Final answer:
In the 1990s, the international community began emphasizing women's empowerment as a key aspect of population policy, focusing on improving health, education, and economic opportunities for women to manage population growth effectively.
Step-by-step explanation:
A distinctive aspect of population policy emphasized for the first time by the international community in the 1990s is C) Women’s empowerment. This approach was highlighted as a more humane and effective method of managing population sizes compared to previous, more coercive policies like China’s one-child policy.
International conferences, such as the U.N. Conference on Population in Cairo in 1994 and the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, stressed the importance of improving health, education, and employment opportunities for women as a means to reduce birth rates. These conferences recognized that women’s empowerment, including greater access to education and reproductive health services, leads to lower fertility rates and sustainable population growth.