Empowering Women, Transforming Lives

Women’s empowerment is the process by which unequal power relations between men and women are transformed, and women gain greater equality with men. This transformation has been widely recognized — in international, regional and national conferences — as a basic human right as well as an imperative for national development and global progress.

At the government level, women’s empowerment includes extending to them all fundamental social, economic and political rights. On the individual level, it includes processes by which women gain inner power to express and defend their rights and gain greater self-esteem and control over their own lives and relationships. Male participation and acceptance of changed roles are essential to these processes.

The empowerment of women and girls — through better education, health care and increased opportunities — is a cornerstone of UNFPA’s work around the world. UNFPA supports programmes promoting women's reproductive health, education, and income-generating activities, and emphasizes gender awareness in all its programme activities.

The Fundamental Role of Reproductive and Sexual Health

Protecting reproductive health is a key aspect of empowerment. When women and men have the information and services they need to plan their families and protect their health, they feel more in control of their lives and their futures. They tend to have fewer, and healthier, children and more productive lives. Conversely, ignoring reproductive and sexual health can exacerbate many of the problems that the international community has targeted for urgent action, including

• The spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS
• Maternal and child mortality
• Poverty
• Gender inequality

Empowering Women to Protect Themselves

As an example of how women’s empowerment is necessary to achieving social progress, consider the goal of improving maternal health, and the related target of reducing maternal mortality. The international community has agreed on the urgency of this issue by including it as one of the Millennium Development Goals. Reducing maternal mortality will require making sure skilled birth attendants and backup emergency obstetric care are widely available. But for real progress to be achieved, women also need to be empowered to make informed decisions about their care during childbirth. In many parts of the world, male relatives or in-laws make those decisions. Educating women, informing them of their rights, and giving them more opportunities in life can help change this power balance, and enable them to better protect themselves.

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