It is only when a woman is economically empowered that she can negotiate at household level with her husband about the number of children that body of hers can have.
Interpretation
Economic empowerment allows women to make informed choices in their personal lives.
This quote emphasizes the crucial link between women's economic empowerment and their ability to make decisions about reproductive health and family planning. When women have financial independence, they gain the confidence and authority to negotiate important matters, such as the number of children they wish to have, which is fundamental to their rights and overall well-being.
In practice
In a speech about gender equality, I want to highlight Joyce Banda's perspective on women's empowerment.
When I gave birth to my fourth child, I suffered from post partum hemorrhaging. I almost lost my life. I was lucky to be under the care of trained health care personnel. I started wondering then what was happening to women in rural villages.
You ask how I feel to be the first female president in southern Africa? It's heavy for me. Heavy in the sense that I feel that I'm carrying this heavy load on behalf of all women.
I sat down in 1989 and I made up my mind at that point that I was going to spend the rest of my life assisting women and youth to gain social and political empowerment through business and education. I convinced myself economic empowerment of women was going to be key, especially in a country like this where most women didn't go to school.
I convinced myself economic empowerment of women was going to be key, especially in a country like this where most women didn't go to school.
My father once told me when I was a young girl that I was destined to do great things. His belief in my abilities and ambition is rooted deeply in the spirit of Malawians; resilient and determined for a better Malawi and a better Africa.
An African woman carries heavy loads anyway. That's how we are trained; we are brought up that nothing is unbearable. I use that now, positively. I use that now to have the thick skin that I have, and not fear, and move forward, and push; and push forward.
All my adult life people have been helping me.
Meg, don't you think you'd make a better adjustment to life if you faced facts?" I do face facts," Meg said. They're lots easier to face than people, I can tell you.
I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and - I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations.
The side of fairytales I don't like is that they always have happy endings, that there's just good and evil, and things are perfect. But life is a little more complicated, and that's what I try to teach my kids.
When a person has lived generously and fought fiercely, she deserves more than sadness at the end.
And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.
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