Women Empowerment has been an uprising topic since centuries and is quite closely connected with economic development. Empowering women in all sectors have always proved efficient for the overall development of the economy.

This is evident, as half of the global workers in today’s era are women. But still, there is a dilemma amongst the people that have raised questions on their leadership abilities. With progressive measures taken in the past and being implemented today, the concerned authorities and organizations are looking for ways to eradicate the barriers that are holding back women.

Contribution Of Women Empowerment Towards Economic Development

Women leaders have leveraged every opportunity that came their way in the past few decades. Therefore, their role in enhancing the economic aspects has been in the spotlight. In fact, companies are now adopting gender equality aspects within their organizations to ensure productivity. The right talent is not judged based on gender, and major companies have proved this through their initiatives, by giving a fair chance to women leaders across the globe.

The leadership style of women has taken a leap during the global coronavirus pandemic. The countries with women leading from the front have reportedly dealt better with the Covid-19 crisis than other male-dominated countries. The leadership style is quite diverse for women, and the pandemic has put more light on their leadership style.

What Can The Countries Achieve By Empowering Women?

Every country across the globe has now initiated measures to propose women empowerment for economic development. Women’s rights are now being given utmost importance and recognition within human rights.

Some of the progressive aspects recorded by the countries by promoting women empowerment include:

• Overall human development
• Noticeable economic gains
• Business profitability
• Better education & health
• High per capita income
• Enhanced international competitiveness, etc.

“As per a McKinsey Global Institute study, closing the gender gaps or discriminations within the working environments will add around 12-25% to the GDP by the year 2025. There are many more such studies that give out similar or even better figures by proposing this ideology.”

In What Areas Are Women Excelling At Present?

Women are excelling in diverse fields with the compelling idea of equality. As per the massive research and surveys are done to identify the contribution of women in the business links, they are proficient in almost all fields.

Today, women are working as suppliers, employees, brand creators, community members and leaders across the globe in diverse business links. The companies that have promoted gender equality on a larger scale within their workforce have derived immense benefits.

UNDP’s Insight On Women’s Economic Empowerment

The economic empowerment of women is a crucial ideology that is meant to enhance the gender equality aspects for sustainable development. Women are termed to be the key contributors to driving the economy. Today, they are food producers, natural resource managers, employees, entrepreneurs, leaders and much more.

But still, there are many women across the globe who are not being paid for the care and work they do. As compared to men, women do 2.6 times more of unpaid works. Hence, to deal with such issues, UNDP’s work concentrates on improving the legal, social and policy norms for creating a progressive impact on the economic empowerment of women.

UNDP also takes active measures to deal with the gender discriminatory practices and structural barriers that deprive women of their socio-economic rights.

M&S Partners With WOW Programme

M&S is quite aware of the efficacy of women’s empowerment upon the economy and their role in profitable business outcomes. Hence, through the FCDO-funded WOW Programme (Work and Opportunities for Women), M&S is trying to determine what is holding women back in the garment sector in Bangladesh.

Besides, they are working with individual women and groups to promote them towards taking supervisory positions and bust the barriers that women face at garment industries in Bangladesh. With the ongoing coronavirus crisis, M&S and WOW are imposing measures to understand how women’s leadership can help the business scale back up.

Conclusion

Women Empowerment still needs a lot of progress and initiations to help future women leaders overcome the barriers of restrictive skills and thought process. Bigger initiatives are essential today to promote the efficacy of women leadership. The myths and barriers that hold back women from leadership positions must be dealt with for women to progress in society.