The Benefits of Empowering Women to Society Essay Example

Women have numerous abilities that can benefit society if well exploited. Communities that have discovered these rare opportunities have exploited and lived to enjoy the outcomes. Most of the women who have been empowered and given opportunities to shine have proven beyond doubts that women are smart, hardworking, and visionary people who can do much better than their men counterparts. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have demonstrated in their book "Half the Sky" that women can turn their oppression into opportunity and do great things that would benefit their families and the entire society.

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The two writers represent moral voices against violation of women rights by passionately calling the society to arms to protect women rights, especially in the developing world. In the book, the authors describe some of the plights that women go through to earn a living or fend for their families. They take their audience through some of the countries with the highest tendencies of violation of women rights, especially in Asia and Africa. They use various characters in the book to demonstrate their points. In one instance, the authors talk about a Cambodian teenage girl trapped in sex slavery to support her poor family. In another instance, they also talked about an Ethiopian woman who sustained severe injuries during childbirth. The two women, however, got help through humanitarian support and later influenced their communities positively. Those charitable individuals who helped these women realized that they had the potential to be resourceful to society.

The authors focused on the success stories of a majority of the women who were exposed to different forms of violations but later came out to be successful women around the globe. The book presents a story of one successful industrialist Chinese woman called Zhang Yin. She started her career as a laborer in the garment industry where she could only manage to make $6 a month to feed her family (Kristof and WuDunn 209). She later changed jobs to a paper manufacturing company where she learnt various skills in the paper industry. Being an ambitious and over-zealous woman, she quit her paper-making job and started her venture. She used to import and sell scrap papers from the USA creating one of the leading paper making company in China employing over 5,000 people. Ms. Yin working along her husband, developed one of the biggest ventures making her one of the self-made billionaires during the 1990s.

The book also talks about how Paul Kagame - the current president of Rwanda has changed the perception about women taking up leadership positions. In the African culture, women are rarely recognized or given leadership responsibilities, especially in elective positions. President Kagame, however, changed this narrative by appointing women into some of the most powerful cabinet and leadership positions in the Rwandan government (Burnet 17). Rwanda has gone into record books as the first country in the world to have the majority women representation in parliament. The impact of appointing women into high leadership positions is reflected in the country's economic, political and social development (Burnet 49).. In the book, the authors have confirmed that despite being one of the poor countries in Africa, Rwanda's economy is the fastest growing, best governed, and its cities are the cleanest in Africa (Kristof and WuDunn 210). The country has made these strides after recovering from a nation-wide genocide because its top leadership has allowed the participation of women in running some the affairs of the country.

China is presented as one of the worst countries that a woman had to live in the past centuries. The Chinese culture then, allowed some of the worst atrocities to be meted upon women. A girl-child born in China in the late 1800s was subject to forced child marriages, foot-binding, female infanticide, and concubinage. During this period, girls were not educated, treated with little or no dignity, and often sold to brothels to be sex slaves at very young ages. During the 1949 revolution, tens of millions of Chinese died either from repression or famine majority being women and children. However, when Mao took power, he introduced communism ideology which required that every Chinese should be treated equally irrespective of gender. This development was the single positive legacy of the revolution since it abolished child marriages, concubinage, prostitution, and also discouraged cultural practices that mistreated women. The Chinese economy started to flourish during this period when the leadership allowed women to actively participate in developing their country through engaging in gainful economic activities.

Women who have also been empowered through humanitarian intervention have also influenced their communities in numerous ways. In the story about the Cambodian girl who was rescued from a brothel, for instance, she started her own business and made enough money to support her family. The Ethiopian woman who was treated of childbirth injuries later became a surgeon and helped members of her community who suffered from similar injuries because of female genital mutilation. The Zimbabwean girl who was counseled to return to school continued with her education to achieve a doctorate in medicine and later became a renowned expert in AIDS. Lastly, Murvelene also supported a Rwandan genocide survivor called Claudine who she believed would be successful and support her child. Murvelene is passionate about charity because she believes that she has an obligation to help the less fortunate even after she lost her job and started doing freelance jobs (Kristof and WuDunn 211). Most of the women who were supported by other charitable people later became resourceful to the entire society.

Most East Asian countries have also benefited from changing their cultural practices to allow women to actively participate in the country's economic activities. Countries such as Malaysia, China, and Thailand are popular for the flourishing garment industries. Their respective governments realized that women can make provide a reliable skilled labor in the garment industry compared to men. These governments started to implement programs aimed at training women on garment making and moving them to garment industries. The women not only provided labor to develop the garment industries but also saved and re-invested their earnings into the country's economy prompting a sustainable economic growth in these countries.

Conclusion

In conclusion, women can be very resourceful to the community when given opportunities despite the oppression that they go through. In most of the incidences narrated in the book, the women experienced devastating violations that would have broken their spirits. Some of the women were either physically or sexually assaulted but later came out stronger. China and Rwanda present the best case study on how women can positively influence society. Following the abolishment of barbaric practices against women in China, the country has developed into one of the biggest economies in the world. Rwanda, on the other hand, experienced one of the worst genocides during the 1990s. The women from the minority Tutsi tribe were assaulted, raped, and killed. However, when Kagame changed the perception about people towards women leadership, the country's economic and political spheres have improved ranking the best in Africa. Women can easily turn their tribulations into success if they are empowered and given the opportunity.

Works Cited

Burnet, Jennie E. "Gender balance and the meanings of women in governance in post-genocide Rwanda." African Affairs 107.428 (2008): 361-386.

Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide. Vintage, 2010.