Coming together for a good cause

WOMEN empowerment can be defined as promoting women’s sense of self-worth, their ability to determine their own choices and their right to influence social change for themselves and others.

Women empowerment and promoting women’s rights have emerged as part of a major global movement and continues to break new ground.

Days like the International Women’s Empowerment Day and 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence are also gaining momentum as the world fights for an empowered generation of women.

It is no surprise therefore that the Sustainable Development Goals include, not only gender-specific actions and statistics, but also a goal dedicated to gender parity.

The fifth Sustainable Development Goal is bold, broad and important. It challenges the world to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Reducing violence against women and girls is under SDG 5.

With that in mind, women from across different backgrounds in the province will today convene at Golden Peacock Villa Hotel to design their own paths.

The Manica Post, your favourite newspaper, is hosting a Ladies Summer School ahead of the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV which will run from 25 November to 15 December.

The Ladies Summer School, running under the theme ‘Fix Your Own Crown’, seeks to encourage women empowerment.

Despite a great deal of progress made in women empowerment, women and girls continue to face discrimination and violence in every part of the world.

At the inaugural edition of the Ladies Summer School, women will be given ideas on the business opportunities that they can pursue.

Speakers will also tackle GBV issues, financial literacy, etiquette, as well as unpack the Marriage Act and Inheritance laws.

The time is now for women to fix their own crowns and wear them proudly.

The school is therefore an avenue for women to improve themselves through knowledge acquisition.

As a woman, one should embrace her femininity. She needs to be confident that she is as powerful and influential as any man out there, if not even more so.

As womankind and as we learn to embrace our femininity, we should be ever-ready to fight GBV and pass that knowledge on to younger women and girls.

An empowered woman should live freely and be who they are unapologetically in order to reach their full potential.

With women coming together to fight for their own world in their respective communities and the corporate world, it will not be a difficult task to navigate GBV and women empowerment issues.