Trust is the third most critical component for gender equality. Females must believe that they have this knowledge or experience to deal with difficult situations. These skills to get work done or the power to take for them to move up and benefit from the gaps they find in their societies. Confidence describes knowing one's self-worth. This feeling of self-worth is a building block of education. Many women have believed their role in education is to take care of children and teach them the importance of being confident.
A counselor at Raha International School in Abu Dhabi, Ms. Carmen Barrack, spoke with me about women's empowerment.
"I admire the word empowerment because empowerment implies that you can practice your power. We all have power."
For many others, the word empowerment is a personal preference. Others prefer to call it feminism instead.
She then explained how she views empowerment for young teenage girls in her capacity as a school counselor.
"To be very honest. It is the basis for all my counseling students. So as a counselor, my role is to facilitate change, but I cannot. I cannot be the change the student has to be. So it's about empowering students with skills or with the belief that they can impact their situation in a positive way. Girls may feel that the glass ceiling at a young age may get messages in the media that they are somehow lesser. And so then it's about empowering young girls to believe in themselves and believe in their worth and their value. So normalizing how we might compare ourselves with others on superficial matters, beauty, and things of that sort, but how to empower them to get them to believe in themselves and a deeper level."
Not that it should be this way, these are inexcusable symptoms of the society that treats women as victims and objectifies women. Yet respects women based on their beauty rather than their contribution to society. These conditions have gone unnoticed, a dynamic and dangerous situation to ignore.
As we progressed through our conversation, we came to the topic of personal and professional life.
"I've got a daughter and a son in year nine. I think it's more about self-awareness. So self-awareness for me as a parent and a professional. So I can't wear both hats. When I'm a mother, I'm a mother, not a counselor. It's just my awareness that I need to help instill those feelings at the moment."
Many jobs provide maternity leave. The most detrimental is for women who have the most to lose- inexperienced women workers. Companies employ highly educated women who find maternity leave policies generous, and this helps attract competent females to go to influential companies.
Companies that don't provide maternity leave for a reasonable amount of time to inexperienced female workers tend to work them further or ignore them throughout their careers.
" Education attracts women because it allows for a balance between being a mother and becoming a successful professional. I think there is less of a glass ceiling than there is because they're utterly more females. There can be, especially in the primary years, more females than there are males. So I don't think the glass ceiling is as big. But in the business world, I tend to generalize and think that, yeah, it's harder for a woman to make it to the top because they still have the added responsibility as a primary caregiver in many situations to families."
A glass ceiling is a social barrier that prevents women from being promoted to top management positions. It refers to the persistent obstacle which women must overcome to reach corporate leadership positions. Among the illegal forms of employment discrimination, glass ceilings fall under sex discrimination.
Seeing so many young women around her daily, I asked Ms. Carmen what she thinks the future of women's empowerment looks will turn to be,
"it's as the community grows more open-minded and affirming, and as it becomes more opportunity for women in all areas, then you know, progress is coming. Progress is coming. So education is huge to me. So as societies become more and more educated, I think you'll see women being more empowered with their options. They just are going to have more options. Education, yeah, a bit general, but I think it does come down to education and opportunities for women."
This conversation with Ms. Carmen helped me understand a new point of view about women's empowerment in c school society and the importance of education in a young girl's life, and how it shapes her.
Every girl and woman, whether wealthy, impoverished, young, elderly, married, unmarried, widowed, or of any other social standing, has the right to an education isn't an appanage but a primary right.