Hi Sayed Mohammad Tariq Zafar , interesting question! I'd like to first ask what do you mean by women empowerment and by what means do see it being achieved? I think it's good if we have the same understanding on the 'what' and the 'how' to get the discussion going..

Hi Sayed Mohammad Tariq Zafar, does it require justification to 'empower' women in the sense of recognising them a equal human beings to other sexes, providing them with the same access to education, health and other social services as men and tapping into their creativity and experiences, recognise and compensate their labour, ensure their share in decision making and leadership? Experience tells us that women and men discussing, negotiating, deciding together in family, business and other spheres of life generate more opportunities and better results. Harnessing diversity, including of different perspectives, prepares us better to cope with the accelerating changes and volatility in the anthropocene. That's very broad-brush to chew on, of course.

The undertone of this question is misogynistic. There should be NO NEED to justify empowering women. Women compose 50% of the world's people, yet in so many countries are treated abusively, not even permitted to have a proper education or be able to vote in some countries. This is scandalous.

the author needs to think through his rationale for asking this question.

I cannot help Sayed but I felt I should say something about Valerie Saunders' response which I found improper in a scientific discussion environment since it is just a "cancellation", a disqualification, a dismissal. Also, it doesn't take into account Sayed's longer explanation where he doesn't use the word "justify" but requests help in "analyzing" the empowerment of women in certain specific environments that he describes. May be "justificaction" was not a good selection of words, or may be Sayed used it in the sense of "explanation for".

Perhaps the conversation should move on to 'how to...'?