Value of Education in the Empowerment of Women in Third World Countries Depicted in Half the Sky

By
Responsive Centered Red Button

Need Help with this Question or something similar to this? We got you! Just fill out the order form (follow the link below), and your paper will be assigned to an expert to help you ASAP.

Order Form

Half the Sky holds a powerful and graphic message to enlighten its readers about the difficulties women faced third countries. Many of these women are being oppressed through human trafficking, female mortality and gender based violence. Some women are even looked down on because of their religious belief. For instance, the Quran promotes that man are superior to women.

Furthermore, in some countries women are denied the opportunity to be educated. However, education gives individuals opportunity to make a better standard of living.

Don’t use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on
“ Value of Education in the Empowerment of Women in Third World Countries Depicted in Half the Sky ”
GET CUSTOM PAPER
NEW! smart matching with writer

For one thing, it teaches individuals how to be “free.” It allows these individual to use their mind to understand their potential and surroundings. Most importantly, education equips women with the knowledge to combat oppression and discrimination. Therefore, education should be considered a basic human right for all “human beings.” Education is a weapon that human beings should be armed with for the good of society.

It guides individuals, especially women on how to survive poverty and other hardships such as human trafficking and violence against women.

Following this further, an organization called Apne Aap Worldwide tries to provide women with basic knowledge about their human rights to combat the issues of violence and abuse faced. This organization wants women to understand and realize their full potential. In addition, knowledge empowers women to stand up and fight for their basic human rights.

Bell Hooks a feminist thinker suggests that education teaches the individuals of society to transgress against racial, sexual and class boundaries allowing them to achieve the freedom of life (p.

13). Education allows these women to build an openness of mind and heart to face reality as they imagine ways to move beyond boundaries to transgress, this is education as the practice of freedom (Hooks, p. 13).

Pursuing this further, the Apne Aap organization tries encouraging women education to destroy the cycle of human trafficking through social change. Also, this organization tries to prevent women and girls from being sold or bought in the sex industry. However, school based programs are an effective way to enable women and girls to combat gender inequality, human trafficking and other violence they faced. An effective way to help women fight the issues of discrimination and violence is by volunteerism. We need to have a “hands-on-service” to make a change.

Moreover, “To tackle an issue effectively, you need to understand it, and it’s impossible to understand an issue by simply reading about it. You need to see it at first hand, even live in its midst.” (p. 88) In short, most of the people who are able to make changes or influence other lives are those who have experienced or witnessed the pain and sufferings of injustice. Case in point, placing yourself in an environment where women are being abused each and everyday allows you to see and feel their pain. Moreover, we need to educate these women to stand up and fight for their rights. “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.

All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” (p. 47) For instance, uneducated girls are the main targets for traffickers because “they are the ones most likely to obey orders and resign themselves to their fate.” In other words, we need to help these women find their voices by educating them through classes. “Education and empowerment training can show the girls that femininity does not entail docility and can nurture assertiveness so that girls and women stand up for themselves.” (p. 47)

Girls be ambitious is a great program which bribes families to keep girls in school. This program is trying to educate girls so they wont be trapped in the cycle of poverty and human trafficking. Besides that young girls are being paid to attend school to better their lives and their families. In addition, we could volunteer with organizations or programs trying to enlighten these women to start a revolution for human rights. For instance Mukhtar’s school program in Pakistan, which tries to empower women to be aware and knowledgeable about their skills, talents and potential. Education enables people to make better-informed choices for themselves and families. It equips each individual in society with the means to achieve success in life. Usha for example, empowers her community, especially the women to stand up and fight for justice.

“The single most important way to encourage women and girls to stand up for their rights is education and we can do far more to promote universal education in poor countries.” (p. 53). Point in fact; Equality Now is an advocacy organization trying to enforce gender equality for women. This organization believes women and girls should have equal rights to men under the constitution and equal opportunity to enjoy their basic human rights. I firmly believe that education is the most powerful weapon, which women can use to change the world. With education women are more than capable of understanding how to overcome certain issues or situations.

Therefore, I would be involved in organizations trying to open schools to teach and educate women. In a sense, education means to be free. It allows you to think and make choices on what you think is morally right or wrong. Case in point, in third world countries where the laws or religious rules are degrading or supporting the abuse of women, education can help change these laws. Additionally, “the very best means of combatting suffocating traditions is education.” (p. 69) Nonetheless, education allows these women to understand their very being. It enables them to embody a courageous and forthright spirit. Education questions their very being why must they fear? Why must they love? Why should they hate? Why should they care? Without these emotions, their existence would be completely absurd. Do these “feelings” root them into the cold, hard surface of the earth helping them remain sane? Do these “feelings” allow them to indulge in self-pleasure, a “feeling” in it self. It would be a shame to never use, discover or distribute a feeling.

So what if they just “are?” What if they’re just there? That is the case with many women in the developing world, without education they are unable to ask these questions. They are unable to understand their true potential. Indeed, without education these women are empty. Meaning they are lost in reality questioning their purpose of life. Emptiness: having nothing within someone or something that has the potential or ability to obtain and absorb a thing. A complete eradication of the self will allow for this emptiness. Having this emptiness will then permit a being to be nothing. And becoming nothing will allow you to be everything. But when you exist with this nothing, what values and moral standards do you pertain to?

How do you really live as a woman residing in a predetermined society? For these women, society will not define them, but they will define themselves. With that said, education will guide them to make certain choices which will benefit themselves and their families. Education helps women to overcome the cycle of poverty, human trafficking, gender inequality and other discrimination against these women. The other half of the sky is needed for the world to prosper, meaning women should be treated equally to men to see the full potential of the world. To deny women gender equality “is to deprive a country of labor and talent, but—to undermine the drive to achievement of boys and men.” (p. 160) Women are the backbone of the society we live in. Case in point, women are the one’s who nurture life.

In Half the Sky, Kristof and WuDunn view women as the main catalyst for making a change in this world. “The clue to a nation’s growth and development potential is the status and role of women.” (p. 160) Case in point, more female leaders are needed economically, politically and socially to change the cycle of injustice against women. Therefore, to achieve change in society, education needs to be a vital aspect of women’s lives. Education should be considered a basic human right for “all.” Additionally, “education is the key to overcoming poverty, for overcoming war. If people are educated, then women will not be abused or tortured.” (p. 164) In short, education prepares these women and men with the knowledge on how to live a peaceful, prosperous and healthy lifestyle. The WHO organization tries to help prevent the spread of diseases by encouraging the use of condoms.

With education, women are better armed to fight diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. They are able to plan and raise a healthy family. The Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMMD) organization provides women with emergency care when experiencing life-threatening complications. It helps to save the lives of women and their newborn babies. This program believes that “women should be able to have a child safely and with good quality care.” (p. 105) In short, AMMD strengthens the health systems to save lives in a timely response whenever an emergency occurs. My countries Noble Laureate, Sir Arthur Lewis once said, the cure for poverty is education. I agree, because education helps many men and some women in the third countries to get better jobs. In my opinion, education is the epitome to eradicating poverty, racial and gender discrimination, and other inequalities or injustice in society. In a sense, education is the key to women’s survival in developing countries.

Moreover, Kristof and WuDunn emphasis on the idea and value of education as a way to combatting violence committed against women worldwide. They believe that a lack of education is the main reason as to why injustice and discrimination of women is occurring in many countries. In other words, many women do not understand their basic human rights. For instance, in Islam, these women take the bible literally even though the Quran encourages the oppression of women. Case in point, the women accept this inequality as a tradition rather than questioning why are they so different from men if they both are human beings. This is where the value of education is needed to guide these women to speak up and be the voice of change.

Furthermore, Kristof and WuDunn believe that many men in developing countries lack knowledge and that is one of the main reasons why they are committing violence against women. In today’s society, we have many organizations trying to help bring about a peaceful world with equality and justice for all human beings. One of the organizations is called Madre, which works to ensure that all women enjoy their collective human rights and that they are able to participate in all aspects of society. The greatest thing about this organization is that they support existing women’s organization, “ensuring that the skills and resources remain in the community for the long term.”

In short, Madre enables the locals to be their own change rather than bringing outside experts to make the change. “Madre works to communicate the impacts of policies of governments, international financial institutions, and other centers of power on women and their communities worldwide and to formulate and press for alternatives to destructive policies.” Madre guides women to come together to see their own struggles. In order to protect women’s right, this organization created the Afghan Women’s Survival Fund to enable women to escape violence and abuse. Since women had no money and were forbidden to leave the house without a male relative. The Fund enabled women to speak out for their basic human rights.

Therefore, the Afghan women were empowered with knowledge and Funds to protect themselves when threatened with violence. This Fund helped threatened women to relocate and to keep pursuing their rights as human beings. Another organization, which I thought strongly supports women’s rights, is called free the slaves. This organization believes that in order to end modern day slavery, we need real change in governments. In other words, we need enough political will to make the laws work against human traffickers, and other oppressors. To eradicate modern day slavery, we the people in society need to speak up and spread the word about the injustice of all human beings. This organization views education as a powerful weapon to ending modern day slavery. Hence, when people know about an issue they are more likely to be more aware of their surroundings.

Therefore, education is needed to battle the issues of injustice worldwide. Free the slaves are trying to spread the word about the abuse, violence and injustice women faced around the world. This program believes that people need to be informed about these issues to make an impact in the lives of women. Half the sky is a great example, spreading the message about the hardship and struggles of women in developing countries. Moreover, “knowledge is power. When more people learn that slavery still exists, the anti-slavery movement gains energy and strength.” In short, education is needed to spread awareness to society about issues of injustice against women.

In conclusion, education should be a human right for all human beings regardless of age, gender, sex or religion. With that said, education should be a guide on how to live a peaceful life. In my opinion, knowledge is the cure for modern day slavery. When the individuals of society are educated, they are able to voice their concerns to the government to make a change in the laws for the good of all. In order to bring about equality, we need the people to stand up and fight for what they believe. Change starts with the people.

Byron Walton
Share

How to create Testimonial Carousel using Bootstrap5

Clients' Reviews about Our Services