Roughly 100 students gathered last Friday, Jan. 27, in Shatner’s Lev Bukhman room to listen to speeches by Almas Jiwani, president of the UN Women Canada National Committee, and humanitarian activist Sophie Gregoire Trudeau. Hosted by the newly created McGill chapter of UN Women Canada, both Jiwani and Trudeau addressed the issues of gender inequality and raised awareness of UN Women Canada.
Jiwani opened her speech with a fundamental question.
“What is gender equality?” she asked. “We hear this phrase quite often, but do we ever spend the time to figure out what this really means? It is a state of society in which men and women are able to share equally in the distribution of power and influence.”
She then discussed the economic and educational disparities between men and women.
“Women account for two thirds of the 1.4 billion people living in poverty,” Jiwani said. “Women make up 64 per cent of the 774 million illiterate adults in the world.” She added that women around the world continue to be the victims of abuse, discrimination, and oppression.
“Ignoring the rights of women is an inexcusable injustice against humanity,” she said. “Human rights are women’s rights. Women’s rights are human rights.”
According to Jiwani, respecting gender equality is more than a moral issue. She quoted a recent study which found that the Fortune 500 companies with the highest number of women on their board were significantly more profitable than those with the fewer women.
via UN Women Canada president calls for gender equality – News – The McGill Tribune – McGill University.
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