Empowering Women Entrepreneurship In Kenya: Essay On Realizing Common Good.

Description Extending  your work  from Assignment  2, that  briefly  critiques  a  global  issue (i.e.,  the challenge you chose for Assessment  2)  where shared responsibility  for  the common good is  not  being realised  and then,  propose ways  to address  this challenge in  your  professional  community,  locally  and globally. 

Please Note:  In order  to achieve a higher  grade  you  will  need to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of  the Common Good and its  relationship to other  CST  principles,  particularly  Human Dignity.   Your  discussion should  demonstrate  how Advocacy  and  Community  Engagement  may contribute to your  proposed solution   

Purpose: To demonstrate your  ability  to apply  your  knowledge  and understanding of  principles  of human dignity,  advocacy, and community  engagement  to potential  ways  to  address  the challenge of realising the common good in a global  context.

Issues related to Women Entrepreneurship in Kenya

Common good as one of the principles of Catholic Social Teachings embraces the benefit of everyone in society (Convey, 2015: p.147). It means that every activity or institution in the society should benefit everyone in that society. The assessment two talked about women entrepreneurship in Kenya. There are several ways the country, Kenya, is failing women in terms of indentureship. The assessment two shown the capability of women in transforming the nation when they get assistance from the government. There are many ways the country is failing to realize the spirit of common good in this matter. One of the ways is that the country still considers women as inferior creatures as compared to men (Moswete, and Lacey, 2015: p.612). They do not give women enough resources to ensure that they are empowered the way men are empowered. Secondly, men still dominate many entrepreneurships including the business sectors in the nation. Many customers feel that the products women make are inferior, thus slowing the issue of women entrepreneurship in Kenya and around the world (Habermas, 2018: p.60). Apart from that, there is another serious issue of funds. For women to develop, they need money in promoting their business and expanding the market. However, the money is limited. The process of acquiring loans is often long. It will take a lot of time for women to get the funds and continue with their entrepreneurship. However, such processes are against the common good of the society. Many men are advanced in terms of skills as compared to women. The country organizes many training sessions to assist men but leaves women outside the training sessions It means that at the end of the day more men will advance in the entrepreneurship sector than women.

The principle of human dignity requires human beings to a certain level of respect integrity while common good emphasizes on assisting everyone regardless of their gender or where they come from in the nation. The issue of women empowerment is an essential matter whether locally or globally (Tiwari,2018: p. 1240). There are many ways to address the case which includes the following: -

One of the challenges that assessment two elaborates is that women have inadequate funds to focus on the entrepreneurship. The government can solve the issue through allocating funds for women in every budget. However, the government can make use of the legislature to set aside some money to empower women. When doing this, it shows that the community is showing some sense of human dignity and they are responding to the problem to assist the entire nation to develop (Gates, 2014: p.1275). Other ways of getting funds are through loans. The government should make it easy for women to access the loan. They should shorten the period reduce interest and make the requirements easy to attain.

Principles of Human Dignity and Common Good

Women empowerment is still lagging in many countries because many of the women are not aware they are capable. The preconceived notion that they are inferior as compared to men have clouded their minds (Etzioni, 2014: p.605). The best way to counter the instance is to teach people and women whether locally or internationally. There should be seminars where women are trained on the available opportunities and the possible sources of funds to support their activities. The principle of human dignity illustrates that God created everyone in His image and likeness. What it means to society and the world at large is that women are creatures from God and they deserve quality treatment. The country should inform people that women make quality products and there is no fear in purchasing what a woman has made.

From the research, many countries in the world have empowered women more than in Kenya. The women in those countries have realized their capabilities, and they have access to loans easily. The opportunity the country has given them have made them realize they are capable in the field of entrepreneurship (Deere and De Leal, 2014). For the common good of countries like Kenya and other like-minded nations, they should give the women the opportunity to see what their counterparts have done. The benchmarking process will make them realize their capability and venture more in the entrepreneurship field.

Many women who are capable in the country have lost hope because they have nowhere to sell their products. The effect of such circumstance is that other women also feel discouraged to join entrepreneurship. Consequently, the best way to solve the issue whether locally or internationally is to assist women to get to market on what they are producing. For instance, the government can take the initiative to search for the market worldwide to avoid any cartels that undermine what women do in the entrepreneurship field (Briones, 2017). When there is an existing market, women will feel motivated, and many will join the entrepreneurs’ class. From that perspective, the country will achieve human dignity from that respect, and many women brought on board thus common good.

For every success entrepreneur education is a key fundamental. Many women are missing out of the entrepreneurship sector because not educated. For several years the local community and many countries in the world have not taken the issue of girl education serious. Basing on the principle of human dignity and the common good, it is essential to take the girl child to school. When one goes to school that is the ticket to empowerment. For instance, educated girls will come back and empower their fellow (Klugman, Hanmer, Twigg, Hasan, McCleary-Sills, and Santamaria, 2014). The community will be enjoying the principle of the common good because now everyone can compete based on the knowledge they have in the entrepreneurship sector.

f. Women need continuous support to ensure they are fully empowered. There are advises such as how to plan their business to get the broader market, the management skills among others (Roy,2015: p.240). Even though the country may have ventured in women entrepreneurship sector, women still need continuous support such as the knowledge on the current challenges and trends in society today. From that support, they can know how to manage the problems and continue thriving. They should also partner with other financial institutions to continue supporting what they are doing in the market.

Women entrepreneurship is not only a Kenyan challenge but also the world challenge. The Catholic Social Thoughts gives out the principles of human dignity and the common good. All nations should base their decision on these two principles. However, there exist many ways of addressing the issue of women empowerment. They include education, loans, continuous advice among other factors. Enya as a country should partner with other nations to achieve its goal in women empowerment.  

References:

Briones, L., 2017. Empowering migrant women: Why agency and rights are not enough. Routledge.

Convey, J.J., 2015. Catholic Schools and the Common Good. Gravissimum Educationis: Golden Opportunities in American Catholic Education 50 Years after Vatican II, p.147.

Deere, C.D. and De Leal, M.L., 2014. Empowering women: Land and property rights in Latin America. University of Pittsburgh Pre.

Etzioni, A., 2014. Common good. The encyclopedia of political thought, pp.603-610.

Gates, M.F., 2014. Putting women and girls at the center of development. Science, 345(6202), pp.1273-1275.

Habermas, J., 2018. The concept of human dignity and the realistic utopia of human rights. In Human Dignity (pp. 52-70). Routledge.

Klugman, J., Hanmer, L., Twigg, S., Hasan, T., McCleary-Sills, J. and Santamaria, J., 2014. Voice and agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity. The World Bank.

Moswete, N. and Lacey, G., 2015. “Women cannot lead”: empowering women through cultural tourism in Botswana. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(4), pp.600-617.

Roy, S., 2015. Empowering women? Inheritance rights, female education and dowry payments in India. Journal of Development Economics, 114, pp.233-251.

Tiwari, R.K., 2018. Empowering women through agricultural extension: a global perspective. Indian Rural Market: Opportunity and Challenges in the Global Context, 1(1), pp.68-75.