Why The Woman’s Rights Movements
The Women’s Rights Movement is centuries old. For hundreds of years, we have been working to empower women, to share equal rights, to support women from war torn zones to boardrooms. But every once in a while, it is helpful for us to re-visit the WHY. To go back to the basics, to get in touch with the problem once more. This not just helps understand how the situation on the ground is evolving and the problem as it exists in the moment, but it also helps re-connect with the cause, with the purpose, and with the enormity of the issue. Going back to the why could also bring renewed motivation, innovation to problem solving and a greater ability to rally people and resources behind the cause.
Intrinsic aspirations towards economic independence
The story of every girl and woman has inherent in it her fierce aspirations and need for economic empowerment. While the reasons for seeking these aspirations vary — for some women to start and grow their family, for some to feel empowered by receiving a monthly salary and wearing nice clothes, and perhaps some others who eventually wish to become role models in their own right — they are present in every one of us. Our study shows that the aspirations and the motivations are so strong that the women sometimes end-up enforcing undue self-pressure to see themselves do better, despite the circumstances and situations surrounding them.
Deep-rooted cultural norms causing barriers
From a young age, girls are expected to balance their education and employment aspirations with an unequal share of domestic work. In so many cases, the expectation from the family and their immediate community is for the girl or the young woman to comply and put family first. The girl’s decision to work, the area and field of her work, her decision to move away from home to pursue her education or career, are not hers alone to make. There are familial and societal pressures that all play a part in making those decisions, severely limiting the agency a young woman has on her choices and her future.
Constant search for role-models and mentors
Seeing is believing they say. Role-models play an invaluable role in making that belief possible. For a girl or a young woman to take charge of her career and other choices, it is never just about her own aspirations and determination. It is also about navigating complex social norms, about handling emotions and expectations from external situations, about gender dynamics, and battling long held gender-unequal behaviours. In this journey, the role of a mentor, a model to look up to, being around someone who has walked the path before, can be immensely empowering and strengthening. Almost all the young girls and women in the research hoped to find this support, this network of other women.
Inaccessible resources — learning and financial
One would imagine that in our hyper-connected world, where there are more such resources on offer than there is bandwidth to consume. Unfortunately, though young women, more than boys, are constantly inhibited in their interpersonal, communication, and financial management skills that are critical to building leadership and entrepreneurial know-how. Inadequacies in teaching methods, lack of learning opportunities available to them, and lesser investment from the family on their education are all contributing factors.
