Soroptimist International will be holding its first ever all-male panel
for a side event at the Commission on the Status of Women, to highlight the
need to break down barriers for men and boys in order to achieve gender
equality.
SI believes that attention must be paid to working with men and boys and
breaking gender stereotypes for women AND men. Women’s success should not be
gauged by how much their lives look the same as their male counterparts. At the
same time, men must be able to freely determine the course of their lives
without being constrained by male stereotypes. Work on both sides must occur in
order to achieve true gender equality.
‘Blue is the New Pink: Gender Equality through Men and Boys’ will
feature a selection of male panellists including Human Rights Advocate and
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Man Up Campaign Jimmie
Briggs; Poet, actor, speaker, and author of the coming-of-age
memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood Carlos A Gomez; and writer and
activist whose work is informed by anti-racist, feminist, queer of colour, and
anti-colonial thought and advocacy Darnell L Moore. This all-male panel, hosted by an all-female organisation, will feature the
male perspective on breaking down gender stereotypes and working to achieve
gender equality for both women and men. Primarily, the panel will address
the barriers men face entering into traditionally female-dominated fields, as
well as the difficulties men experience in breaking male stereotypes. The
panellists will use various forms of speech and media to share their views and
experiences and attendees will receive a hand-out with some practical solutions
derived from SI project examples around the world.
Another SI side event at CSW will explore the barriers faced by girls and
women in entering into traditionally male-dominated fields, primarily in
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. ‘Pink is the New Blue: Opening Doors for Women and Girls’ (with WAGGGs and YWCA) will present survey
information demonstrating the barriers felt by girls and young women, success stories in addressing these barriers through grass-roots
project work and share strategies for engaging young women,
in advocating to breakdown gender stereotypes.
Soroptimist International will also be partnering with Solar
Cookers International on a side event which will discuss
the benefits of solar energy in natural disasters and in conflict areas including
a possible display and demonstration of solar equipment. International
President Ann Garvie will also be participating in a panel with Zonta International. This panel
is a Presidents’ panel of five leading women’s NGOs.
March 10th – 21st 2014 will see thousands of NGO’s and around 45 Government representatives come together in New York for this year’s Commission on
the Status of Women 58 (CSW58). Soroptimist International is an active participant
in this annual meeting and this year will be sending a delegation of over 50
members to the Commission who will aim to influence the decision-makers to
ensure that the voices of women and girls around the world are included in this
year’s outcome document. Parallel to the two weeks of Government meetings will
be hundreds of events organised by participating NGOs. These events aim to
showcase the NGOs’ work to a diverse audience, get across key messages and
build new partnerships with like-minded individuals/organisations.
Soroptimists believe that there are five key reasons, as outlined in
our CSW 58 written statement, why women and girls are still more
resource poor than their male counterparts. We believe these must be addressed
in the Post 2015 Agenda to make the kind of structural changes that real gender
equality demands. This year Soroptimist International will be hosting the above two events which
aim to show that gender has two sides.
Read more about
Soroptimist International at the CSW 58
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