WOMEN need to step out into society to ensure that the skills and values they have harnessed for time takes its rightful place.
This was highlighted by the Minister for Women Doctor Jiko Luveni to hundreds of women during the opening of the Empowering Women to Wellness Summit at Studio 6 Apartments in Suva yesterday.
Dr Luveni said the millennium development goal (MDG) to promote gender equality and empower women was central to realising all MDGs and crucial for sustainable development.
"I am sure you will all agree with me that women have been creating, maintaining and protecting the space for others — tending the human garden — throughout history," she told the women.
She highlighted that to address violence against women, her ministry was engaging in an intensive campaign to promote the declaration by communities to zero tolerance of violence against women and children.
Also speaking at the summit, the Dean of Faculty of Arts, Law and Education at the University of the South Pacific Dr Akanisi Tabualevu said women should not keep quiet when things were not right around them.
"Women should empower themselves to take full responsibility of their homes," Dr Tabualevu said.