Women's Empowerment: What's Stress Got to Do With It?

 

Type the word “stress” into Google, and you’ll get 162 million hits.  That’s a lot of websites focused on something that women face daily.  After all, how many times have you said to yourself, “Stress—I can handle it”?
It’s true that stress isn’t always a negative emotion.  Stress is sometimes the motivation we need to get things done.  And, without stress, we wouldn’t have the “fight or flight” to jump out of the way of an approaching car.  It’s when stress becomes prolonged and constant that it wreaks havoc on our health and well-being. 

What makes “stress” such a challenging issue first lies in our beliefs.  Most believe that stress triggers reside outside of us: the controlling co-worker, the rude driver, our financial problems, for example.  Placing the focus on these outside situations and circumstances is stressful because we don’t have any control over them.  We feel powerless.

However, it’s possible to take back your power by understanding a simple truth.  The truth is that much of our stress is actually related to our reaction or perception of these circumstances, and the good news is that managing stress around these situations is as easy as changing our thoughts, thus changing our reactions.

Still, what triggers a stressful response for one woman may not for another.  That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to the signals and cues of our own bodies, and watch for stress related symptoms.  We need only take the time to focus in and ask ourselves what is causing our feelings and symptoms of stress and our body and spirit will usually offer a clue.

What messages has your “self” been trying to give you lately?  Don’t answer too quickly as the message coming your way in next week's post may have be meant for you…

Ever heard someone say, "You play sports like a girl?"

Sexual violence isn't just about rape or physical harassment. It begins when we hurt people through the words we use and attitudes we carry. Stereotypes of what it means to be a man or woman—for instance, boys should do physical activities and girls need to be "ladylike"—can limit our worth and potential, and create an unequal balance of power that perpetuates sexual violence.

Empower women to improve growth, says World Bank president

NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - If India and other nations across the world want economic growth, gender equality must be central to all development policies, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said on Wednesday.
Kim, on a two-day visit to India, said the empowerment of girls and women across the world had become a "top issue" and the Bank was committed to supporting programmes which helped to promote gender equality.
"Unless you put women at the centre of the development process, unless you move aggressively towards gender equality, it's not just that you are doing the wrong thing in terms of human rights, you are doing the wrong thing economically," Kim told a news conference at the end of his visit.
"If you want to grow economically, you've got to focus on gender equality. We couldn't be more committed to this issue and we know this is an issue that is very important to India."
India is the World Bank's largest client, receiving $3 billion to $5 billion annually in loans and grants to fund development projects in a country where one-third of the population -- around 400 million people -- lives on less than $1.25 a day.
Experts say gender equality makes economic sense and improving the status of women and girls can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes and make key institutions more representative.
Women represent about 40 percent of the global labour force, 43 percent of the world's agricultural workers and more than half the world's university students, yet gender disparities persist in many areas, according to a World Development Report last year.
Worldwide, females are more likely to die than males, their enrolment in primary and secondary schools is much lower, they have less access to jobs and less say and control in their own homes. Women are also under-represented in the political arena.
Indian females face many challenges, from cultural practices such as foeticide, child marriage, dowry and honour killings to discrimination in health, education and the workplace.
Crimes such as rape, domestic violence and trafficking are widespread and while there are around one million female politicians in village councils, women hold only 11 percent of the seats in India's lower and upper houses of parliament.
In his budget speech last month, Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said that addressing the plight of women was a key priority for the government, and announced plans to create a women-only bank and a $186 million fund to boost their security and empowerment.
(TrustLaw is a global news service covering human rights and governance issues and run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters)