The value and fundamental importance of empowering women is beyond question. To empower a woman is to empower the nation since women are the bedrock of every family and the cornerstone of any society.

It is fact that women suffer poverty, illiteracy, abuse both physical and emotional, and disenfranchisement. Another report detailing the disempowered status of women in Kenya has little value to our empowerment beyond its use as a spring-board towards this end. The focus of this report, therefore, is on how best a woman may be empowered.

Giving a woman the proverbial fish has no lasting value; she must learn to fish. She must learn to support and provide for herself and in so doing, for those around her. Since any learning is a mental activity, the empowerment of women starts with the mind. A shift in mindset is pivotal in shifting the physical reality of women for as a woman thinketh, so she is. To give a mentally disempowered woman employment or access to finance is often akin to giving a cripple a pair of shoes and expecting him to walk. And just as a cripple must mentally overcome his disability before external aids are effective, so must a disempowered woman heal psychologically first before external assistance can be effective towards her empowerment.

Women must be re-minded of their inherent value both personally and socially. A woman must ultimately value herself and in so doing respect herself so that those around her may respect her. The learning that seeds empowerment is not so much one of books and schools, though this is part of it, but also of a psychological nature that nurtures an empowered state of being from which the fruits of empowered actions are reaped. Psychological empowerment must come first; physical empowerment before its psychological equivalent is as self-defeating as putting the cart before the horse.

Towards this end self-help courses must form part of any educational curriculum of the youth, both male and female. For those not in school, communal literacy and self-help courses should be introduced. The psychological dimensions of disempowerment must be explored, understood and healed so that the seeds of empowerment may take root.

Alongside tending to the psychological dimensions of empowerment, laws and regulations focusing on the empowerment of women, much like those addressing aborigine rights in Australia or African American rights in the USA must be put in place and an awareness pertaining to them created for their optimal application in society. Their implementation must be enforced in every institution and all aspects of society much like disability rights are enforced in the United Kingdom.

Lastly, it is important to highlight the fact that the empowerment of women directly concerns, pertains to and affects the male gender. Men are every bit part of and responsible for the empowerment of women. Every male child is born of a woman and every man marries a woman who (often) bears children of her own. To empower a woman is thus to ensure children have capable, responsible and strong mothers. These mothers then become role models of their future wives and mothers of their children. Yet it is often men who oppress women under the illusion of strength or manhood. The truly strong are gentle; and no real man oppress a women for he sees in her his mother, his sister, his other half, and/or his daughter. He recognizes that just as one side of a coin is not separate from the other; so he too, is not separate from the female in the body of humanity. He knows that to oppress a woman or to deny her justice is to oppress and deny himself for she is a part of the body of humanity that he too forms a part of. Just as an ailing part or a painful tooth affects the whole body, so too does the disempowerment of the female gender in any society affect the whole society. Thus, the empowerment of women serves men every bit as it does the female and illusory acts of aggression and oppression by men towards women must cease for the benefit of all.