Women & Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Women & Development - Essay Example Because women are not strong as men, they are considered weak and therefore are subjected to prejudice and discrimination. For many centuries women have suffered at the hand of clergy and state. The former renounced women as morally weak while the latter didn’t allow women to use their right to vote. It was not until the 20th century that things started to change and there was considerable intellectual progress. But this progress has not yet made inroads in all regions of the world. The effect of the feminist movement of the 60s can be seen in the Europe and America but women in the developing countries are still facing many serious issues. In this paper we will discuss how UNICEF, a renowned international organization, is trying to deal with women issues like gender inequality, maternal health and other women development issues like female education. We will attempt to elaborate and then evaluate their efforts with regards to women related issues. In the end we will elucidate how UNICEF envisions the future of women development. UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund is an international organization which was established by the United Nations in 1946 in order to deal with the challenges children were facing in the post World War 2 era (UNICEF, 2010). The organization was mainly given the task to deal with the emergency situation children were facing but later the mission of the organization was broadened. Today UNICEF works for children and women in all parts of the world. The focus of the organization is on the children and women of developing world as they are the most vulnerable. UNICEF is funded by voluntary contributions from organizations, people, and countries all over the world. There are national committees that are established in different countries and their purpose is to raise funds. Individual donors also contribute to the organization and they are an important source of funding for UNICEF. UNICEF is working in different less develope d countries with an aim to safeguard rights of children and women. The organization focuses on education, health, and gender discrimination in the developing world. The situation for women and children in the developing world is extremely vulnerable as they are not even given the basic necessities of life. Moreover child abuse and domestic violence is common. In such a situation UNICEF helps to decrease the plight of women in a variety of ways. One such way is to provide education of children and women. Education is one of the areas of focus for UNICEF specially child education. It is important for children to get educated, at least to a certain extent, so that they can realize what their rights are and can also pass that education to their offspring. Women empowerment is also advocated by UNICEF and it calls for an end to gender discrimination in education and job opportunities. Basic health facility improvement is also a way in which UNICEF is helping poor countries. Issues of Wom en Development and Role of UNICEF The main issues that UNICEF deals are female education, maternal health, and gender discrimination. All these issues and the role of UNICEF in dealing with these issues will be discussed below. Gender Inequality Gender inequality is a major problem in developing countries. Women are not given equal opportunities to excel in all walks of life. They are mostly expected to stay at home and take care of the children. Women also have no control on their lives because of the patriarchal nature of societies in the developing world (Mies, 1998). This creates a lot of disparity between the two genders, both economically and socially. Women are not considered equal to men and therefore are denied rights on a regular basis. Gender inequality therefore has become an