Women empowerment has turn into a popular expression today with women working alongside men in all spheres.They profess an independent outlook whether they are living inside their home or working outside. They are increasingly gaining control over their lives and taking their own decisions with regard to their education, career, profession and lifestyle.
With steady increase in the number of working women, they have gained financial independence, which has given them confidence to lead their own lives and build their own identity. They are successfully taking up diverse professions to prove that they are second to none in any respect. But while doing so, women also take care to strike a balance between their commitment to their profession as well as their home and family. They are playing multiple roles of a mother, daughter, sister, wife and a working professional with remarkable harmony and ease. With equal opportunities to work, they are functioning with a spirit of team work to render all possible co-operation to their male counterparts in meeting the deadlines and targets set in their respective professions.
While it is true that women, by and large, do not face discrimination in society today, unfortunately, many of them face exploitation and harassment which can be of diverse types: emotional, physical, mental and sexual. They are often subjected to rape, abuse and other forms of physical and intellectual violence.
Women empowerment, in the truest sense, will be achieved only when there is attitudinal change in society with regard to womenfolk, treating them with proper respect, dignity, fairness and equality. The rural areas of the country are steeped in a feudal and medieval outlook, refusing to grant women equal say in the matters of their education, marriage, dress code, profession and social interactions. Let us hope, women empowerment spreads to progressive as well as backward areas of our vast country.
Quaid-e-Azam said in a speech in 1944,
“No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners.
