International Women’s Day event at U of G
On March 6, the Guelph Resource Centre for Gender Empowerment and Diversity (GRCGED), in partnership with Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) Guelph, held an event in honour International Women’s Day. Featuring guest speakers, an art and resource display, and a mid-day lunch, the event celebrated movement towards equality for all.
The event, set up in the UC, featured speakers Dr. Sharada Srinivasan and Dr. Paloma Villegas. Dr. Srinivasan, the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Justice, and Development, presented a short
lecture entitled “Daughters and gender transformation in India.”
Her talk focused on the “Daughter deficit” and gendered experiences of violence and discrimination in India. Dr. Srinivasan also tackled broader issues, like female empowerment and activism.
Dr. Villegas, a professor in the department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, gave a short presentation entitled “Mexican Migrants and precarious immigration status in Toronto.”
The lecture engaged with immigration status in relation to gender-based violence, as well as trends of migration, illegal status, and a “world of internal borders.”
The event also showcased organizations from across campus and the city. Resources were available from GRCGED, Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, OPIRG-Guelph for environmental and social justice, United for Equity, and Guelph’s HIV/Aids Resources and Community Healthy organization.
Emma Watson HeForShe Q&A session
On March 8, to celebrate International Women’s Day, United Nations Women’s HeForShe campaign hosted a Q&A session with Ambassador Emma Watson, moderated by Greg James.
UN Photo/Mark Garten via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
HeForShe, launched in September of 2014, is a “movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half […] for the benefit of all.”
When speaking with James about the stigma surrounding the word “feminism,” Watson noted that many issues with the word are due to a synonymy with “man hate.”
“That’s really negative,” Watson noted to James and the 150 in attendance at Facebook’s London headquarters. “But I think that’s changing, which is really cool. […] People have come back to what the actual definition means, which is equality – politically, culturally, socially, economically…that’s it.”
Watson also spoke about being targeted following her first UN address last fall. A hoax website threatened to leak nude photos of Watson, which Watson recalled to be “a wake-up call.”
“This is a real thing; it’s happening now,” Watson revealed to James of her thoughts following the threat. “I was just raging. It made me so angry. I was like, ‘this is why this needs to be! This is why I have to be doing this!’”
Watson also noted that effecting change is not necessarily about grand gestures, but rather about consistent, small actions.
“It’s everyday, it’s individual, it’s on a case-by-case basis,” said Watson, “whether it’s speaking up or trying to change the way someone else thinks about an issue.”
Such a small gesture might be as simple as identifying as feminist, Watson noted.
“If you stand for equality, then you’re a feminist,” said Watson, quipping to James, “I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re a feminist.”
Watson also urged every listener to reach for whatever they want most, regardless of external pressures.
“Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do,” Watson concluded. “Be what you want to be, and prove them wrong.”
#womenyoushouldhaveheardof
On International Women’s Day, the hashtag “womenyoushouldhaveheardof” trended on twitter, championing female pioneers in science and technology. The trend allowed for a reflection of how far society has come in terms of gender equality, while also giving credit where credit was due to awesome ladies throughout history.
1. Rosalind Franklin, an x-ray crystallographer, helped to discover the structure of DNA. Perhaps because she passed away before the nomination, Franklin was not included when her colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery.
2. Katherine Johnson, an American physicist and mathematician, worked with NASA on the Apollo 11 mission and Space Shuttle program, amongst other huge projects. Her work was so accurate that NASA would ask Johnson to check computer calculations for error.
3. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to travel to space, in June of 1963. At just 26, Tereshkova orbited Earth 48 times, spending three full days in space and logging more time than the combined hours of the American astronauts who had so far travelled to space.
4. A.A.L, also known as Augusta Ada Lovelace, is not only the first female computer programmer, but also the world’s first computer programmer. In an 1844 paper discussing a “theoretical machine,” Lovelace wrote a set of commands that would allow the machine to generate Bernoulli numbers.
5. Marie Sklodowska Curie – once rejected admission to university on the basis of her gender – is perhaps better known than other female scientific pioneers. The extent to which she contributed, however, is often overlooked. Curie is both the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize and the only person in history to be awarded two Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields.
#NotThere
In a collaboration between the Clinton Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, women across New York – and across the globe on social media – disappeared on March 8.
The No Ceilings initiative involved existing advertisements, posters, and media to cut their featured women in a campaign drawing attention to gender inequality. Conde Nast, Beats, iHeartMedia, Unilever, and Under Armour all participated, along with celebrities and political figures worldwide.
The goal was to drive traffic to the Not There website, which features a detailed report on the international status of women. Not There hones in on troubling data regarding the women’s global issues. With interactive graphs and maps, the site confronts the reader with statistics: one in four girls is married before 18; only 32 per cent of girls have a protected right to secondary education; one in three women suffer sexual or physical violence; in 2015, some women are still withheld the right to vote.
The campaign draws attention to the problems facing women and girls across the world. In India, for example, 1 in 30 girls will give birth under the age of 18, and 25.9 million child brides reside in the country. In Iraq, the UN reports an illiteracy rate of more than a quarter of females over 12. Although the nation just saw the election of Baghdad’s first female mayor – as well as the Middle East’s first female judge, government minister, and ambassador – only 14 per cent of women are part of the work force.
“This symbolic act reflected what a new analysis of women and girls’ progress says about the state of gender equality,” the site declares: “We’re not there yet.”
Ontario’s new sexual violence and harassment legislation
To mark the annual celebration of International Women’s Day, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne unveiled a new, $41 million, three-year initiative on March 6. With the initiative, Wynne hopes to address the plaguing social issues of sexual violence and harassment.
The statistics of Wynne’s initiative are shocking: each year in Canada, there are 460,000 assaults. For every 1000 of these, only 33 are reported, only 12 see charges, only 6 see prosecution, and only 3 see conviction.
In her address announcing the new initiative, Wynne noted that her plan involves everyone – men and women – for its efficacy.
“It doesn’t matter – age or culture or race or sexual orientation,” said Wynne. “None of that is relevant to the fact that these are acts of sexual violence and sexual assault that are unacceptable.”
The 35-page plan, entitled “It’s Never Okay,” looks to raise awareness and educate widely. Under this, colleges and universities would be required to renew and update a sexual assault policy every four years, as well as consistently report rates of sexual violence. As well, the two-year statute of limitations on civil sexual assault claims would be eliminated.
“At its core, this is a plan to change behaviours and challenge social norms,” Wynne concluded. “These are learned behaviours, which means that they can be unlearned – or, better yet, never learned in the first place.”
If I Were 23: Lessons to My Younger Self
On March 9, Guelph Commerce Women in Business, in association with the Leadership & Organizational Management Student Association, hosted “If I Were 23: Lessons to My Younger Self,” in honour of International Women’s Day.
The talk featured four female trailblazers in varying fields: Anne Sado, President of George Brown College; Sandra Ayala, Manager of Human Capital Consulting for Deloitte Canada; Saba Rehmani, Engagement Manager for Oliver Wyman; and Robin Tameshtit, Director of Kids & Teen Print for Indigo.
The women shared their best advice to those approaching their impending “careers.”
“Build relationships,” Sado told the audience, citing it as her biggest piece of advice. “The ability to build strong relationships [is] a driving force behind my success.”
Citing research from the Catalyst organization, Sado also shared that “companies with the highest representation of women on their senior management teams experienced better financial performance.”
“So, it’s been proven that women are good for business,” Sado quipped.
Ayala’s biggest advice was to prepare for the “many ups and downs” of career and personal life, terming the downs to simply be “valleys of despair” for us to face and climb out of.
“Forget your ego,” Ayala said of the best way to approach these hills and valleys of life. “Try to learn something different each year [and look for] a new challenge, always.”
Rehmani, Skyping in from a layover at JFK International, encouraged the audience to “do the things that scare you,” be they more tangible fears, like heights, or more abstract in reaching for things
throughout your career.
“It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to be scary, but you’re going to have to do it, so it’s important to just face your fears,” Rehmani added.
Tameshtit urged the audience to think as big as they like, noting that nothing is too silly to be part of your dream.
“When someone asked me what my dream job was, I said ‘I’d love to work with Kermit the Frog,’” Tameshtit quipped.
Concluding on a more serious tone, Tameshtit shared that, “at the end of the day, you have to answer to yourself,” suggesting a “sweet spot” between work and enjoyment, and asking each listener to “find something […] that speaks to your passions.”