“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women” Jawaharlal Nehru.
As far as the vocabulary of gender literature is concerned, the concept of women’s empowerment is new. Generally, the idea narrates a story of empowering women to be self-reliant by normalising equal access to all the freedoms and opportunities of their counterparts. In a narrowed manner, women’s empowerment enhances their communities’ economic and financial standards. Five elements are common when it comes to women’s empowerment:
- A sense of worth;
- Their rights to have and to determine choices;
- Equal rights to control their own lives – both within and outside of their home;
- The understanding of their abilities to influence their direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally.
We are talking about a considerable amount of time in changing attitudes, technological innovation and modern ways of thinking to reduce the disparity between men and women to bring actual empowerment – later on, equality.
Are there tools?
The most popular tool that is changing the narrative in the realm of women’s empowerment is entrepreneurship. See, the word empower means to bestow power. And how do people do that? Well, through three main factors: access to resources and markets, actual ownership and total control – the Entrepreneurship Aspiration program at SHE, joined by Launch gURLS debunks.
A bit about SHE & Launch gURLS
Being a non-government organisation based in Rwanda, SHE stands for serving adolescent girls’ best interests. It’s a home for girls’ capacity building, and It thrives on creating a safe space for girls to acquire essential social, entrepreneurial and employability skills. SHE ensures young girls’ mental health and well-being are safeguarded, providing them with better opportunities to contribute to the wider community’s broader social and economic outcomes. Launch gURLS is a global organisation that helps young people become entrepreneurs, harness the power of digital technology and build the confidence needed to succeed in the future. Additionally, it touches on financial literacy, 21st-century skills, and confidence and facilitates physical and virtual networks that champion girls. Being a global organisation, they must partner with local organisations that share common interests to provide contextualised yet culturally appropriate content.
How did they get together?
Well, It is the mutual interest, understanding, and desire to dismantle challenges faced by women in Rwanda and the globe that Launch gURLS and SHE came to a partnership that’s now transforming lives here In Rwanda. The partnership is mainly based on empowering women and allowing them to consider their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and move forward to unfold their hidden potential to meet their goals through self-development.
In a program, namely, Girl Boss – that’s meant to last for 10 weeks – adolescent girls at SHE Rwanda are taken into the process of what it takes to be an entrepreneur, yet building critical professional skills that are transferable to other industries. Girls are encouraged and guided to discover, empathise, innovate, create, connect and pitch their ideas.
