empowerment

Photo-Ruters/Yya/Shino/Files

Photo-Reuters

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday was due to host a three-day conference on women in the workforce, as the country grapples with boosting a low female participation rate,AFP reports.

Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER) is gravely concerned with the quality of the debate going on regarding a woman candidate for the Selangor Menteri Besar (MB) post.

Impossibly high moral standards are placed on Wan Azizah. We have heard from many quarters criticisms such as: she is Anwar Ibrahim’s wife and thus his puppet; that she purportedly has no clout; she is not competent enough; and that she does not have the “wow” factor. On this basis, critics have shunned her as a potential candidate for the MB’s post.

The seven women Union ministers are trying to understand and address the challenges women in the country face, said Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal at India Today Woman Summit and Awards 2014 on Saturday.

"We women understand the challenges and we will bring in the women angle. That's what is going to make the difference," she said in a Q&A session Power & Politics.

Women should get more involved in politics so that the voices of the fairer sex can be heard clearly.

Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower) programme officer Wong Kar Fai said the decision-making process should benefit both genders without any discrimination.

"Women's voices are very marginalised in this country," he said.

Currently, there are only 23 women members of parliament out of 222, which is about 10% when the ideal figure should be 30%.

In a country where traditional roles of womanhood are persistent and widespread, women are often discouraged from seeking employment, either as a result of internalized patriarchal notions or more often, due to constraints from their domestic obligations.

Though data on these issues is largely sporadic, the World Bank database presents an interesting opportunity for analyzing the female labour force of a country that aims to adopt European values.

Women in public/leaderships position in the Toledo district have begun a series of workshops on capacity building.

Project coordinator Sheena Gentle explains that the during the course of the training, which is expected to last eight days, the women will be taught about leadership, community mobilization, strategic planning, political campaigns among others.

The objective of the training is to empower women by helping them to confront many of the issues they face on a daily basis whether it be in the home, on the job or working in the community.

As the world looks on in horror at the bloodshed in Gaza, Mary Gahonzire brings a unique perspective to the role of women in peacemaking and reconciliation. Gahonzire is deputy commissioner of the Rwanda Correctional Service, which runs prisons in the country that 20 years ago was torn apart by 100 days of killing.

Twenty-seven presidential hopefuls have registered as candidates for Afghanistan's crucial April 5 vote, setting the stage for a wide-open race among former warlords, powerful officials, and several prominent Western-educated technocrats...