‘Empowerment’ gathers pace
THE vision for the new UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes “a world in which every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed”.
The finalised text, which will be adopted by world leaders in New York, September 25-27 – deals with the issue of female empowerment head-on. It weaves this theme throughout the 17 goals and across its 169 associated targets.
Its message is clear: female empowerment is fundamental to a sustainable world. It is no longer an option but vital to humanity’s ability to balance social, environmental, economic, security and political issues.
Of the 17 sustainability imperatives, goal number five specifically seeks to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls.
It wants all forms of discrimination removed, along with all forms of violence against women and the elimination of harmful social practices such as female genital mutilation and forced marriages. It wants greater recognition of the valuable role played by women for unpaid care and domestic work, as well as equal opportunities for leadership.
It also places the responsibility on all member states to provide universal access to reproductive health, economic reforms to support land ownership by women and an enabling environment for them to access technology.
In the other 16 goals, it highlights the importance of including women in initiatives ranging from education, healthcare, water and sanitation, employment, labour rights and human settlements.
The agenda’s 15-year time horizon to empower women by 2030 coincides with the rising global trend of women as leaders in their own right in business, politics, entrepreneurship and growing in their consumer power. This trend is known as “Womenomics” – the economics of women’s empowerment.
In today’s digital world, it is women who rule social media. They dominate Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, and stand clickto-click with men on Twitter and Tumblr. Clearly, it’s not all about pretty pictures as 2014 was their breakout year for driving awareness on women and girls’ issues through hashtag activism.
What is evident is that after an uncomfortable alliance between the sexes during the industrial age, where women mimicked traditional masculine power relations to get ahead in a man’s world – the coming 15 years will see a change in the gender axis.
As the female empowerment trend intensifies alongside the UN’s 2030 Agenda, a new kind of modern woman is set to emerge in the 21st century; well-informed, environmentally conscious and powerful leaders of the digital and creative economy.
Last week on Twitterville, Bill Gates retweeted his wife Melinda’s views of the powerful change being created by women in their developing world because of their access to smartphones.
In rural Africa, India and South America, women are using mobile technology to enhance their deci- sion-making, verify information, have greater security and forge powerful global networks for support, crowd-funding, access to market opportunities and entrepreneurship training.
There is also a shift in the programming of the next generation of young women with initiatives encouraging new behavioural patterns in young female Millennials and Generation Y. These are the two youngest generations born in the eighties and 2000 respectively.
“You are not a princess” is a campaign by America’s Mercy Academy that prepares young girl students for ‘real life’.
In the same way, both recent movies ‘ Brave’ and ‘ Frozen’ feature empowered princesses who are agents of their own story.
Melissa Wardy, executive director of The Brave Girl Alliance, is quoted as saying: “It’s not about meeting a prince and living happily ever after. It’s about them overcoming their obstacles and staying true to their dreams.”
In the field of entrepreneurship, women are growing more start-ups than men. The kind of global funding being channelled into growing entrepreneurs is set to trigger new trends that will be around for a very long time.
Since only 5 percent of all Venture capital funding has historically gone to women-run start-ups, Womenomics will bring to the fore unmet needs in women not previously evident. In a show of support for women, by women, new crowdfunding sites are also being created to cater specifically for women entrepreneurs.
In a similar vein, Walmart in the US is introducing a new “women-owned” label on goods to make consumers aware of products that promote female empowering businesses.
This move is also seen as a counter to the trend in the developing world for women co-operatives to support, trade and provide micro loans to support each other.
Meryl Streep is funding a writers lab to boost the confidence of women over 40 to write for the film industry and a website such as PowerToFly provides a job search facility for women with families who need to work remotely.
More evidence of Womenomics is seen in the rise of gender targeting in advertising. German beermaker Astra now ignores men and promotes its product to women only. This was also picked up by Brazilian beer Cerveja Feminista, which is encouraging debate about the representation of women in the ad industry over a frosty pint.
In Korea, Adidas has opened a women-only concept store which offers fitness trends, workout direction and personal style tips.
As the purchasing power of women rises in the 21st century, women will have greater responsibility for the future of securing Planet Earth for the next generation. And if the UN 2030 Agenda holds as the highest set of principles by which the world works, the rules of the gender game will change in the coming 15 years.
O’Brien is a futurist at Lacuna Innovation – @merleobrien