Women’s empowerment is the process by which unequal power relations between men and women are transformed and women gain greater equality with men. This transformation has been widely recognized -- in international, regional and national conferences –- as a basic human right as well as an imperative for national development and global progress.

At the government level, women’s empowerment includes extending to them all fundamental social, economic and political rights. On the individual level, it includes processes by which women gain inner power to express and defend their rights and gain greater self-esteem and control over their own lives and relationships. Male participation and acceptance of changed roles are an essential element of these processes.

Reproductive and Sexual Issues are Key

Because the right to reproductive and sexual health is so integrally related to a woman’s well-being, it can serve as a useful entry point to a discussion on empowerment. Conversely, neglecting a woman’s right to reproductive and sexual health lies at the root of many problems that the international community has targeted for urgent action, including:

• gender-based violence



• HIV/AIDS



• maternal mortality



• teenage pregnancy



• abandoned children



• family planning

The massive denial of women's rights to reproductive and sexual health causes the death of millions of people every year; many more are permanently injured or infected. Most are in developing countries. Reproductive and sexual health and rights are more than an individual concern. They also have a direct and significant impact on the economy of a country—as clearly evidenced in the African countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic.

UNFPA’s Life Cycle Approach

Reproductive health is a lifetime concern for both women and men, from infancy to old age. UNFPA supports programming tailored to the different challenges they face at different times in life.

In many cultures, the discrimination against girls and women that begins in infancy can determine the trajectory of their lives. The important issues of education and appropriate health care arise in childhood and adolescence. These continue to be issues in the reproductive years, along with family planning, sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive tract infections, adequate nutrition and care in pregnancy, the social status of women and concerns about cervical and breast cancer.

Male attitudes towards gender and sexual relations arise in boyhood, when they are often set for life. Men need early socialization in concepts of reproductive health, behavior, gender equality and ongoing education and support in order to experience full partnership with women in family life.

Critical Messages for Different Stages

In its advocacy and programming, UNFPA focuses on key messages that can empower both women and men at different stages of their lives.

Girls

• Inform and empower girls to delay pregnancy until they are physically and emotionally mature.



• Inspire and motivate boys and men to be take responsibility for their sexual behavior and to value daughters equally as sons.



• Encourage governments to take responsibility for the human catastrophe of orphans and other children who live in the streets.

Adolescents

• Reorient health education and services to meet the needs of adolescents both in and out of school. Integrated sexual education and services for young people should include family planning information, and counselling on gender relations, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse and reproductive health.



• Ensure that health care programmes and providers’ attitudes allow for adolescents’ access to the services and information they need.



• Support efforts to eradicate female genital cutting and other harmful practices, sexual abuse, and trafficking of adolescents for forced labour, marriage or commercial sex.



• Socialize and motivate boys and young men to show respect and responsibility in sexual behavior.

Adulthood

• Improve communication between men and women on issues of sexuality and reproductive health, and the understanding of their joint responsibilities, so that they are equal partners in public and private life.



• Enable women to exercise their right to control their own fertility and their right to make decisions concerning reproduction, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.



• Improve the quality and availability of reproductive health services and barriers to access.



• Make emergency obstetric care available to all women who experience complications in their pregnancies.



• Encourage men's responsibility for sexual and reproductive behavior and increase male participation in family planning.



• Recognize unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, support treatment of complications and post-abortion counseling on family planning.

The Older Years

• Reorient and strengthen health care services to better meet the needs of older women.



• Support outreach by women's NGOs to help older women in the community to better understand the importance of girls’ education and reproductive and sexual health and rights so that they may become effective transmitters of this knowledge.



• Develop strategies to better meet needs of the elderly for food, water, shelter, social and legal services and health care.

UNFPA integrates the empowerment of women into virtually all of its programming. Read about UNFPA in action.

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