A Female student leader shares her experience

Yael Shafritz, a student of politics at the University of Sheffield, who has recently been elected the student union President- the first woman to get the position in eleven years, shares her experience. She announces that studying in a convent schools, she experienced sexism first-hand. Yet, she did not think that she would see a subtle version of that in college too.

Shafritz believes that the circumstances are slowly changing. With an increase in the number and popularity of feminist societies and anti-harassment campaigns in academic institutions, people are stepping forward and are trying to change this trend. The Independent reports, that the University of Sheffield has won awards for its efforts to create awareness towards the need for gender equality, career progression, helping in establishing a Women’s Network and introducing mentoring programmes amongst other things.

Except for a couple of Universities (who are still years away from achieving any substantial result), there are hardly any such official or non-official organizations in Indian academic institutions. Women here face a more apparent form of gender disparity and yet, only a few NGOs and smaller private theatre/non-theatre groups do their bit in creating awareness.

Shafritz continues to share that women in the US still earn 14.9% less than a man for the same job. With low women representation in Parliament, men continue to influence laws and policies that effect women without much contribution from their representatives. She adds, “…this means that men are choosing where austerity measures are being imposed, and as a result, roughly three quarters of cuts primarily affect women, according to House of Commons Library.”

The student union president suggests that we should change the masculine design of leadership. The idea should not just be to bring more women as leaders but rather about challenging the hyper-masculinity of our political discourse so that those who have historically been left out get a seat at the table.”

ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/istudents/why-we-need-more-women-in-student-leadership-positions-9678646.html