Dear Editor,
Happy International Women’s Day!
"Women need to be empowered through the strongest tool – education. They don't need to be subservient to anyone, but at the same time, men must change their mindset towards women. If they are more respectful towards them, then things will change at the grassroots level. It will happen slowly, but everyone has to move together." - Madhuri Dixit
Women empowerment has taken on a new meaning in this modern society. The power of a woman is not limited to self but to progress of a people in its broadest sense. Femi Fani-Kayode in the Premier Times of Nigeria noted that women are by far the deeper and more powerful of the two sexes.
With all this in mind, the 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 teamwork to render all possible co-operation to their male counterparts in meeting the deadlines and targets set in their respective professions.
Even with careful planning, women continually face challenges in society. Some of these challenges can be relieved by employer-provided family-friendly conditions for women. These solutions may include job-sharing where two employees cooperatively share the same job, part-time employment, staff working from home or telecommuting, flexible starting and stop times and flexible core business hours, and periodic paid and unpaid work interruptions for child care and elder care.
In modern age, women are going very well in all the fields of progress. They are demonstrating their talents in best. They are serving as teachers, doctors, engineers, administrators and even leaders of government. The need is to increase this ratio with balance. An empowered woman is an educated woman and more education among the women means more progress of our society and our nation.
Happy International Women’s day on behalf of the board of the Windward Island Teachers Union.
Board of the Windward Island Teachers Union (WITU)
