By Jenna Harvey – March 8, 2017
There is a growing global consensus that advancing women’s economic empowerment (WEE) is critical both as a matter of human rights and as a driver of sustainable development. But what does economic empowerment mean and who should define how it is achieved?
For some women, economic empowerment may mean closing wage gaps, freedom from harassment at work, or increased representation in positions of management or leadership. For others, obstacles to economic empowerment relate not only to gender inequality, but also to broader economic inequality.
This Study was requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and commissioned, overseen and published by the Policy Department for Citizen’s Rights and Constitutional Affairs.
Direct Link to Full 132-Page 2016 Report:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/571377/IPOL_STU(2016)571377_EN.pdf
Some of the girls pictured in May 2014, shortly after their kidnapping- Getty/AFP Photo
Kidnapping of 276 Chibok girls in 2014 spurred the worldwide Bring Back Our Girls Campaign
6 May 2017 - At least 82 of the nearly 200 schoolgirls who were still missing after a mass Boko Haram abduction in northeast Nigeria in 2014 have been freed, a government official has told Al Jazeera.
The girls were in the town of Banki, close to the Nigerian-Cameroonian border, after their release on Saturday, Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from Nigeria's capital, Abuja, said.
"We are told that 82 of the Chibok have been freed by Boko Haram," he said.
‘Our land, our lives, women let us mobilize!’ The famous chant of the Women2Kilimanjaro hike which led to the mass assembly of rural women from across Africa to adopt a charter of demands that advocates for more inclusive land rights for women.
There was singing and dancing, but most of all there was tenacity and utter determination to ensure their voices were heard. As it turns out, their climb was not in vain when the 9th Annual African Union Gender Pre-Summit held in Addis Abba officially endorsed the charter of demands initiated from the mass assembly of rural women. The charter, which includes 15 specific demands addresses women’s access to use, control, own, inherit and dispose of their land and natural resources[1]” with the ultimate aim to help empower women across the continent.
Link to Charter of Demands - http://www.landcoalition.org/sites/default/files/documents/news/charter_of_demands.pdf
An anti-government protester challenges riot police blocking a women march against repression in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, May 6, 2017. Thousands of women wearing white and carrying flowers marched to ask for a stop of repression and to pay tribute to those who were killed in weeks of demonstrations calling on President Nicolas Maduro to step down. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
By Hanah Dreier, Associated Press
May 6, 2017 - CARACAS, Venezuela -- Women banged on pans and some stripped off their white shirts Saturday as they protested Venezuela's socialist government in an event the opposition billed as a "women's march against repression." As they marched, local media carried a video showing people toppling a statue of the late President Hugo Chavez the day before in the western state of Zulia.
Thousands of women on Saturday took over some main streets in the wealthy eastern part of the city. Wearing the white shirts of the opponents of country's increasingly embattled government, the women sang the national anthem and chanted, "Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!"
Some sported makeshift gear to protect against tear gas and rubber bullets.
