Name: Maika McGuirk-Hanson
Community/State: Alice Springs, Northern Territory
School: St Philips College
Age/Grade: 17 Years, Year 11
“Life is a roadtrip with twists and turns. How can we support one another to navigate the road to gender equality?”
Gender equality is trending right now, and I completely understand why. Each individual human is different, but still all are capable of achieving the same things as the person next to them, no matter race, religion or gender. It’s obvious that the next step for Australia as a progressive country is to achieve gender equality, and we are definitely on the right track. But where do we go once we are close to achieving the final goal? I believe that the next step to achieving gender equality in Australia is supporting the rest of the world. Spending 10 days with just a group of people, no electricity, social media or board games, just people is an opportunity I am grateful for. It is thanks to this experience that I have discovered some people are not as progressive in their thinking as we are. Take one Columbian exchange student for example. While talking about the difference in our schools he shared the fact that he found our school socks weird because he believed that a girl’s sock should either be below the ankle or above the knee, no in between. He also stated that he felt like he had to complete the camp, no matter how hard he found it because his friend, who was a girl was doing it too. If a girl could do it, obviously he had to do it. The beliefs and opinions that he was sharing got me thinking. Like every child, he is influenced by what is around him, though it may be his personal opinion it would have had to come from somewhere. From the people he is surrounded by, his parents, his teachers and his friends.
Australia achieving gender equality would be a major step forward for our society, but what effect will it have if the rest of the world, all the people we surround ourselves with haven’t reached this progressive stage themselves. With this on my mind I believe that on our journey to achieving gender equality we have reached a turning point. We have to support everybody in achieving the final goal by reaching out to parents, to teachers, to friend around the world. Spread the word, get people talking about the fact that girls can wear any length sock they like and still look great. Boys don’t need to be capable of everything girls can do. Let’s make it known that all genders deserve to be equal.