Women and girls with disabilities are a group which many people in the world overlook and marginalize. Canada is working to put systems in place to change this by providing money for research and development of policies which would impact women and girls with disabilities all around the world. DAWN Canada has been working for 30 years to working to aid women and girls with disabilities and collaborated with the Canadian government to create a “More Than A Footnote: A Research Report on Women and Girls with Disabilities in Canada". The presentation of this report was the main focus of conversation and discussion at the CSW63 Side Event.
The discussion focused around two main points.
1. The importance of intersectional approaches to policy and data collection with respect to addressing compounding forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities.
2. The higher rates for gender-based violence, particularly childhood abuse and sexual assault, committed against girls, particularly Indigenous/black girls and girls with disabilities.
The first point was addressed by Meenakshi Balasubramanian, from India who provided valuable and comparative data from India's last census. She shared that there was no data that was 100 percent focused on women with disabilities and that not having an intersectional approach to data caused a large group of voices to be missing when policies were being made. She commented on having policies for education and women but not for just women, creating a marginalization of women with disabilities. The issue was also addressed by a women who works with NGO's on the ground in Mongolia. She expressed the concern of having data collection that did not fully reflect the issues that this marginalized group was dealing with. She would love to see a more community upward approach to policy making. A story shared by Anastasia Holoboff from Women Enable International(WEI), provided great context for how some policies that are put in place do not work for every situation.
Due to being short on time, the discussion of the second point was cut short. However, the discussion of education about sexual assault and abuse was brought up as one way in which the address some of the higher rates. Mention of outreach centers that can fully help with both the education and aid.
The floor was then opened to questions. The discussion was one that could have gone on all day. The wealth of knowledge and open dialogue provides a great platform for future discussion and actions for women and girls with disabilities.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Encouraging news about STEM in New Zealand
New Zealand is making great strides and changes in the STEM fields. The CSW63 Side Event: Access to STEM Education and Infrastructure Careers for Women and Girls in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, provided some very encouraging news about how STEM is being transformed by girls and women. The panel consisted of several extraordinary women from New Zealand, who represented companies and governmental roles that are taking gender equality very seriously.
The first speaker was from GirlBoss. The programs focus is to close the gender gap in the STEM fields by targeting high school aged girls through workshops, networking, and community building. GirlBoss is impacting young girls dreams of working and studying in STEM fields.
Ernst and Young (EY) is a global law firm based in New Zealand that is changing the way it does business when it comes to gender equality. They are making a conscience choice to recruit and place women in more prominent roles with in the company. They recognize what value assets women are to the teams they are on and encourage them to be role models to younger women who are looking for jobs in the STEM fields. The program Women-Fast-Forward provides valuable information and guidance to women looking to work for EY or any business.
BECA, is an engineering firm and so much more, that is opening doors for women in STEM fields. They encourage thinking beyond labels and finding what you love to do regardless of gender. The company is changing the way they think about gender roles by offering flexible working schedules, encouraging equal responsibility at work or at home and holding focus groups to find out what ares are being overlooked and need to be improved. They also believe in going beyond their own company and engaging the masses/ society in the conversation. Be it parents, educators, boys, girls, or role models; everyone needs to be aware of gender equality. By hosting events like the Wonder Project, they engage the community and are making people think about STEM and those that work in the field.
Each panelist shared they encourage women to strive for more than the normal gender roles so that they may begin to close the gender gap. They are working to make STEM fields more exciting and inclusive. Asking society to have an open mind and understanding that STEM jobs are no long just for men but for all!
The first speaker was from GirlBoss. The programs focus is to close the gender gap in the STEM fields by targeting high school aged girls through workshops, networking, and community building. GirlBoss is impacting young girls dreams of working and studying in STEM fields.
Ernst and Young (EY) is a global law firm based in New Zealand that is changing the way it does business when it comes to gender equality. They are making a conscience choice to recruit and place women in more prominent roles with in the company. They recognize what value assets women are to the teams they are on and encourage them to be role models to younger women who are looking for jobs in the STEM fields. The program Women-Fast-Forward provides valuable information and guidance to women looking to work for EY or any business.
BECA, is an engineering firm and so much more, that is opening doors for women in STEM fields. They encourage thinking beyond labels and finding what you love to do regardless of gender. The company is changing the way they think about gender roles by offering flexible working schedules, encouraging equal responsibility at work or at home and holding focus groups to find out what ares are being overlooked and need to be improved. They also believe in going beyond their own company and engaging the masses/ society in the conversation. Be it parents, educators, boys, girls, or role models; everyone needs to be aware of gender equality. By hosting events like the Wonder Project, they engage the community and are making people think about STEM and those that work in the field.
Each panelist shared they encourage women to strive for more than the normal gender roles so that they may begin to close the gender gap. They are working to make STEM fields more exciting and inclusive. Asking society to have an open mind and understanding that STEM jobs are no long just for men but for all!
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Leveraging Media Literacy to Improve Gender Equality in Nigeria
The panel discussion began with an opening speech by the founder of the Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria and the First Lady of Ondo State in Nigeria, Betty Akeredolu. She mentioned the need of more female representation in tech industry in order to bridge both gender and digital gaps. According to her speech, technology has redefined everyday life including employment and job description while she also stated that in the future, 90 percent of work will require information communication technology (ICT). She highlighted gender issues in Nigerian context related to cultural norms and religious beliefs and how ICT can either solve or worsen those problems depending how it is utilized. Thus, it requires deliberate and conscious efforts to make an effective use of media and ICT to promote gender equality.
The panel consisted of four individuals from different backgrounds and having different expertise. Asked how media could be use to promote gender equality, the panelists provided different responses including using social media campaign, providing access and media education to young girls, and producing gender neutral advertisements. Even though the panelists did not really discussed much of Nigerian context-specific innovation and challenges with media literacy, the discussion provided a certain degree of insight of media literacy projects in the country.
When asked about the sustainability strategies, the panelists highlighted the importance of involving community members either through funding or participation. In addition to that, they also mentioned the importance of mentoring and volunteering, training boys and men through gender-neutral programs, changing people's mindsets about gender issues, and creating role models for young girls.
The panel consisted of four individuals from different backgrounds and having different expertise. Asked how media could be use to promote gender equality, the panelists provided different responses including using social media campaign, providing access and media education to young girls, and producing gender neutral advertisements. Even though the panelists did not really discussed much of Nigerian context-specific innovation and challenges with media literacy, the discussion provided a certain degree of insight of media literacy projects in the country.
When asked about the sustainability strategies, the panelists highlighted the importance of involving community members either through funding or participation. In addition to that, they also mentioned the importance of mentoring and volunteering, training boys and men through gender-neutral programs, changing people's mindsets about gender issues, and creating role models for young girls.
Immigrant Women Workers in Beauty Industry
During a session titled "Feminist Analysis of Social Protection Systems: Employment, Health, and Peace-Building", five presenters from Sociologists for Women in Society (https://socwomen.org) shared their research studies of various focuses and contexts. The session that I found most interesting was the presentation about the lives of immigrant women workers in beauty industry in the United States and its implication of the intersection of gender and racial issues.
Providing the background information related to her study, the presenter mentioned that a large number of immigrant women who work in the informal service provision sector receive low wages. Specifically in beauty industry, immigrant women workers receive low wages because they do not have the license; they are hired to perform simpler tasks compared to those with the license. According to her observation as a part of the data collection, the presenter described the demography in ethnic beauty salons as having men of color as owners and women of color as managers and workers.
The data showed that immigrant women workers normally work up to 10 to 11 hours a day and 6 days a week while on busy days of the year, such as festivals, they work up to 100 to 120 hours a week without any extra benefit. Compared to workers with licence who earn 1200 to 2000 dollars a month, immigrant women workers without license earn only 700 to 1000 a month.
The study found that the immigrant women workers remain in the job despite getting low wages which are barely enough for them to make ends meet as they think that the familial situation they are in is close to a family-like environment. Based on the data, some workers were asked by the owners or managers of the salon to perform duties which are not even a part of their jobs, but they still interpret their familiarity provided by people of the same ethnicity as their niceness.
Based on the presenter, this family-like environment reproduces oppression in the ethnic beauty industry.
A participant in the study said,
Providing the background information related to her study, the presenter mentioned that a large number of immigrant women who work in the informal service provision sector receive low wages. Specifically in beauty industry, immigrant women workers receive low wages because they do not have the license; they are hired to perform simpler tasks compared to those with the license. According to her observation as a part of the data collection, the presenter described the demography in ethnic beauty salons as having men of color as owners and women of color as managers and workers.
The data showed that immigrant women workers normally work up to 10 to 11 hours a day and 6 days a week while on busy days of the year, such as festivals, they work up to 100 to 120 hours a week without any extra benefit. Compared to workers with licence who earn 1200 to 2000 dollars a month, immigrant women workers without license earn only 700 to 1000 a month.
The study found that the immigrant women workers remain in the job despite getting low wages which are barely enough for them to make ends meet as they think that the familial situation they are in is close to a family-like environment. Based on the data, some workers were asked by the owners or managers of the salon to perform duties which are not even a part of their jobs, but they still interpret their familiarity provided by people of the same ethnicity as their niceness.
Based on the presenter, this family-like environment reproduces oppression in the ethnic beauty industry.
A participant in the study said,
"They are nice. They treat me like their family member. Love is good, but I wish they paid me more."
The Shrinking World: Global Citizenship & Digital Literacy
Three speakers came together from different backgrounds doing different tasks toward one common goal: improving the status of women through digital literacy.
The technological advancement and the increase of access have provided more opportunities in education and shifted the ways in which we look at communication.
The first presenter described global citizenship as a threshold concept which opens new ways of thinking and perceiving things. It is the acquisition of "troublesome, transformative, integrative, and irreversible" knowledge about the world. She presented a success story of a project in which student participants were from different parts of the world connecting with one another using online tools. They collaborated on research projects by reviewing journal articles and engaging in complex discussions about challenging topics related to injustice and inequality around the world. The project built community and compassion among participants.
Global citizenship is an arguable term, but a participant of the project said, "The right approach is perhaps not to pursue the real definition of global citizenship but to never stop looking."
Shifting the focus to digital literacy, the second presenter, who works at a university in New Zealand, provided a framework of conditions to become digital literate as stated below:
1. Sustainable energy
2. Digital transporter
3. Hardware
4. Software
It was stated that technology helps enhance women's participation in research and innovation. While women's participation in research has been improving, their status in innovation is still lagging behind. While providing some resources (listed at the end) as examples of how technology can be used to improve women's lives, the presenter also brought up the dangerous side of technology, especially the internet. She emphasized that women need protection to avoid the misuse technology which may lead to threats such as non-consensual pornography, cyber bullying, and identity fraud, just to name a few.
The last presenter, whose project is based in several West African countries, highlighted the importance of analyzing the context of where a project is based because that could unveil a number of underlying issues which need to be addressed as they prevent women from gaining access to technology education. Those problems may include the lack of affordability, the unfamiliarity of the usage, the gender barriers, and the lack of awareness of the benefits.
To sum up, the session provided a variety of ways to look at digital literacy, and how it looks like in different contexts for different groups of individuals. Even though, different approach is required in each context, what seems to be applicable in every situation is that education should be inclusive and technology in education should be introduced with caution.
Resources:
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education): https://www.iste.org/
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): http://mooc.org/
The technological advancement and the increase of access have provided more opportunities in education and shifted the ways in which we look at communication.
The first presenter described global citizenship as a threshold concept which opens new ways of thinking and perceiving things. It is the acquisition of "troublesome, transformative, integrative, and irreversible" knowledge about the world. She presented a success story of a project in which student participants were from different parts of the world connecting with one another using online tools. They collaborated on research projects by reviewing journal articles and engaging in complex discussions about challenging topics related to injustice and inequality around the world. The project built community and compassion among participants.
Global citizenship is an arguable term, but a participant of the project said, "The right approach is perhaps not to pursue the real definition of global citizenship but to never stop looking."
Shifting the focus to digital literacy, the second presenter, who works at a university in New Zealand, provided a framework of conditions to become digital literate as stated below:
1. Sustainable energy
2. Digital transporter
3. Hardware
4. Software
It was stated that technology helps enhance women's participation in research and innovation. While women's participation in research has been improving, their status in innovation is still lagging behind. While providing some resources (listed at the end) as examples of how technology can be used to improve women's lives, the presenter also brought up the dangerous side of technology, especially the internet. She emphasized that women need protection to avoid the misuse technology which may lead to threats such as non-consensual pornography, cyber bullying, and identity fraud, just to name a few.
The last presenter, whose project is based in several West African countries, highlighted the importance of analyzing the context of where a project is based because that could unveil a number of underlying issues which need to be addressed as they prevent women from gaining access to technology education. Those problems may include the lack of affordability, the unfamiliarity of the usage, the gender barriers, and the lack of awareness of the benefits.
To sum up, the session provided a variety of ways to look at digital literacy, and how it looks like in different contexts for different groups of individuals. Even though, different approach is required in each context, what seems to be applicable in every situation is that education should be inclusive and technology in education should be introduced with caution.
Resources:
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education): https://www.iste.org/
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): http://mooc.org/
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