The Importance of Gender Equality on Campus
“I’d rather buy my ski lift ticket then join you guys.”
I stared at him perplexed.
He stared back with a smile. Waiting for my move.
All I could say was “Thanks, for the support.” and walked away with disbelief. He was the last guy I asked to join our discussion on gender equality. We went around the whole building encouraging and informing men to join our movement.
Here I was standing with one of the United Nations HeForShe campaign ambassadors and the majority of men we approached turned us down. I was mortified and confused. Should I go back around and ask them again? Would forcing them be the answer? Of course it wouldn’t be. But now what?
I turned to Cleo, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would turn out this way. Is this common? Or is this an issue my school has? Was it the way I approached the subject? Did I sound aggressive or intimidating?”
She smiled and responded as we walked out of the student center, “No, you did great. You weren’t nervous instead you portrayed confidence and were assertive. It’s a tough subject to get young men involved. That’s why we launched this campaign. You are doing the right thing you can’t give up."
It felt nice to be outside, the frosty temperature helped me cool off. I looked across campus, up towards the library. My mind wandered off as we walked back to Raubinger Hall.
What is HeForShe?
HeForShe Campain is a solidarity campaign for gender equality initiated by UN Women.
They are committed to making gender equality a human right issue that everyone fights for, specfically men.
Gender inequality affects all people socially, economically and politically. Historically women and girls have been the majority of particpants in this fight. HeForShe calls for men to take action and become active world-wide.
HeForShe came to William Paterson University.
Vilupti Barrineau, the HeForShe campaign manager, and her team came to William Paterson University to meet with Ari, a senior film student, and me. We had originally sent them our #IPledgeWP video aganist sexual assult (Check it out). They were thrilled to see a group of college students (men) taking a stand against this issue.
The goal was to start a conversation on how WP students can partner with the HeForShe campaign and increase awareness among our community. We set out to the Student Center to invite the young men of WP to join our discussion. Unfortunately we were in for a surprise. None of the ones we had apporached were intereseted. Some had a responses such as,
“We have gender equality?”
“Only if Emma Watson is there I’ll go.”
The worst was what I shared above. Perhaps because of this negative misconception, we continue to live in a world where there is inequality. Ari and I were embarrassed because here was a powerful group running a world-wide campaign that has managed to enlist thousands of participants, yet we were having trouble convincing young men to take part in our discussion.
What's the deal?
It seems they were hung up on the word “feminism” or “gender equality” instead of what the movement stands for. The question I got the most was to define what it actually means. Millennials have heard the phrase thrown around as equal rights for women. Because of this, men tend to shy away due to the fact they are the ones being accused of suppressing women. Although by definition feminism is not a man-hating movement, we need to understand that the fight is for equality across the spectrum for any gender, race, culture, age and ethnicity.
The beauty of diversity is that we are unique and contribute to a greater society as a whole because we represent and connect networks of people and ideologies. If we are not seen as equal, how can there be inclusion? Inclusion will only occur once we acknowledge diversity and see its beauty. Inclusion will occur once we see each other as equals.
We ended up having our discussion, not as large of a turn out as expected but enough to generate great conversation.
This experience inspired Ari and me. It's demonstrated the importance of continuing our campaign, #IPledgeWP. We need to inform and support each other in whatever causes we are passionate about. We need a unified voice stemming from the entire campus. We need a movement – a WPMovement.