In the ancient period women were known to engage in many productive activities but over the time reproduction and challenges of pregnancy and childbirth gradually made her dependent on men for protection and food. Women have been relegated to the margins in spite of the fact that they are numerically half of the world's population. This has resulted in women being unable to take a place of human dignity as free and independent entities associated with men on an intellectual and professional equal wavelength. The need for women's empowerment is felt because of the status they have in society since the beginning. There is a need to redefine the status of women especially in the Indian society. The impoverished and illiterate status of most women in society is due to their inability to attain sufficient levels of economic power. To sustain any level of empowerment, women have to be educated to be aware of their rights and privileges in the contemporary society. It is only when they become aware of their status in society that they will be able to take full advantage of the concessions offered to them as a corrective measure. Women empowerment has to begin with women's active participation. Unless women throw off the v shackles that ignore their talent, skill and spirit women through education and economic self-reliance, cannot be empowered. Unless they are empowered to take a decisive part in the social, political and economic life of the country, the very development of the country will be lop-sided. Women’s Empowerment is a process whereby women become able to organise themselves to increase their own self reliance, to assert their independent right to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination. The goal of women’s empowerment is to address the issues relating to women’s subordination, inequality and inequity. Hence it is a process where women are able to change from a state of powerlessness (I cannot) to a state of collective self-confidence (we can). Over the years, the scholars and researchers have been engaged in studying and analysing matters related to the better half of the human beings, i.e. ‘Women’. Hence, more number of research studies been done and books are being published, concerning women issues. The book is an effort, to identify and bestows various facets of women empowerment. It discusses the challenges and impediments faced by women, recommends strategies to vi address those challenges and ways to cultivate the conditions leading to women’s empowerment. It attempts at its best to find the possibilities of overcoming the obstacles, identifying significant areas to be strengthened in the dynamic process of empowering women in India. It is meant to be a modest contribution to assess women’s empowerment against the background of current scenario in the twenty first century. I express my sincere gratitude to my parents Shri. Shankarayya R. Hiremath, Rtd. Principal and Smt. Veena S. Hiremath, Homemaker; my sister Ms. Tejaswini S. Hiremath, Lecturer in English; my respected teachers; colleagues, relatives; friends and my dear students for the substantive support in the process of publishing this book. I extend my thanks to all the members who have supported directly and indirectly towards the publication of this book. My earnest thanks to publishers, Blue Diamond Publishing, 232 Magar Para Chowk, Bilaspur Chhattisgarh, Zip Code – 495001. I wish that, all the readers will find this book an enriching resource.

Written through the lens of transnational feminism, Women's Journey to Empowerment in the 21st Century offers a global view into the patriarchal attitudes that shape cultural practices that oppress women and continue to take form in the modern era. By examining a range of issues, the book compels readers to utilize a contextual framework in taking a closer look at contemporary violence and oppression against women in our world.

Persuasive evidence demonstrates that gender equality in education is central to economic development. Despite more than two decades of accumulated knowledge and evidence of what works in improving gender equality, progress on the ground remains slow and uneven across countries. What is missing? Given that education is a critical path to accelerate progress toward gender equality and the empowerment of women, what is holding us back? These questions were discussed at the global symposium Education: A Critical Path to Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, which was sponsored by the World Bank in October 2007. Girls' Education in the 21st Century is based on background papers developed for the symposium. The book's chapters reflect the current state of knowledge on education from a gender perspective and highlight the importance of, and challenges to, female education, as well as the interdependence of education and development objectives. The last chapter presents five strategic directions for advancing gender equality in education and their implications for World Bank operations. Girls' Education in the 21st Century will be of particular interest to researchers, educators, school administrators, and policy makers at the global, national, regional, and municipal levels.

Global society has always been impacted by the perception of gender. While gender roles may differ in certain cultures, many cultures around the world have allowed for the disempowerment and objectification of women. Women today still struggle for gender equality whether it be professionally, socially, or even legally. To examine feminism thoroughly, however, thorough analysis must be conducted on all genders and perceptions. The Research Anthology on Feminist Studies and Gender Perceptions explores the application of feminist theory and women empowerment in the 21st century and the role that gender plays in society. This book analyzes media representation, gender performativity, and theory to present a comprehensive view of gender and society. Covering topics such as masculinity, women empowerment, and gender equality, this two-volume comprehensive major reference work is an essential resource for sociologists, community leaders, human resource managers, activists, students and professors of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

This book takes a contemporary look at the issues that affect women most from a feminist perspective. Going beyond the equal pay for equal work issue, the authors write about mental health, substance abuse, disabilities, parenting, relationships, criminal justice, and aging, all from a holistic and intersectional perspective.

"What is women's empowerment, and how and why does it matter for women's health? Despite the rise of a human rights-based approach to women's health and increasing awareness of the synergies between women's health and empowerment, a lack of consensus remains as to how to measure empowerment and successfully intervene in ways that improve health. Women's Empowerment and Global Health provides thirteen detailed, multidisciplinary case studies from across the globe and through the course of a woman's life to show how science and advocacy can be creatively merged to enhance the agency and status of women. Accompanying short videos provide background about programs on the ground in India, the United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Women's Empowerment and Global Health explores the promises and limits of programmatic, scientific, and rights-based work in real-world settings and provides the next generation of researchers and practitioners, as well as students in global and public health, sociology, anthropology, women's studies, law, business, and medicine, with cutting edge and inspirational examples of programs that point the way toward achieving women's equality and fulfilling the right to health."--Provided by publisher.

Globally, women are facing social, economic, and cultural barriers impeding their autonomy and agency. Accelerated women empowerment programs often fail to attain their targets as envisaged by the policymakers due to a variety of reasons, with the most prominent being the deep-rooted cultural norms ingrained within society. In the era of globalization, empowerment of women demands new approaches and strategies that encourage the mainstreaming of gender equality as a societal norm. The Handbook of Research on New Dimensions of Gender Mainstreaming and Women Empowerment is a critical scholarly publication that examines global gender issues and new strategies for the promotion of women empowerment and gender mainstreaming in various spheres of women’s lives, including education and ICT, economic participation, health and sexuality, mental health, aging, law and judiciary, leadership, and decision making. It provides a comprehensive coverage of all major gender issues with novel ideas on gender mainstreaming being contributed by men and women authors from multidisciplinary backgrounds. Gender perspective and intersectional approach in the discourses make this handbook a unique contribution to the scholarship of social sciences and humanities. The book provides new theoretical inputs and practical directions to academicians, sociologists, social workers, psychologists, managers, lawyers, policy makers, and government officials in their efforts at gender mainstreaming. With a wide range of conceptual richness, this handbook is an excellent reference guide to students and researchers in programs pertaining to gender/women's studies, cultural studies, economics, sociology, social work, medicine, law, and management.

Focusing on the term empowerment this book examines the various meanings given to the concept of empowerment and the many ways power can be expressed - in personal relationships and in wider social interactions.

Since the early 1980s Ecuador has experienced a series of events unparalleled in its history. Its “free market” strategies exacerbated the debt crisis, and in response new forms of social movement organizing arose among the country’s poor, including women’s groups. Gendered Paradoxes focuses on women’s participation in the political and economic restructuring process of the past twenty-five years, showing how in their daily struggle for survival Ecuadorian women have both reinforced and embraced the neoliberal model yet also challenged its exclusionary nature. Drawing on her extensive ethnographic fieldwork and employing an approach combining political economy and cultural politics, Amy Lind charts the growth of several strands of women’s activism and identifies how they have helped redefine, often in contradictory ways, the real and imagined boundaries of neoliberal development discourse and practice. In her analysis of this ambivalent and “unfinished” cultural project of modernity in the Andes, she examines state policies and their effects on women of various social sectors; women’s community development initiatives and responses to the debt crisis; and the roles played by feminist “issue networks” in reshaping national and international policy agendas in Ecuador and in developing a transnationally influenced, locally based feminist movement.