Name: Lauren Herlihy
Community/State: Dimbulah, Queensland
School: Dimbulah State School P-10
Age/Grade: 16 Years, Year 10
“Life is a roadtrip with twists and turns. How can we support one another to navigate the road to gender equality?”
Destination Liberation
Australia is a vibrant, multicultural country. We are home to some of the world’s oldest constant cultures, rich diversity is one of our greatest strengths. As a result of eclectic nationalities and religions discrimination undesirably exists today, prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or gender.
Australian women have achieved powerful strides toward Gender Equality, by making noise, protesting that we won’t stand to be treated as the less superior, for our ambitions stretch much further than domestic duties. Like generations before us we must again take up the cause and continue to fight and pursue equality, mimicking powerful individuals we read and compile reports about such as The Suffragettes. We must fight in government, we must fight in boardrooms, and we must fight in workplaces and universities. We won’t be silent and we won’t be silenced.
The solution is simple, awareness and proactivity of discrimination, significant or minor action must be taken. Schools and homes are the starting point where we embark on our opinions of the world and characteristics of empathy and personal morals. ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ well in this modern day it takes a whole society; parents, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers, even the acts of a perfect stranger. Together we take a stand, unified and strong to fortify views and standards that we will accept and embrace and those we thwart. Breaking through traditional gender barriers, encouraging and emboldening each other, Gender Equality isn’t just an idyllic idea but a true and reachable goal. “It is time that we see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.” (Emma Watson UN Goodwill Ambassador)
Opportunities for young girls to flourish are a vital part in empowering youth, to help find inner voice and harness their leadership potential, so that they too are an advocate for change. It is the fight of Gender Equality that will be our generations pivotal stand point, of complete indistinguishable offers of opportunities and common courtesies that are shown regardless of gender, because fairness shouldn’t be a privilege, it’s an necessity.
While we navigate our own journey, progressing through twists and turns it’s important we don’t forget to stop along the way and guide those who have lost theirs. Everyone deserves to find the destination of Gender Equality, for what awaits there is fairness, freedom and liberation.