VULNERABILITY POINTERS AND INDICES: Women’s Rights and Empowerment (Part 1)

The 19th and 20th centuries became notable as the Year of the Woman. It was the period that marked Women Suffrages across the world. In 1881, the Isle of Man gave women who owned property the right to vote. In 1893 the British Colony of New Zealand granted women the right to vote. The colony of South Australia and Western Australia did it in 1894 and 1899 respectively.

By the 1900s women suffrage protest was in full swing: 1911 in Britain; 1913 in America; 1914 in Germany and 1935 in Paris became its tipping point. The right for women to vote was no longer negotiable. And by the end of World War II, the United Nations encouraged women suffrages across the world, and African countries joined their voices too: Cameroun in 1946, Ghana in 1954, Ethiopia 1955, Egypt 1956, Chad, Guinea, and Nigeria in 1958, Burundi in 1961, Congo 1963, Cape Verde in 1975, and in 1994 women of all races in South Africa were given right to vote.

These movements led to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1979 with 189 countries being part of that convention.

But the 1995 Beijing Declaration Conference in China organised by the United Nations heralded the turning point of women’s liberation in all spheres of life: health, reproductive rights, education, career, economic power, rights recognition, political relevance and freedom of unlimited choices.

Fast forward to 2018, the struggle for women’s rights, decision-making, gender balance, gender abuse, social participation, economic power, political participation, and workplace advancement remains heated topic of discussions everywhere you turn and the tempo is not dying anytime soon. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Wave of Feminism and more recently the #METOO movement are testimonies of that. At the start, the 1st wave of feminism was about political equality. The second wave was designed to combat social and cultural inequalities while the 3rd wave of feminism continues to address the financial, social and cultural inequalities with strong political activism.

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At the depth of research, studies and reports conducted, the quadrilateral issue of politics, policies, leadership, innovation is at the core of limiting factors mitigating against the successful implementation in recognising the rights of women, their roles, contributions and the impact their choices and decisions can have on local, regional and global scale.

In this series of vulnerability indices and pointers, the objective is to delve deep into understanding how women could inadvertently be the clog in the wheel of their progress in workplace setting and how critical thinking and proactive steps can help give them a win-win in their career advancement, office politicking, and economic empowerment.

Part 2 of the series takes an incisive look at vulnerability at workplaces, its impact on economic empowerment, opportunities, and career advancement of girls and women.