International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the adventure of the path in girls’ rights, but also a time to provide a sobering reality: there is still plenty of time to go. At the existing rate, we are more than 130 years of achieving complete gender equality.
Consider the following statistics: Only approximately 1 in four elderly women aged 15 to 19 are not at school, workers or training, in opposition to 1 in 10 children. North practices such as the marriage of children and female genital mutilations (MGF) are widespread in many regions of the world. And the opposite violence of women is not kept unusual: 1 in 6 women of this age organization has suffered physical or sexual violence of a husband or spouse in the year beyond the year.
For today’s young activists, they are not only figures, they are a call to action for change. Although the scope of gender inequality in society may feel intimidating, many younger adjustments have discovered that the maximum difficult way to have an effect is through the network and through the edition of others. Here, the members of the National Youth Council of UNICEF USA, Anika, Jazmine and Sophia, percentage of how and why they decide for a long more equitable career for women and what it means to be other young people today.
Gender-based violence The factor that Jazmine, a 17-year-old Los Angeles school student, Jazmine, sought to raise awareness about her activism work. “It’s a complicated topic to discuss, so conversations around it are limited, but the stigma wishes to be broken. It can only be young that other people identify healthy and other barriers. “
To do this, she turned to UNICEF club members at her school.
In collaboration with a local nonprofit, the YWCA, they amassed a team of thirteen other people to volunteer and organize their annual candlelight vigil and resource fair. UNICEF Club members gave candles to families and friends to honor the life lost due to domestic violence and designed the program’s urgent education for the event, which included survivors sharing their non-public stories.
The strength of the occasion not only came from the stories told, but of the way the network met due to this. “Collaboration with other young people is the key because it allows you to mix other reports and knowledge, which has the maximum impact,” explains Jazmine. “Other young people today know how much force can come from defense. “
Anika (Center) at the Intercomort at the UN Religious Center in New York in November 2024. In a panel discussion, Anika passionately interacts with unity and embodies the strength of youth leadership in action.
Anika, 18, first year student at the University of Michigan, says that being a young activist means raising other young women thanks to her voluntary paintings and the defense of UNICEF USA. Whether it is a formation of the plea for and with other young people or sharing their voice in spaces where only adults are heard, she continues to tension for change, knowing, as she says, “that the things I do are not only for me, but for millions of others that do not have the same opportunities. “
This is especially vital not to forget whenever you encounter resistance because of your age and gender. “While those moments can be demeaning, I find it helpful to focus on myself and what led me to those reports in the first place,” Anika says.
A decisive moment for her? Being a panelist at Interfaith Associating in the rights of children in the UN the past fall. Despite being the youngest user in the room, she felt that her attitude was valued. “It was incredibly satisfactory to have Americans that Americans with such experience that I asked me for my concepts and how they put in the voices of young people in their respective groups,” he says that Anika. HIS reports that “any of the small concepts can have a small impact on the ball of a small ball ball. Start is perfectly well. At the end of the day, he knows that his voice and everything that matters. “
Sophia spoke at the UNICEF gala in New York in December 2024. In her speech, she talked about her adventure to adjust to a change of change and how it is with its sense of respect.
Even getting into the pieces where concepts are exchanged or where decisions are made first can be challenging. Sophia, 19, a freshman at Cornell University, stresses, “I saw that I don’t get a direct decrease, because often, I never get invited into the room to get it. Spaces that reject me according to my age or sex tend to exclude me completely. She accomplishes this through “preparing prepared, speaking confidently and making them peak to forget about me. “
This goes hand in hand with some other war faced through many young activists: they feel that they are reduced to their gender that are indicated as multifaceted individuals. “There is a harmful trend to treat women as a single identity,” says Sophia.
In reality, being a woman is just one of the many demographics she affiliates with. in activism they are much more formed. “
There is a list of retailers of edible expectations imposed on young activists, who feel forced to deal with themselves before they can gain the right to make their voices heard. Sophia observes: “We have to be acceptable: strong, but not too aggressive, affirmative, but not emotional. There is a tacit tension that is constantly, to be twice prepared, twice more educated, just to be taken seriously. And when we succeed, our paintings are rejected as a hobby instead of strategy. “
But again, test how the network can help. By sharing and listening to the reports of other young women with a multitude of reports and identities, one sees the many unique avenues to activism. However, in those differences, there is also community and motivation for change, which leads to empowerment. The 3 young activists cite their moments as the inspiration for their activism, and this is no coincidence; This is evidence that empowers women, empowers other women. “Leaving in one area only issues if you bring others with you,” Sophia adds.
As for what they would say to young women and women who need to take measures and possibly be new in the activism space? Your recommendation is simple. Get, anywhere you are.
“You don’t want the plan, the platform or the best words,” says Sophia. “Speaking in the spaces in which you are, locate the disorders that stir and take small movements that become something bigger. Besides, he tries, try, try. My father told me:” Let them say no. “
Every success, breakthrough, and replacement of figures began as an idea reshaped into an action and was found along the way. Perseverance combines progress, however, locating the network and sitting down with others fuels compassion, which sets the course for the maximum impactful and maximum impactful replacement type. The replacement in which achieving general equality of the sexes will not take 130 years.
Ready to take measures and a spark replacement in your community? Start forming a UNICEF club at your school