The United Nations Association at the University of Maryland has dedicated this month to increasing awareness of global gender inequality.
The university’s UNA chapter is interested in how the campus community responds to the words “feminist” and “gender equality,” especially in light of the public reaction to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declaring himself a feminist, said Isabela Barriga, the president of this university’s chapter. So the organization has decided to reach out to students directly through interviews and campus events.
“We decided what better way to start that conversation than … a video where we interview people [and] get their responses?” said Barriga, a senior public health science major.
To make this video, UNA chapter members started walking around the campus two weeks ago to interview students about their knowledge of and opinions on gender inequality. Many students were aware of the pay gap that exists between males and females — women earn 79 cents for every dollar men make — and found it unfair, Barriga said.
The video project is slated for completion at the end of the semester, Barriga said.
The UNA chapter selected “He For She,” a U.N. feminism campaign started in September 2014, from the United Nation’s 17 sustainable goals that aim “to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030,” according to the United Nations Development Programme. The campaign emphasizes the participation of males, said junior history major and advocacy chair Aleezah Qasim.
This university’s UNA chapter has only been around since last semester, and gender equality is “something that everyone can get on board with, so it was a good starting place for us in terms of [it being] one the first initiatives that we wanted to tackle,” Qasim said.
Additionally, toward the end of this month or the beginning of May, the organization will be one of the first UNA chapters to host a screening of He Named Me Malala through the Malala Fund, an organization focused on supporting women’s rights to education. The screening is meant to inform students about the many challenges girls around the world face in receiving an education, Barriga said. The event will be open to the campus community and will include a discussion on women’s education rights, tying in with the “He For She” campaign and gender equality theme, Barriga said.
“You can definitely see the people … more informed and aware of the situations going on in the world [that] they might not have been aware of before,” said Saheel Kakkad, the UNA chapter’s web design co-chair and a sophomore enrolled in letters and sciences.
The Malala Fund is also tying in work with refugees, so the UNA chapter might be able to help by raising money or collecting clothing for refugees, Barriga said.
The university’s UNA chapter will likely focus on raising awareness for gender equality into next semester, Kakkad said.
“We’re trying to really address this global issue and different ways that students can get involved by attending the screening, being part of the discussion, part of this stand with the Malala campaign,” Barriga said. “Not just being aware, but also being able to contribute back to this cause.”
