Women Empowerment
Research Proposal on Education, Women Empowerment and Contempary Challenges
Research problem
Empowerment consists of four dimensions, each equally important but none sufficient by itself to enable women to act on their own behalf. These are the cognitive or critical understanding of one's reality, the psychological or feeling of self-esteem, the political or awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize and mobilize and the economic or the capacity to generate independent income (Datta & Kornberg 2002). Educational settings have the potential to foster all four dimensions but require the educational program to be designed explicitly to achieve each of those ends. While the interlocking nature of these dimensions can contribute to making empowerment irreversible, the path to the development of an empowered woman is not easy. It necessitates persistent interventions in order to break old patterns of low self-worth and dependence, and to foster the construction of new personalities with a realistic understanding of how gender functions in their society. Girls' access to schooling in many developing countries is so low that the term empowerment has been used to mean mere participation in the formal system. This is problematic because it assumes that the experience and knowledge attained in schooling automatically prepare girls to assess their worth and envisage new possibilities. To achieve empowerment through education, several concepts must be introduced at appropriate levels. When referring to primary and secondary schooling, empowerment should enable girls to develop the knowledge and skills to nullify and counter sexual stereotypes and conceptions of masculinity and femininity that limit the social potential of women (Parpart, Rai & Staudt 2002). This paper is a proposal to create a research study on education, women empowerment and contemporary challenges.
Aims and objectives
1. Understand the concept of women empowerment.
2.
Research problem
Empowerment consists of four dimensions, each equally important but none sufficient by itself to enable women to act on their own behalf. These are the cognitive or critical understanding of one's reality, the psychological or feeling of self-esteem, the political or awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize and mobilize and the economic or the capacity to generate independent income (Datta & Kornberg 2002). Educational settings have the potential to foster all four dimensions but require the educational program to be designed explicitly to achieve each of those ends. While the interlocking nature of these dimensions can contribute to making empowerment irreversible, the path to the development of an empowered woman is not easy. It necessitates persistent interventions in order to break old patterns of low self-worth and dependence, and to foster the construction of new personalities with a realistic understanding of how gender functions in their society. Girls' access to schooling in many developing countries is so low that the term empowerment has been used to mean mere participation in the formal system. This is problematic because it assumes that the experience and knowledge attained in schooling automatically prepare girls to assess their worth and envisage new possibilities. To achieve empowerment through education, several concepts must be introduced at appropriate levels. When referring to primary and secondary schooling, empowerment should enable girls to develop the knowledge and skills to nullify and counter sexual stereotypes and conceptions of masculinity and femininity that limit the social potential of women (Parpart, Rai & Staudt 2002). This paper is a proposal to create a research study on education, women empowerment and contemporary challenges.
Aims and objectives
1. Understand the concept of women empowerment.
2.