Empower Women - Empower Pakistan
By Sobia Raja • Jul 29th, 2012 • Category: Politics • 21 Comments
In this globalized world empowerment of women and gender equality are necessary tools for the development of country, women should bring to mainstream so that they can play active role towards the development of their country. Especially in Pakistani scenario where women are 51% of population, they can contribute well in the development of country, though Pakistani environment is not as much favorable as we consider it still woman are facing inequalities not only in Pakistan but around the corner of world.
But the question is what women empowerment is?? It’s simply given them the freedom of choice so that they can shape their lives well. Empowerment in decisions that affect her life, critical analysis of her environment so that she can find opportunities for growth in her respective field, in managing her home life, believe me its requirement of time, in this fast paced world women should be given opportunities in order to cope up this competition.
Pakistani women are advancing in so many fields, just little training and guidelines are required, Govt. has taken steps towards empowering women, they have signed many national and international commitments like National Plan of action (NPA), convention of elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW). Women need to be bringing in mainstream, so that they can take part in the development along with men.
On Friday president Zardari while addressing the signing ceremony at Awne-e-sadr said‘Govt. is pondering to appoint women judges’ this is quite bold step, he said that women should be given opportunities to excel. He further said discrimination against women is routed in all fields of life and democratic govt. has taken steps towards this. . But still the question is, in Pakistani environment, is it possible for women to excel?? My answer is, to some extent, only for few women not for all, most of the women population is spending their lives in poverty, they are not involved in decision making, they are just consider as lower than men, are not given equal status to men. But why we forget our religion and Quran provides us enough guidelines regarding this. Our religion emphasize on the protection of women rights, these rights including, for education, worship, freedom of choice, spouse choice etc. then why not we follow these things. We need to follow Islamic principles in all spheres of life for our betterment.
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In this globalized world empowerment of women and gender equality are necessary tools for the development of country.
Equality is a slick and catchy slogan. But what does equality actually mean?
If men and women are equal, then a woman can do anything a man can do and vice versa. You can substitute one for the other everywhere. Thus a woman can be a truck driver, a coal miner, a prison guard, etc. Similarly a man can become Mr. Mom, replacing the mother in taking care of the children.
Anyone who knows the biological and psychological differences between men and women will know the question is absurd. Yet this is precisely the direction that the so called gender equality campaign has blindly taken. It aims at replacing the complementary relationship between men and women with a competitive one. The result can only be a social upheaval of unprecedented scale.
Some people in the societies that for centuries refused to consider women as human beings or to give them any rights have gone to one extreme from the other. Islam has nothing to do with such nonsense. When women had no rights in the world, it declared: “And women shall have rights, similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable.” [Al-Baqarah 2:228]. That remains its command today and forever. Similar rights, not same rights.
Both men and women are equal in their humanity, in their accountability before Allah SWT, in their responsibility to perform their assigned tasks and be judged based on their performance. But their assigned tasks are not the same. They have been given different capabilities by the Creator and the tasks based on those capabilities. This differentiation is not an error that needs to be corrected. It is the only basis for building a healthy and prosperous society.
Islam liberates a woman from the modern tyranny of having to become a man in order to get a sense of self worth and achievement.
Source: albalagh
Men and women are two completely different beings. Men excel in some departments and women in others. Comparing them is like comparing food and water. All research, whether in biology or psychology, points to the fact that men and women are completely different.
Women need to come to reality. In movies, a woman can lead an army, be an awesome politician, and beat many men single handedly. In reality, female soldiers like Jessica Lynch are rap*d, and many female soldiers are rap*d by their own colleagues. Men are supposed to go in the military to defend women, but the equality obsessed world sends women to defend men.
From the 1800s to the present day, family life in the West has remarkably changed. While the West calls this change part of the women freedom movement, a look at history may show otherwise.
America before the 1800s was a farming country and ninety percent of the population lived and worked on private farms. Households were mainly self-sufficient–nearly everything needed was produced in the house. The few things that could not be produced at home were bought from local craftsmen. Some other things, especially imports from Europe, were bought from stores. Males would take care of the fields and females would take care of the home. In addition, they would engage in spinning, knitting, weaving, and taking care of the farm animals.
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, which began around the early 1800s, brought a major change to this way of life. In 1807, in the wake of the war between Great Britain and France, President Jefferson signed the Embargo Act, which stopped all trade between Europe and America. The Act meant that European goods would no longer be available in the US and Americans would have to produce them. One major European import to America was cloth, and so merchants used this opportunity to create a cloth industry in America.
In 1814, Francis Cabot Lowell, a man from Boston opened the first modern factory. Work here was to be done way faster than before. Instead of manually making things in houses, things were to be made at higher speeds in a factory and all stages of the work were to be completed under the same roof. Now what Lowell needed were workers. He found out that women, especially unmarried daughters of the farmers, were more economical to use in labor than men. They were also more willing to work as hired people in factories.
But Lowell had to make the working outside of home acceptable in a society which was not used to it. He assured parents that their daughters would be taken care of and kept under discipline. And he built a boarding community where the women workers lived and worked together.
Soon after, more and more factories emerged across America. Factory owners followed Lowell’s example of hiring unmarried women. By 1850 most of the country’s goods were made in factories. As production of goods moved from the country to the city, people too moved from the country to the city.
For money to be earned, people had to leave their homes. When women worked on the farm, it was always possible to combine work and family. When work for women moved outside the home, however, the only women who could follow it were those without family responsibilities or those who had no husband or no income. Likewise, the only women who could take care of their families were the ones that didn’t have work.
This working out of home became a part of life for unmarried women. They would work until their marriage. But as time passed, women found family life interfering with their work life and instead of viewing working out of home as optional, they viewed family life as such. Many women started delaying marriage even more and some decided to stay single.
Married women however stayed home and dedicated their time to their children. Now that there wasn’t any farm work to do, women had even more time to spend with the children. In 1900 less than about 5.6% of married women worked outside. If a married woman were to work, it would be considered that her husband was invalid or that she was poor.
World War I
The first major entry of married women to the workforce came during World War I in 1914. Men went to fight the war and the country needed workers to take over the jobs they left behind. Unmarried women were not sufficient for the labor needs, so employers started to invite married women too, to work. By 1919, 25% of the women in the workforce were married. But this was only the beginning.
Another change World War I brought was the entry of women to the army. About 13,000 women enlisted in the US Navy, mostly doing clerical work–the first women in US history to be admitted to full military rank.
Great Depression
The Great Depression came in the 1930s. The unemployment rate climbed from 3.2% in 1929 to 23.6% in 1932. Jobs became scarce for skilled people and men. Fathers went to search for jobs. Some, under despair, deserted their families. The responsibility of earning fell on mothers in many families.
Most women and children, however, found jobs more easily than men because of the segregation of work categories for men and women. Although 80% of men during the Great Depression opposed their wives entering the workforce under any circumstances, economic factors made it necessary for the women to work. Hours were long and pay was low. Twenty percent of white women were in the workforce.
World War II
World War II came in the early 1940s. Men were drafted to fight, and America needed workers and supplies. Again, the employers looked towards the women for labor. Unmarried and married women were invited to work, as had been done during World War I.
But still, public opinion was generally against the working of married women. The media and the government started a fierce propaganda campaign to change this opinion. The federal government told the women that victory could not be achieved without their entry into the workforce. Working was considered part of being a good citizen, a working wife was a patriotic person.
The government founded the Magazine Bureau in 1942. The Bureau published Magazine War Guide, a guide which told magazines which themes stories they should cover each month to aid war propaganda. For September 1943, the theme was “Women at Work”. The slogan for this was “The More Women at Work the Sooner We Win.” Magazines developed stories that glorified and promoted the placement of women into untraditional jobs where workers were needed. The idea was that if smaller, unexciting jobs were portrayed as attractive and noble more women would join the work force.
The media created Rosie the Riveter, a mythical character to encourage women into the workforce. Rosie was portrayed as a patriotic woman, a hero for all American women. “All the day long, Whether rain or shine, She’s a part of the assembly line. She’s making history, Working for victory, Rosie the Riveter… There’s something true about, Red, white, and blue about, Rosie the Riveter.”
The propaganda efforts worked. More than six million women joined the workforce during the war, the majority of them married women. In 1940, before the war, only 36% of women workers were married. By 1945, after the war, 50% of women workers were married. The middle class taboo against a working wife had been repealed.
Post World War II
The 1950s marked an era of prosperity in the lives of American families. Men returned from war and needed jobs. Once again, the government and media got together to steer the opinion of the public. This time, however, they encouraged women to return home, which shows that the women were brought out not for their freedom but because workers were needed.
But this effort was not as successful and was abandoned quickly. First, women from lower economic ranks had to remain in the workforce because of economic necessity. And second, there came the rise of consumer culture.
The baby boom took place during the 1950s as well. Women who returned home dedicated their lives once again to their children. But around the same time an important change had come in the American life. This was the spread of the television. By 1960, 90% of the population owned at least one set. Families would gather around the screen for entertainment. In the early days, everything including commercials was watched with great interest.
Most middle-class families could not afford the goods the television declared necessary to maintain or enhance quality of life with one paycheck alone. Many women returned to work in order to live according to “the American standard of living,” whatever that meant to them.
The number of American women in the workforce from 1940 to 1950 increased by nine percent. From 1930 to 1940 there had only been a three percent increase.
Effects
As mothers returned to work, the television became the most important caretaker of a child. Children in the 1950s spent most of their non-sleeping hours in front of the television screen.
In 1940, less than 8.6% of mothers with children under eighteen worked. By 1987, 60.2% of women with children under eighteen were working.
As wives assumed larger roles in their family’s financial support, they felt justified in demanding that husbands perform more childcare and housework. Across the years, divorce rates doubled reaching a level where at least 1 out of 2 marriages was expected to end in divorce. Marriage rates and birthrates declined. The number of single parent families rapidly increased. People grew unhappy with their lives, when compared to the lives of people on television.
Women working affected the society in many different ways. The first and most important of these was that children with working mothers were left alone without the care of a mother. As the number of working women increased, the number of children growing up unsupervised increased, and with this increased crime among teens.
Since most women placed their career ahead of family life, family life was greatly affected since unmarried women were generally able to make more money than married ones. For example, according to a study by a Harvard economist, women physicians who were unmarried and had no children earned thirteen percent more per year than those who were married and fifteen percent more than those with children.
Today
The majority of women still work at the lower levels of the economic pyramid. Most are employed in clerical positions, factory work, retail sales, or service jobs. Around 50% of the workforce is female. While about 78% of all cashiers and 99% of all secretaries today are female, only 31% of managers and administrators are female. Equality in the workplace has been a mirage but it has conned millions of women into leaving their homes and destroying the family structure.
It was only when economic or political factors made it necessary to get more workers that women were called to work. The Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the World Wars, all the major events which increased the proportion of women workers, were times when the capitalists required more workers in order to be successful in their plans and so they used women.
The move of women from home to the public workforce has been gradual. First poor women went. Then unmarried women. Then married women without children. Then married women without young children And then, all women. The same thing can be seen to be happening in developing countries around the world, as the West spreads its propaganda of freedom for women to work. The results of this move will probably be the same too.
Source: albalagh
woman chief excutive is in labour room and enemy is crossing the country’s boarders hahaha
Abay Tu kia Aurat hay - Jo tu Onkay haq mein itna Bol - Raha.
Apni Begum (Bachi Jamhori Khi.) Ko Sambhal - Baichari ko Tu nay bay buss ker kay rakha hoa hay. Na voh kissi say batt ker sakti Khol kay teray khauf say - her waqt dari sehmi raihti hay - kay tu oski koi batt pakrr na laiy - or osko TALAQ daiy day. (Hi - Bay Chari - Meri - BACHI JAMHORI - KHI. - MASOM MISKIN - TUJH ko Raham Nahi Aata - Jaa issi waqt Osko Piyar say deikh bhall ker oski - Wada ker abhi jaiy ga bol HANN jaoun ga- .
Pehlay apni begum ko deikh phir Dosroun ko Nasihat ker.
Today’s technology enables people to telework and that’s a great opportunity for women in conservative societies like Pakistan to start working from home. Online education is also available. Only thing need here in Pakistan is encouragement and support from the male family members.
Prof. Seema Khalid - as you typed Today’s technology enables people to telework and that’s a great opportunity for women in conservative societies like Pakistan to start working from home.
Mostly are fraud usually they charge from your V or M card then disappear.
Pakistan is the land of Mohtramma Benazir .today you have a competent foreign Minister Hina rabbani Khar and I think your speaker is also a lady.This web site is also the brainchild of a lady.As an Indian I always felt the pakistani ladies face much more challenges but they show much more courage and mostly I find they are the ones who speak their mind and tell truth.If only every one of Pakistani ladies are educated, it will be great.I think this applies to whole of sub contient where female education is a must.In India’s Kerala which has 100% education, the ladies have achieved miracle in every field
[...] be part of this and I won’t name drop, and won’t with this group. These ladies know who they are. So tonight I wanted to spend a little time on ladies supporting ladies. Women supporting other women… I’ve recently joined a networking group, this one is different and I knew that I wanted to [...]
Abay Tu kia Aurat hay - Jo tu Onkay haq mein itna Bol - Raha.
AAM, when did I speak in their favour? Perhaps it would be better to read my comments again.
Pakistan is the land of Mohtramma Benazir .today you have a competent foreign Minister Hina rabbani Khar
Captain, Benazir Bhutto did not have her own leading style. She copied her father’s and the result is in front of you. As for Hina Rabbani, she is absolutely incompetent.
In case my comments (1-3) are misunderstood, I am not against women working or excelling. However, I am against the equality propaganda. Women excel in some fields, men in others. Let’s leave it that way.
Women empowerment - Yes.
Equality - It doesn’t exist.
Mohammad Yusha !! you Are right sir, the facts you have shared are really amazing, but i said empowerment is simply given them the freedom of choice so that they can shape their lives well. Empowerment in decisions that affect her life, critical analysis of her environment so that she can find opportunities for growth in her respective field, in managing her home life. in our society how much women take part in decision making we all know very well, Rural areas and Urban are in front of us, basic need is to educate them so that in time of difficulties they can manage their lives properly and when they would be able to manage the things this would simply lead towards the development of country… sattiii kaarii all the other traditions can only be removed when we will have educated society, but this education should not be only bookish knowledge but awareness of facts is necessary..
captainjohann !! Sir we can excel the examples you quoted are really good, but i think doesn’t match well, they are good competent, Fatima Jinnah, can be the best example of this..
Completely agree with you, Sobia.
Thnx Sir!! I wanna write my name in Blue , hw can I write this ???
In the URL you can type the name of your personal blog (if you have one), or simply http://www.pkhope.com
@Sobia
”” I wanna write my name in Blue , hw can I write this ???””’
That’s easy. Just add a URL ie w w w . p k h o p e . c o m in the Website textbox (under name and mail).
(don’t forget to remove the spaces)
Women is the base for any society if we do not empower our women then we will be no where, be it a house wife or a working women. women plays several roles very beautifully and with exceptional skills.
be it a women working in a boutique http://goo.gl/XncBh or cooking food at home
Mohammad Yusha ,, true_blue_pakistani !!! Thankuuuu So Much
@Siddra.. yes Very Right, when we will have educated and skilled women/mothers automatically system will start improving..