New Delhi, Feb 23 (UNI) Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today called upon women to come forward and gain economic and social status through economic empowerment.

''Empowered women can create awareness and be role models to other women... it is time now for the women to unite and prove that they are not weak and meek, if they are united nobody would be able to stop them from emancipation,'' Ms Dikshit said in her address at a function of S P M College at Punjabi Bagh in West Delhi.

She said time has come to acknowledge the work of women by quantifying the out put in terms of monetary compensation.

''Such financial quantification would help in ascertaining the status of women in the society,'' she added.

The Chief Minister pointed out that more than 75 per cent work was done by women ''but it goes unrecognised and unacknowledged because of the fact that most of it is in the unorganized category''.

Stressing that gender equality prevailed was even more in rural areas, Ms Dikshit said the situation could improve only if women were to become independent decision-makers.

''The solution to this lay in women getting educated so that they can claim their rights instead of just accepting what is given to them,'' she added.

UNI