Empowering women begins from adolescence

I REFER to Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri’s remarks about her ministry’s efforts in helping women to set up successful businesses and becoming influential politicians as a way of empowering them, “The bedrock of female leadership” and “Beyond the numbers” (Sunday Star, March 8).

While this is laudable, we believe that empowering women really begins with how we treat and educate them from their schooldays onwards. Girls have a more difficult time than boys in negotiating their physical and emotional changes from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood.