender unfairness which put a huge effort on empowering themselves as they

wish it could bring the desired outcome eventually and in the next generations. Throughout

history, empowered voices of women have emerged in societies even though they are seen as

secondary status.
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​As a number of women are on its rise, the role of the female gender has been highlighted

more and more since the increasing amount of women can affect the society, the economy, and

the environment in a variety of ways. According to the statistics from Quartz (2018), in the

previous year population count, over 81 countries around the world have their majority of

population as women while only 36 nations are resided by the majority of men. This is the

evident example to support the fact that women population outweighs the number of male

population and tend to keep on maintaining the crucial ratio. In fact, the phenomenon occurs not

only because of the rising female population, but it is also the consequent of female

empowerment in today’s world. To explain, as mentioned before that women’s role has been

limited by the social notion that women are weaker, the movements taken place by the female

gender are raised to provoke the change in the perception towards the role and the importance of

the female as well as the equality of gender. The purposeful movements to provoke change in

gender equality were shown in the form of social campaigns whose aim was mainly about the

encouragement and calling for the attention on gender equality. Because of the huge effort of the

incidents, women empowerments are successfully paid attention by the society as it can be seen

from the increasing opportunities in several fields that once men can do but women cannot.

There is one of the most apparent and meaningful situations that reflects how society save more

chance to women role; female president. It is well accepted that the president is seen as the

country leader. However, female presidents exis. This is a sign that women are coming into the

public role which is the important evolution of humans. In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was served

as the Prime minister of Pakistan, and was considered as the first prime minister of Pakistan and

also the Islamic state “Today in History”(2018). She achieved her ultimate position since the age
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of 29 which was also the youngest age of Pakistan Prime Minister. Due to this situation, several

aspects agree that she was well educated and potentially talented to manage all the instability of

the Islamic region by her lead. This expresses and stresses the notion that female nowadays can

be responsible for such a crucial position and duty which in the past society only let the male

acquire.

Growth and development of the society is contributed by the empowerment of women. It

is shown that the empowering of women lead to the sustainable development of the society. The

first contribution is the fact that women elevate themselves to be equal as men which creates a

productive environment. Prior to the empowerment of women, they all had faced with a bunch of

obstacles and impediments in their lives, being confined and limited to things under certain

circumstances. They are lack of power to freely do things that they want to, as well as to develop

themselves. Less education are offered to women than men. They do not get a chance to improve

themselves and heighten their knowledge. However, after empowerment of women is brought up

to the society, women are more accessible to educations and can develop themselves in many

aspects. Due to this, their capability to perform various tasks as well as decision making also

advanced. This can be applied to all aspects in their life, giving a long-term effect, allowing them

to be better. It is pointed out that the improvement of women allows men to be productive. Asim

Nawaz Abbassi, a Islamanbad commonwealth alumni, states that the “The empowerment of

women correlates in strengthening men, it promotes the better living of women which then

contribute to many benefits to all.” (“Women empowerment means all benefit”, 2018). It

diminish the selfish quality of men, allowing them to be more dedicated to work and persevere,

showing kindness and learn to be caring. The empowering of women is all about acknowledging
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strengths of all kind through different perspectives, while keeping in mind that women are equal

and deserve everything as men, erasing the vulnerability that they once overwhelmed with. It is

simply not about the comparison of what people of different genders, men and women can do.

This recognition that women receive through empowerment promotes them to do better in every

way. This contributes to a positively competitive environment and encourages the men to do well

as well as women. The another evidence that highlight that the empowerment of women that

does not only positively impact women, but impact everyone in the society, is that the economics

of the society is better than before. In other words, resulted from this empowerment, more

educations are offered to women, the education of women reaches the higher level than before.

The poverty, economic growth and equality of people is upraised because of this. Based on the

report, it is pointed out that the annual income growth per capita is magnified in accordance to

the one percent increase in the amount of women who graduated the secondary level of

education. The economics of the whole country is elevated by 0.3%. To put in short, if all the

women are educated, the countries would be able to get out from the stage of poverty as fast as

possible (WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO EMPOWER WOMEN IN DEVELOPING

COUNTRIES, n.d.) It is clear, therefore that the empowerment of women proves to the society

that they are as capable as and this positively contributes to the society.

The empowerment of women is also illustrated in​ Things Fall Apart. Things Fall Apart​ is

a book published in 1958 by a Nigerian author, known as ​Chinua Achebe. Achebe narrates how

women are treated as the subordinates of men through the traditions and culture of Umuofia, the

main setting of the story, a village on the eastern portion of Nigeria. The roles of women are

emphasized through the daily basis of the Igbo people. Their social status are also reflected by
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how they are treated and valued by others. Although it is conspicuous that women has

contributed to society in many significant way, for instance; in religious matter, educational

aspects as well as the domestic tasks, they are still scorned by the men. As a consequence of this

oppressive social status of women, their opportunities and potential are suppressed within certain

boundary. There are numerous things which are accessible to men but not to women. However,

through Things Fall Apart, the author gradually introduces the fact that women also hold great

powers and they are utilizing these powers toward men in order to gain what they are supposed

to be given back. The view of people toward women accelerate more and more and the

empowerment of women is visible little by little. This is evident on page 100 when the author

writes “​It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks

sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is

sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is

there to protect you…And that is why we say that mother is supreme.” From here Okonkwo’s

uncle, Uchendu, is explaining why mother is known as “supreme.” This part signifies the

empowerment of mother. Mother, who is known to be born as female women is superior and

powerful, although not physical strong like men, but she owns a distinctive dominant power. Of

course, men belongs to the father and the fatherland. However, mother is always there for them

whenever they get punished by their fathers. The power of mother is that she never fails to

protect you, not in a physically way, but in a way that can cure your pain and calm you down.

Her everlasting care and sympathy for you would remain forever, even when is already buried

into the ground. Men can always return to motherland and seek kindness from their mothers. The

obvious sign of women empowerment is also demonstrated on page 81, illustrating “Once in a
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while Chielo was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy. But tonight she

was addressing her prophecy and greetings to Okonkwo, and so everyone in his family listened.”

This scene is from chapter 11, when Chielo, the priestess, get possessed by the Oracle of the

Hills and the Caves. This is day when the spirit of god has strongly gotten to her, she has

completely loosen all her senses. Chielo goes to Okonkwo’s obi, asking to see Ezinma,

Okonkwo’s daughter. However, Chielo doesn’t talk nicely in a way that women should do.

Instead she shouts and threatens Okonkwo. This is evident on page 77, “ The priestess had now

reached Okonkwo's compound and was talking with him outside his hut. She was saying again

and again that Agbala wanted to see his daughter, Ezinma. Okonkwo pleaded with her to come

back in the morning..But Chielo ignored what he was trying to say and went on shouting that

Agbala wanted to see his daughter. Her voice was as clear as metal…The priestess screamed.

"Beware, Okonkwo!" she warned. "Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak

when a god speaks? Beware!"”. This is the time when women are viewed as very powerful and

everyone has to show submission to her, even Okonkwo. The empowerment of women is very

clear when Chielo raises her voice against Okonkwo. She even shouts and intimidates Okonkwo,

warning him to beware the fact that he isn’t obedient, unwilling to give in Ezinma and talks back

to her. The last evidence of the empowerment of women that I would like to point out is when

there’s a judgement of a case between the controversy of wife and husband. The scene is

described on page 66, “The woman was Mgbafo and the three men with her were her brothers. In

the other group were her husband, Uzowulu, and his relatives.” This case shows a strong sign of

women empowerment. It is already known to us that there is no regulations which can protect the

women from domestic violence from her husbands. From this, we can imply that the case is
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brought to light because the woman, Mgbafo, who suffer from physical torment by her husband,

wants to regain her rights and equality. This is really rare and very impressive among the females

in the clan. There is a strong dispute going on during the case. The husbands say that the wife’s

brothers take her and the children back without returning the bride-pride. However, the truth is

told by the wife’s side that the husband had been abusing the woman every single day, for nine

years. This is unacceptable, therefore, the brothers separate them apart. Referring to all the three

evidences above, we realize that women are progressively become stronger and exhibit the signs

through their empowerments. They refuse to be living under the oppressive ruling of men,

which they already do for almost their entire lives.

In conclusion, it is exhibited in ​Things Fall Apart​ that women are determined to erase the

minor rank that are subjected to and take a step further in the society through their empowerment

which are shown throughout the story. The fact that women are breaking through their

limitations can be found not only in the book but also in reality, as in Pakistan where women

serve as a president regardless of her gender and age. The sufferings that women have to endure

over such a long time through several decades have given them strength and tremendously

impact them through the act of empowerment. Series of empowerment actions shows that

women are desperately struggling to obtain their rights and freedom as one of the human beings

in the society. They do not want to be subjected under certain status anymore. Moreover, there

are numerous benefits that the empowerment of women provides to the society.
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References Page

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO EMPOWER WOMEN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES​. (n.d.).

Retrieved from

https://kungsholmensgymnasium.stockholm.se/sites/default/files/womens_empowerment

_by_rania-khiar_mohammedsadik_and_nema_abdihakim_ali.pdf

​ etrieved from
Acosta, L. (n.d.). ​Economic Empowerment. UN Women. R

http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment

“Today in History”. (2018). ​International the News​. Retrieved from

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/400905-today-in-history-benazir-bhutto-takes-oath-as

-muslim-worlds-first-female-pm

“A story of drinkers, genocide and unborn girls”.​ (2018). ​Quart.​ Retrieved from

https://qz.com/335183/heres-why-men-on-earth-outnumber-women-by-60-million/

“Women empowerment means all benefit”. (​ 2018). Retrieved from

http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/social-development/gender-equality-lgbti/women-

empowerment-means-all-benefit/