Girl Up, United Nations Foundation
President, Girl Up Club, The Shri Ram School
Editor, Girl Up Unity, India Chapter
As the President of the Girl Up Club at our school, an arm of the United Nations campaign of the same name, I lead a group of 15 students of the school in bringing about positive social change through advocacy. I strive to raise awareness about pertinent issues like gender equity and neutrality. I create, curate and manage content created by my team members to stimulate discussions among the youth, in an effort to shape a more equal future.
I am also an editor for Girl Up Unity, I do not aim to make this difference in only my individual capacity, but rather with a collective approach, aligning my efforts as President of Girl Up TSRS, with like-minded groups to create a wider, more influential movement. With Girl Up Unity, I have partnered with C.R.Y. (Child Rights and you), and Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), facilitated Menstrual Health workshops for girls in grades 6th, 7th, and 8th in government schools throughout the Delhi-NCR region.The 40-minute workshops were conducted with the help of a YouTube video and covered a range of topics including menstrual health and hygiene, how to use sanitary pads, and how to discard them properly. I facilitated a workshop at Rani Jhansi Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Tughlaqabad. these interactive workshops have impacted the lives of more than 1500 girls and have helped start meaningful conversations in various households.
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Different forms of oppression aren’t independent of each other – they overlap. Feminism is not separate from issues like racism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism, which is why I joined the Editorial Board of Girl Up Unity, which is the Indian branch of Girl Up, an organisation formed by the United Nations. We advocate for intersectional feminism, because the different identities of women overlap, and we need to work towards closing the gap between people from different walks of life. We want to spread awareness on intersectional feminism.
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While I edit and post a lot of content created by my team, I also continue to write on causes I feel strongly about. The following are some of my short Instagram articles for Girl Up.
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GENDER- BASED WAGE GAP
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For every dollar made by men worldwide, a woman earns 77 cents.
The United Nations fifth Sustainable Development Goal is gender equality – but statistics show that the world isn’t on the right track. According to the Word Bank report, ‘Women, Business, and the Law’, 90 economies have adopted the goal to achieve equal pay for equal work, but despite the introduction of such laws and plans, the pay gap between men and women persists.
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For every 1 dollar earned by a white man, a white woman earns $0.79, a black woman earns $0.62, and a Hispanic woman earns just $0.54. The UN’s goal is to attain equal pay by 2030 – but at this rate of progress, we may only achieve this by 2070.
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Our own country, India, is ranked 108 out of 149 countries on the Gender Gap Index, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2018. We rank 142nd in the economic opportunity and participation subindex.
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So why does this stark wage gap exist? The main reason is the deep-rooted idea of traditional gender roles, stereotypes, and prejudices that still exists even in the most developed and progressive countries. Most women worldwide are driven out of the workforce after childbirth and marriage, are expected to raise their children, and look after the household. While these are jobs in their own right, they are unpaid; no money is earned for domestic services such as homeschooling one’s own children, looking after them, etc. As a result, there is already a great difference in the number of employed men and the number of employed women.
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Even if women do work, they tend to have to work fewer hours to accommodate their ‘unpaid obligations’. There is also the idea of ‘men’s jobs’ and ‘women’s jobs’. Historically, so-called ‘women’s jobs’ include those like nurses, maids, and child-care workers, which typically aren’t as high paying as ‘men’s jobs’, which include science, architecture, finance, etc. Again, the idea of traditional gender roles is to blame for this. A woman is less likely to be taken seriously in a ‘man’s job’, while a man would be mocked and ridiculed for having a traditionally female-oriented career. For example, female doctors aren’t respected as much as male doctors, and male nurses are often made fun of.
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The wage gap is not a gender-related problem alone – it is complex, nuanced, and intersectional. This economic inequality is also greatly influenced by other social hierarchies such as race, caste, and religion. To combat the ever-increasing pay gap, we first need to work toward equal pay for women of all races, castes, etc., and only then can we finally close the gap between women and men. We must confront cultural biases and prejudices that are rooted so deeply in our society, and give women more incentive to work. We can do this by giving more women access to paid family leave, which would increase their economic security and minimise losses of jobs. The world needs to take action and work towards breaking free of the shackles of traditional gender roles and boundaries because the confinement of both men and women to careers that were supposedly ‘made for their gender’ is one of the biggest reasons for the economic gap between women and men.
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