What is an Empowered Female?

This word "empowered" gets used a lot, but last week one of the partners asked me, "What does an empowered girl look like?"  She said, "When do we know we are there...and how do we know we aren't there already?"

What a great question!  It highlighted the confusion that can arise from overusing a term to the point we sometimes forget what it means. 

My team is focused on "empowering girls."  The Peace Corps wants to "empower girls."   The partners all want to "empower girls."  What are we talking about?

An image flashed in my mind contrasting my situation as an executive level engineer with that of some women I've met around the world.  However, the picture of me quickly yielded to echoes from one of the most empowered women I've ever known - an empowered woman before such a term was even popular.  Yes, I heard the voice of my mom with her signature, "What you really need to do is..." mantra, offering advice...in private and public settings. 

My mom could easily be described as a force.  She was a stay-at-home mom.  However, you would be badly mistaken to think she was not an empowered woman.  But, you see, staying at home was her choice - a key facet of empowerment.  And that empowered woman raised several empowered daughters who chose to work outside the home.  And, in turn, we naturally work to empower others because we can never escape our mom's insistence of, "what you really need to do is..." when it comes to helping people achieve their potential.

Thus, armed with images of strong women such as my mom and sisters, I responded to the partner by rattling off distinctive attributes I saw in these strong women.  She began adding to my list and since then others have contributed as well.  Here is what we've arrived at:

An empowered female:

• Is self-confident
• Determines her own future
• Is educated and has equal access to primary through tertiary education
• Is able to choose her course of study
• Is free from sexual harassment and sexual violence
• Chooses when and whom to marry
• Chooses when to become pregnant
• Chooses her career without social bias
• Has equal opportunity for career advancement and executive leadership opportunities
• Earns equal pay to her male counterparts
• Can obtain identification, passport and visa independently
• Can travel domestically and internationally with equal independence as men
• Has earning power
• Has spending power – the ability to make spending decisions or equally participate in spending decisions
• Has the power over her own bank accounts
• Has independent access to credit
• Has a voice in the public forum (elected, business, community and church organizations)
• Has property ownership and inheritance rights
• Has legal rights equal to men and is free from gender-based legal restrictions
• Has access to justice for violations of her legal rights, including sexual harassment and violence

In sharing this list with the Peace Corps' Let Girls Learn Regional Director, she added one more important attribute she wants mentioned when we work with girls and that is, "She can look just like you!"