Gender Equality & Women Empowerment Essay

Abstract

E-commerce has become an integral part of economic development and at the same time offered new challenges not only for business sphere, but also for the sphere of social relations. In the modern world most of the aspects of human life are closely related to virtual solutions. Such social considerations, as for example gender equality, had to go through radical transformation due to the increased meaning of information and communication technologies. The role of ICT was already studied in relation to women empowerment and gender equality, whereas there are still a lot of gaps, related to e-commerce peculiarities. The fact is that the concept of gender empowerment could be applied to both genders, but this research would be focused purely upon women empowerment, its meaning for the social and business standards in the world, impact upon global economies, strategies for its promotions and potential barriers, which need to be overcome.

Introduction

The issues and controversies, related to gender equality, are not new nowadays. However they are additionally impacted by modern factors and social and economical changes in individual countries, as well as globally. The idea of the direct connection between women empowerment and gender equality and economic development has become one of the most significant and widely discussed problems in the modern world. “Women’s economic empowerment refers to the ability for women to enjoy their right to control and benefit from resources, assets, income and their own time, as well as the ability to manage risk and improve their economic status and well being.” (Argawal 2010, p. 113).  Speed and mode of modern life makes the need to introduce maximal flexibility, inevitable. Smartphones, networks, Internet, virtual opportunities have changed the world seriously and reinforced the role of communication in all life spheres.

Literature review

ICTs are understood as the leading effective tools for economic development in the modern world. An ITU study (2005) describes ICTs as potentially powerful “development enablers:” they are cost -effective with significant transformative power, allow developing countries to leapfrog several stages of the development process and, in furnishing individuals directly with tools for self-empowerment, avoid top-heavy and corrupt bureaucracies (Heeks, 1999; Karake- Shalhoub & Al Qasimi 2006, p. 65). According to Jensen and Zeckhauser (2002) the ICTs “can  enhance the functioning of markets that are critical for the well-  being of the poor”. Jain (2006) underlined that ICT had played their role for changing of the work and workplace concepts. Taking into consideration that fact that ICTs are able to make the distance minimal and contribute to building global networks, it is difficult to ignore their meaning not only for economic changes, but also for serious transformations in social sphere and namely in gender relations. There is a process of relocation of information-intensive service sector jobs from high wage countries, to those countries, where the wage level is relatively low. “The resultant trade in business information in fact is a much  bigger component of e-commerce than the much publicized on-line retailing. Some developing countries, such as India, are receiving a substantial amount of such relocated outsourced jobs, where salaries of ICT workers are one-tenth of those in the US. A large proportion of these jobs go to women” (Mellita & Cohill 2012, p. 145). According to Kelkar and Nathan (2002) these are only the first steps in the direction of redefining of traditional gender roles in all life spheres and also these researchers assumed that these changes were beneficial for both genders, irrespective of their individual skills and educational basis. Sharma (2004) insists that effective application of ICTs could contribute to women empowerment in various ways. For example in developed countries e-commerce has already proved its value in relation to gender equality. “NetGrocer, an online grocery delivery service, reports that many of its orders are from stay-at-home or single parents who can therefore better manage time with their children.” (Tanaka 1998, p. 288). Thus e-commerce has already established the needed basis for females in developed countries and logically they expect their further empowerment.

“Women-owned or women-operated telecenters in Senegal and Morocco, phone shops in Ghana, Internet cafés in Thailand and Malaysia, and the Grameen Phone Project in Bangladesh reflects as examples of how women in developing countries can successfully exploit opportunities offered by new technologies. Accordingly, the interest of development agencies, scholars and activists in e-commerce projects has increased significantly over the past five or six years.” (Maier & Reichert 2007, p. 89).  If the situation with developed countries is more or less clear, there are still a lot of questions about the conservative cultures of the MENA region countries. Women in these countries are encouraged by the involvement of women in the formal sector in developed countries and the development of women’s entrepreneurship there. Thus they are also looking for the opportunities to establish their businesses and gain their ability to generate income. “It is estimated that Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with full or partial female ownership represent 31 to 38 per cent (8 to 10 million of formal SMEs in emerging markets.” (IFC McKinsey 2011, p. 62). On the basis of this pattern it is possible to trace the employment generation outcomes along with the increase of the economic growth potential. Moreover, there are already examples from some developing countries, for example in East Asia, where female owners of SMEs proved to gain higher growth rates in comparison to similar companies, owned by males. Women entrepreneurs are also able to create their own networks as well as become parts of the already existing ones and become active participants of online forums and networks. “Women are forming associations to increase their access to Technology, increase familiarity with business cultures in foreign markets and access these markets more effectively. These associations also provide mentoring and training, and catalyze the process of building Networks with government and corporate procurement officials.” (Amzat & Grandi 2011, p. 140). All these factors are influential for development of the entrepreneurial culture for females, leading them towards further progress in their international activity. “Davangere district in Karnataka has taken the lead in this program and is in the  process of training 250 women in the operation of these services by using computers and the Internet. The services range from operating bank accounts to providing information, as well as  buying railway tickets. Newsletters in rural Uttar Pradesh, started by women as a development effort to help communicate among themselves and share opinions, have evolved into forms of social mobilization. These newsletters, now taking the form of newspapers, address social issues which affect entire communities and are in turn mobilizing these communities in the process.” (Padmannavar 2011, p. 43).

Maier and Reichert (2007) devoted their attention to investigation of the major business problems, which could be faced by women, in case they start to run their e-commerce enterprises. First of all they concluded that these women might face constraints in obtaining the loans, which they might need to secure the adequate funding of their projects. In many cases they even tend to develop strong dependency upon governmental sources. The situation is worsened by the presence of the resistance from the side of the male government officials, who do not want to support the process of women empowerment. It is also important to take into consideration that fact that women could not find it easy to mobilize any kind of alternative financial resources, like it is often done by men, as in developing countries females are restricted in their needs to travel to distant offices of various agencies on their own. “The structural analysis shows that, one of the most important problems women’s

 enterprises face is undue delay in getting paid by government departments and other agencies for the work they do. Unlike their male counterparts, they are limited in their abilities to collect their dues because of their limited freedom to travel alone. Corrupt government officials may see women’s  organizations providing ICT-based services as a threat to them, especially where corruption exists in the provision of services. Government officers often do not appreciate seeing work they were previously doing now being handled by women who are less educated and less trained than they.” (Booth & Bennett 2002, p. 436). Consequently there are delays in getting approvals, processing applications, conducting payments and so on. Such situation causes additional problems for diversification of business, which is the best way for its development.

Presence of such serious and influential obstacles should not lead to the idea that there are no ways for women empowerment. In reality there are methods, which could help to economically empower women and consequently contribute to positive solution of the problem of gender inequality. In many developing nations women are legally restricted in their opportunities to get the needed education and start up their business purely on the basis of their gender. Only under the condition of refusing from this kind of unnatural male dominance and providing of support to women in all spheres, it is possible to expect that the country would continue its successful economical development in the modern world. Economic empowerment is meaningful for making women equal members of their societies, this is the way for them to achieve certain level of self-respect and confidence and correspondingly develop their abilities to contribute to their communities positively. “Simply including women as a part of a community can have sweeping positive effects. In a study conducted by Bina Agarwal, women were given a place in a forest conservation group. This drove up the efficiency of the group, and the women gained self-esteem while others, including men, viewed them with more respect.” (Argawal 2010, p. 202). Important is that participation is versatile, for example it should also include political participation, starting from the ability to vote and come out with their opinions for females. The opportunity to be elected and become an active participant of political life of the country could also contribute to overall empowerment of women. At the same time the whole participation is not limited only to political sphere. “It can include participation in the household, in schools, and the ability to make choices for oneself. It can be said that this latter participation need to be achieved before one can move onto broader political participation.” (Nussbaum 2000, p. 18). At the moment, when women realize that they are free to do what they want, the equality between the genders would be automatically established. Providing political freedom and financial support could work under the condition of the appropriate education for women. The role of education could not be underestimated either for social and private, or for economic spheres. “Education increases “people’s self- confidence and enables them to find better jobs, engage in public debate and make demands on government for health care, social security and other entitlements.” (UNDP 2013). Educated women have much more opportunities for supporting of their own health and health of their children. They learn how to prevent disease, take care of their nutrition, make their choices for their welfare, for example they start to get married later and have fewer children. Finally, education contributes significantly to increase of females’ awareness of the basic human rights and their ability to have these rights. “Despite significant improvements in recent decades, education is not universally available and gender inequalities persist. A major concern in many countries is not only limited numbers of girls going to school, but also limited educational pathways for those that step into the classroom. This includes, more specifically, how to address the lower participation and learning achievement of girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.” (Cracking the code: girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics  2017).

Conclusion

The proponents of women empowerment and gender equality often underline the fact that business world, political and social groups and communities would also benefit from the empowerment of women and this fact should not be ignored. “Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns when addressing human rights and development. The Human Development and Capabilities Approach, the Millennium Development Goals, and other credible approaches/goals point to empowerment and participation as a necessary step if a country is to overcome the obstacles associated with poverty and development.” (U.N. General Assembly, 55th Session 2000). Such assumptions are not purely theoretical, as there are enough practical proofs of the role, which could be played by women for individual nations, as well as in the international scene. Such developing countries as Asia and Africa have already started their journeys towards women empowerment. There are other countries, where this process has not been launched yet, for example Bangladesh.

The literature review shows that there still exist a lot of barriers for women empowerment and thus there is a need to work out the effective methods, which could help to overcome these barriers and lead to positive results, as women empowerment is the direct way towards empowerment of the whole nations, supporting their social and economic development.

Reference List

Achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and strengthening development cooperation. 2010,  United Nations, New York

Amzat, Jimoh & Grandi Giovanni 2011, Gender Context of Personalism in Bioethics. Developing World Bioethics 11 (3):136-145.

Archibald, J, Emms, J, Grundy, F, Payne, J & Turner, E 2005, The gender politics of ICT. London: Middlesex University Press

Argawal, Bina 2010, Gender and Green Governance: The Political Economy of Women’s Presence Within and Beyond Community Forestry (PDF). New York, NY: Oxford University Press  

Ayesha, Sabrina 2014, Role of e commerce in women empowerment

Bachman, Ronet 1994, Violence Against Women: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report (PDF)(Report). U.S. Department of Justice.

Bamforth, Nicholas 2002, Sex Rights: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures 2002. Oxford University Press.

Booth, C. & Bennett, A 2002, Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union, European Journal of Women’s Studies 9 (4): 430–46.

Churchyard, N 2009, “The Question of Empowerment: Women’s Perspective on Their Internet Use”. Gender, Technology and Development. 13 (3): 341–363.

Cracking the code: girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 2017, Paris: UNESCO.

Critical Thinking About Gender Equality.Zamangwane Bhengu-Mpungose – 2004 – Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 23 (4):29-30.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women. 2018, United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Gender equality and women’s empowerment strategy. 2016, Australian Government

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. 2017,  USAID

Leach, Anna 2016, 12 steps to achieve gender equality in our lifetimes. The Guardian

Marzocchi Ottavio, Bonewit Anne 2015, Empowering women on the Internet. European Union, Brussels

Mellita, Dina & Cholil, Widya 2012, E Commerce and Women Empowerment. Palembang.

Nazneen, Sohela, NH 2011, National Discourses on Women’s Empowerment in

Bangladesh: Continuities and Change. IDS Working Paper

Nussbaum, Martha C 2000, Introduction. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities to Approach (PDF). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Padmannavar, M S 2011, A Review on E-Commerce Empowering Women. International Journal of Computer Science and Telecommunications

Patil, DA, Dhere, A, Pawar, CB 2009, ICT and Empowerment of Rural and Deprived Women of Asia. Asia Pacific Journal of Rural Development

Raday, F 2012,  Gender and democratic citizenship: the impact of CEDAW”. International Journal of Constitutional Law. 10 (2): 512–530

UNDP 2013, Human Development Report. The Rise of the South. Human Progress in a Diverse World; New York, UNDP.

U.N. General Assembly, 55th Session 2000, United Nations Millennium Declaration

Women in business 2015 results. 2015,  Grant Thornton International Ltd.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
close
Haven't found the right essay?
Get an expert to write you the one you need!
print

Professional writers and researchers

quotes

Sources and citation are provided

clock

3 hour delivery

person