Settling the Debate: Using Resources to Empower Women is Not a Waste

Expending resources on empowering women to reduce the inequality of genders is not a waste of resources when it aligns well with the goal of reducing poverty. This inequality is a root cause of this prevalent issue and strips it down to the core values. Many women do not have the opportunity to work in these LEDCs due to the predisposed belief that women work the house whilst the men provide the income. With more women empowered and being able to supply labour towards the economy, it is plausible that the economy will boom. This “waste of resources” on the empowering of women will be very beneficial in the long run as most economies are male dominated and do not have women oriented jobs. A common misconception in LEDCS, such as India, is that women take on the ‘soft-labour’ where they do not do heavy lifting, instead they are the ones with a needle and thread. This misconception can be exploited to bolster the economy, empowering these women to join textile factories (sweatshops) would increase the output to meet the ever increasing demand for cheap clothing worldwide. Or allowing them to take on the role of the breadwinner will prevent them from being ‘belittled’ and/or ridiculed for their lack of power in their family and community. Allowing them to take on the role of the breadwinner will set a precedent of the 'empowership' of women. Women in industry will increase the GDP of the country as there will be a larger supply of labour and this will be able to attract long-term trading relations (on a global scale), attract investors into the industry (textiles industry) and will also clearly display an improvement in the economy: increasing the expectations for the future of the economy. And, on a tangent, economies oppress women therefore they are not able to solve its countries most important problems. There is endless recycling of the same solutions for prevalent issues but they display no outcome and improvement; there is a need for a new perspective on these issues as a whole and this can be done by bringing women forward. By bringing women forward, countries may be able to bring new ideas onto the table which could potentially solve major issues both globally and locally. These new perspectives would be able to tackle the issues of scarcity for human needs. It is a common economic understanding that the world’s demand for items are ever-increasing whilst natural resources are depleting. There is no viable way to decrease the depletion drastically but what we can do is offering new perspectives on the issues. One cause of the lack of female perspective is the cycle of women’s inequality: as many women are not seen as equal and are not given the opportunity to fulfil their capabilities, this sets a precedent for the next generation. Many girls are not sent to school as their mothers and fathers don’t believe it is necessary as they are to become the ‘caretakers of the household’ and, therefore, don’t need education. The United Nations (UN) has also acknowledged this problem and has stated that women generally have fewer opportunities because their families may not be willing and able to send all their children to school. This precedent makes it seemingly impossible for a large proportion of a country’s female population (in poverty) to be educated. Females need to educated to the same standard as males to give them equal opportunity to getting into high-ranking jobs and the parliament where they are able to make decisions and have a say in the future of the country. Therefore, I believe that a major component of the issue of poverty is the lack of female equality, empowerment and education and this needs to be tackled in order to allow internal poverty to be reduced and to move the country forward as a whole.