© 2023 JETIR April 2023, Volume 10, Issue 4 www.jetir.

org (ISSN-2349-5162)

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND LITERATURE

Dr. RACHNA SHARMA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (ENGLISH)
GOVT. COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, BHIWANI

ABSTRACT

Women Empowerment includes the action of raising the status of women by giving them proper education,
raising awareness towards their rights, equipping and allowing women to make life-determining decisions
through different problems prevailing at present times. It means to make solutions of women’s social, economic,
political and cultural problems which they face in their day to day life. It will help in unlocking women’s
economic potentials and move them towards a self independent way of life. The autonomy of women and
improvement of their status is a highly important end in itself. In addition it is essential for the achievement of
sustainable development. The present paper is an attempt to analyze the status of women empowerment in India.
The study reveals that women of India are disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status then the men in
spite of many efforts undertaken by government. It is found the acceptance of unequal gender norms by women
are still prevailing in the society. Self discovery is a phase where search for self is the main motif of the writers to
project in their writing as they experienced freedom in self-dependency.

Keyword: Women empowerment, sustainable development, self-dependency.

Introduction

If all Men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? -Mary Astell.

A woman is a human being who also deserves happiness, she can claim for her rights. It is true that with the
advancement of technology and development of society, she has also developed psychologically and has
made herself capable of being self-dependent. She is ready to take greater responsibilities either these are
political or economical. The status of women refers to her position in social structure and the duties assigned to
her along with the rights bestowed upon her. Outer world is not considered a safe place for her. Perhaps this is
due to their physical structure, due to patriarchal society or the modern man’s mental design is responsible for her
present condition? In modern age we use the heavy terms for women, one of such terms is feminism‟.
But there can be no existence of feminism without women empowerment. The subjects of gender justice and
women's empowerment have gained prominence in various fields of study over the past several decades as a
result of numerous campaigns for women's equality and rights. The criticisms and discussions sparked by various
national women's movements gave rise to the idea of women's empowerment. By gaining knowledge, power, and
experience, it improves the intrinsic talent. Many government initiatives for social justice and women's welfare
now regard empowerment as their main goal.

Concept of Women's Empowerment: In recent decades, both the social scientific literature and the study of
public policy have given a lot of attention to the idea of women’s empowerment. Empowerment of women is a
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highly debated topic that is extremely complex. Nevertheless, it is generally acknowledged that the concept of
empowerment in the context of women can be considered as such a relationship between women and society that
is based on the values of freedom, rights, and equality despite the complexity and philosophical disagreements
surrounding this theme. Empowering a woman essentially means treating her like a full human being. It’s all
about empowering a woman to claim her humanity. The United National Development Fund for Women defines
the term “women’s empowerment” as the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of gender relations, the
growth of a sense of self-worth on the part of women, a belief in women’s ability to effect the desired changes,
and the protection of a woman’s right to control her own life. Women who are empowered will have more options
and will be able to negotiate better terms to have a say in decisions that affect them. The concept of and efforts
pertaining to women’s empowerment attempt to achieve justice in both the national social and economic order as
well as the international order.

Challenges of Women’s Empowerment: In many societies, women are unable to make a significant
contribution to the decision-making processes despite decades of awareness of women’s empowerment and
attempts from governments and activists. Therefore, initiatives to advance gender equality and justice still need to
speed up. Fundamentally, a woman must be liberated from what may be referred to as “dependence syndrome.” A
woman is fundamentally dependent on her father, spouse, sibling, family, community, or religious organization
for her survival and growth in the majority of her realms of existence. The process of liberating women from this
state of structural dependence by realizing their inner strength is at the heart of women’s empowerment. This
makes women’s empowerment much more comprehensive than just political, social, or economic empowerment.
Internal empowerment, or the advancement of one’s emotions, spirit, or mind, is the true foundation of women’s
liberation

Need of Women Empowerment: Empowerment of women is a necessity for the very development of a society.
Women represent half the world’s population and we cannot deny the fact they have equal rights too in the
society. In comparison of man, woman can give nation great citizens. It doesn’t matter, she is illiterate or
educated. She has a great bulk of knowledge which they grasp from their day to day experiences. Furthermore
how can anyone make such type of judgment that man is superior to woman while he also takes birth from the
womb of a woman? Women are weak biologically in comparison to men but orthodox societies make them fully
weak to present idealistic view towards man. They always seem unsatisfied and oppressed because they have to
follow the man made rule and regulations of life. So we need a lot of improvements in society to empower
women.

Role of literature in Women Empowerment The author characterizes empowerment as a person’s freedom to
do and achieve the desired goals. This framework of empowerment focuses on the individual. Other authors take
a slightly more narrowed approach, taking into consideration the institutional, social or political structures rules
and norms within which the actors make and pursue their choices. Many writers like Margaret Atwood, Tony
Morrison, Virginia Woolf and many more wrote on the empowerment and freedom of women’s life and many
writers supported this empowerment movement and suggested to society and tried to change their thoughts
towards women. Many novels, short stories, satires and poems were written on the empowerment of women. All
these authors demonstrate their definition of empowerment as the relationships between society and structure.
First of all, empowerment is very multidimensional and it can be exercised on many different levels and domains.
Empowerment can look different at the individual level versus the community level, and it can look different in
the state versus the market. Women’s empowerment is heavily concentrated on the household and individual
level. Household is given the centrality to gender relations. As a concrete manner women’s empowerment is more
readily visible at household level rather than at large levels of aggregation. An information of the distinct ways in
which empowerment has been conceptualized. Women and gender equality recognized as key element in all over
the world. Study is shown the way of empowerment only for the women. Empowerment of women is the progress
of country and all felt to equip the women with necessary skills with education and modern trade. Empowerment
in the context of women’s development is a way of defining, challenging and overcoming barriers in a woman’s
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life through which she increases her ability to shape her life and environment. It is an active, multi dimensional
process, which should enable women to realize their full identity and power in all spheres of life. India envisions
a future in which Indian women are independent and self reliant. It is unfortunate that because of centuries of
inertia, ignorance and conservatism, the actual and potential role of women in the society has been ignored,
preventing them from making their rightful contribution to social progress

Literature and Women’s Empowerment: It is in the above context that the importance of literature and
writing lies as a tool of empowerment of women and achievement of gender justice. Literature has been deeply
influenced by the churning concerning women’s rights and equality that ensured feminist struggles all over the
world. It is, therefore, necessary to analyze literature as a domain that reflects and advances concerns of gender
justice and women’s empowerment. Women’s literature is in a way a reflection and continuation of society’s
quest for women’s equality and rights. The 20th-century literary criticism acknowledged women’s writings as a
powerful site for investigating the patriarchal social structures as also for understanding women’s frustrations,
dreams and expectations in such patriarchal structures. As Simone de Beauvoir notes:

“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman. No biological, psychological or economic fate determines the
figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature,
intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.”

According to her, women are considered secondary in relation to men since ancient times. Her role is conceived
as one of bearing and giving birth to a child. Women get confined to the private sphere while men dominate the
public sphere. It is not the result of any essential feminine feature but it is the result of education and social
tradition which are under the control of men. Consequently, women have not created as much volume of literature
as it is expected from nearly half of the human society. For centuries, human experiences have been synonymous
with masculine experiences, making it incomplete and one-sided. The woman was neither defined nor recognized
as a subject in her own right. The obvious reason for this, to put in the context of Virginia Woolf’s words, was
that women did not have the money and room of their own. Women were not recognized as individual and
autonomous beings. Women had to face many obstacles in the personal, literary and cultural fields. Restricted
access to education also restricted the intellectual exposure of women. The barriers for women in the creative and
cultural spheres are not different from those that are observed in other spheres. Even today, women rarely find
convenient spaces that help her to develop her creative and critical abilities. This condition results into the
suppression of her inherent creative potential and exercise of the right to self-expression. Even so, due recognition
did not come easily for whatever that women could write through the past centuries, which, in turn, led to further
diminishing of her self-confidence to write literature and overshadowing of her self-identity. As a result, the
powerful currents of feminism that have swept the literary world during the past one and half centuries have
caused many women to assert their identity through literature. As a critical tool, women’s literature provides us
with an awareness of the role and expectations of women in society. How can the study of women’s writings and
literature help in understanding the process of empowerment of women and advancement of gender justice?
Literature can become a site for women’s empowerment in the following ways:

1. Expression is at the core of human existence. One always wishes to express and share because it leads to joy,
catharsis and clarity. Expression in the form of literary writing is one of the most effective ways of learning about
the socio-psychological realm of women and their expectations from society. When women write literature, it acts
as an outlet for their subtle liberation from internal and external constraints. Writing helps writers to crystallize
their identity. Women’s purposive engagement with literature would help enrich and transform the spiritual and
intellectual domains of their existence and expand their consciousness.

2. Writing can become a silent but powerful form of activism for women. It could provide them with an
opportunity to think critically about issues of gender and sexuality in the context of interpersonal and social
relations. Through literature, women can transmit their views, desires and identity to the wider society.

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3. Literature helps explore women’s experiences in a historical, psychological and societal context. Such
exploration would challenge us to uncover the irony and complexity of human emotion and present us with a
world that is not the same that we are living in. Literature in this sense will empower women by giving new
visions for their progress.

4. Masculine and feminine writings are supposed to have differences in their style and content. Women’s
literature helps us to understand the social construction of men’s and women’s traditional and modern roles as
also of the responses to these roles and the conflicts generated by them. This understanding can form the basis of
the policies and actions meant for women’s empowerment in the practical domains.

5. Experiences of women are generally shaped by gendered realities. Their writings emerge from and represent
their typical socio-psychological and economic conditions. Literature reflecting these special conditions would be
valuable in identifying micro realities and situations that are not reflected in the macro notions relating to
women’s empowerment.

6. The reading-writing process inherent in literary activity would qualitatively and subtly transform women.
Writing literature can be cathartic for them. It would help them to overcome ingrained emotions of fear or
debility. The experience of literary reading and writing would also transform and empower women in social and
political spheres.

Conclusion: Literature’s close connection to a woman’s identity and her empowerment makes it a potent
instrument for both speaking to and listening to her inner world. Building spaces and institutions where these
voices of women are cultivated and heard is a significant step in the direction of women’s empowerment.
Opening and promoting access, creation, identification, interpretation and transmission of literature for, by and of
women would have far-reaching effects on both women’s power as well as on the well-being of the society.

References:
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2) Beauvoir, Simone de. (1989). The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books.
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4) Karl, Marilee. (1995). Empowerment and Women. London: Zed Books.
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