OREvery year, when we tackle our empowerment issue, I struggle to find a succinct translation for this word. However, in the interview with Nzinga Biegueng Mboup, a Senegalese architect, I found a definition that seems particularly fitting to me: “Empowerment is the act of giving someone the authority to do something“.
Danda Santini director of “iO Donna” (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
So don’t just ensure that civil rights are enforced. Not simply the principles of gender equality. And not just equal opportunities either. Empowerment is putting in a position to exercise power. And here we come: with a tortuous collective pathsome sudden backtracking, continuous stops and starts, doubts and contradictions, but with a progression that is also good to be aware of.
Female empowerment: what are the prospects?
If in 2000 the percentage of world wealth in the hands of women was 15 percent, according to the Global Wealth Report in 2018, women already held 40 percent. AND the rosiest projections predict that 55 per cent of wealth will be in the hands of women by 2030. Forecasts can be wrong, conditions change.
But it is a fact that young women, with their stubborn desire to study, are leaving universities in increasing numbers, building satisfying careers and are learning to manage their savings. It is very probable that they will shift the axis and change the old balances.
This is where we started this year, widening our gaze to the 40 percent of women in the world who live in countries that do not recognize gender equality. Where they are still systematically kept away from knowledge and power. Where to claim to be able to decide their own fate not only for women, but for everyone, are the new generations who demonstrate against authoritarianism, state oppression, misogyny, the preservation of old traditions.
Beyond the genre, but the son of an unheard genre and a different look, there is a very strong desire for renewal, full of energy, surprising to our tired or disillusioned eyes. And leading the protests, with a central role as a force for change, are women, with their shiny hair and their courage. They escape the bounty placed on their heads, risking their lives and that of their familiesexpatriate, then return, more and more determined.
Illustration by Cinzia Zenocchini
Their rebellion also speaks to us Westerners, small enclave of rights but still in check, amid resurgences of gender-based violence and sexism in the workplace. They proceed expeditiously, we have the burden of maintaining the conquests and not forgetting the effort.
“Universal rights are not exclusive to Western countries, they must be defended everywhere“, warns Rula Jebreal. Gino Strada said: “Rights, if they don’t belong to everyone, but absolutely everyone, are just the same old privileges”.
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