The Hybris Media Women Equality discussion is a community discussion held online to speak about the importance of promoting gender equality and women’s rights. The goal of the discussion is to find solutions in how to solve gender inequality in our communities and spread awareness of women’s rights.

This discussion was held on August 29, 2020, and this article showcases the results and the overall rundown of the event. Feel free to have a look and pass it on to whoever could benefit from it.

The discussion participants.

Introduction

Many women experience many forms of discrimination for simply being a woman. This has led to inequality towards all sectors of society, such as employment, wages, household, politics and more. Due to a majority following a patriarchal system, many women today are still seen as weak and the go-to party for household needs within a family, and despite many women receiving an education, many more still don’t receive proper wages.

Poverty

According to Oxfam, you were more likely to be poor if you were a woman; of the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide, more than two-thirds are women and girls.

Education

In terms of being a woman, it almost seems like you were made to fail. Poverty has become a huge part of many women’s lives because there is also a lack of support for women’s education. UNICEF stated that around the world, 132 million girls are out of school, including 34.3 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67.4 million of upper-secondary school age; in countries affected by conflict, girls are more than twice as likely to be out of school than girls living in non-affected countries.

Workplace

Even in terms of leadership roles, women still fall behind men, where men hold 62% of manager positions compared to women’s 38%. Many people in the corporate world today still have a hard time believing women in a position of power, in fact, more women are likely to be mistaken as juniors. On top of that, the workplace also provides higher risks of sexual harassment towards women.

For more information, check out the document here.

Speaker: the two women aiming for change

Safiya Ibn Garba

Safiya is the founder of Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI), a non-profit organisation with a mission to provide multisectoral interventions for the empowerment and enlightenment of girls and women. She’s also the Director of Institutional Learning at Generations For Peace (GFP), Amman Jordan. She is an advocate for women’s rights and has been involved with many events and movements to create change for women equality.

Safiya conducting her session.

Check out Safiya’s presentation slides here.

Leen Alramlawi

Leen is a the Vice President of the Canadian organization Femcare Community Health Initiative, an international not-for-profit organization committed to optimizing the relationship between women’s reproductive health and wellness through menstrual policy consulting, education, entrepreneurship, and research. Leen helps to advocate for women’s rights, particularly in promoting menstrual hygiene and women in poverty.

Leen during her session.

The discussion: a collective brainstorming session

You may access the full discussion through the video below. The discussion consists of three sessions: Speakers presentation, Q&A session and Brainstorming session.

Women equality discussion

Conclusion

Team 1

Team 1 – Brainstorming session
  • Planting seeds of awareness by educating women about their potentials and also educating men about women equality issues.
  • Keep speaking up for what’s right and find advocates to help you get you voices or opinions across, whether within your own home or outside of your home.
  • Utilize the role of teachers in trying to educate and spread awareness.
  • Bring men into the conversations, start discussing with them and find male figures who can function as advocates.
  • Find a role model/role models that you can follow and find comfort in, that can help support you in your situation and find a way to speak up.
Team 1 Brainstorming findings

Team 2

Team 2 – Brainstorming session
  • Utilize the media to stop systemic discrimination, such as through creating videos or movies, including ones for children, that breaks stereotypes and gender roles; promoting equality for all in order to raise awareness.
  • Adding gender equality into the education curriculum. By creating means of formal education for students to study in educational institutions in relation to gender, equality and equity, future generations will be affected by it to create a better understanding and goal for the future.
  • Educate one’s self about different types of skills set in order to help promote women equality or get women more involved (looking at other forms of education and not only academics).
  • Landing gender equality and equity on the political agenda. To reduce forms of discrimination through laws and rules in place by the government.
Team 2 Brainstorming findings

We hope this discussion will come as some use in our communities and do join us for our next discussion!

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