Abstract
Role models for young girls are extremely important in their journey to becoming empowered and valuable members of society. The choice of the role model thus becomes highly imperative for educators in determining curricula. This paper observes that a scrutiny of role models and their achievements, such as the case of Ropuiliani, shows important nuances of empowerment; and claims that such nuances would be lost on the minds of young minds especially girls – simply because they are yet to garner sufficient life experiences; and because their knowledge and meaning-making mechanisms are highly attuned with idealistic conventional moral codes taught through primary and even secondary socialisation.
Herein, this paper would like to achieve two goals. The first is to throw light on why Ropuiliani can indeed be considered a role model and paragon of woman empowerment by going deeper into colloquially used semantics such as “bravery”, “strength” etc. Secondly, I would like to highlight a dilemma of dissemination of such a deeper and accurate understanding of empowerment to young girls. Furthermore, certain suggestions are recommended regarding the same.
This paper is part of the ICSSR special project “The Mizo Queen Lalnu Ropuiliani: Her Legacy in the Context of Nation-Building”.
Author: Samuel L Chuaungo
Keywords: Ropuiliani, Woman Empowerment, Young Girls, Pedagogy
