Name: Imogen House
Community, State: Wynyard, TAS
School: Wynyard High School
Age: 16, Grade: 10
Bio: Click here
Why is gender equality important to you and your community?
As human beings we are born into this crazy world with one mind. That mind soon gets filled with beliefs, thoughts, facts, opinions and just about anything and everything. From a young age parents help shape what enters and exits our minds and have a huge impact on what we perceive as “normal”. Children absorb everything they experience around them even before they can communicate. We are raised watching our fathers mow the lawns and our mothers baking and ironing. This influences us in ways we can’t understand, telling us we must have certain roles to play. But this should not be the case, my views on gender equality are for males and females to share roles and responsibilities in their family environment and workplace.
Australia is a nation with a long history of struggle to find fairness in gender equality. Within my sixteen years of life I have witnessed many positive changes occur in my country. From females or males being accepted to play sports that would’ve once been single gender orientated, to women obtaining occupations in industries such as construction, electrical, transport and logistics. It overwhelms me to realise that I’m experiencing these improvements before my own eyes and I feel content knowing we are advancing.
The fact remains that we still need to be pushing gender equality that bit further, thinking that bit harder and being that bit smarter, so our society can strive to have the successful future we all want for ourselves, family and friends. People can’t define others by gender, we’re all just humans discovering who we are and what we want to accomplish along this journey of life. Feminism is a small part of a big picture. I understand some females experience horrible situations and are somewhat downgraded by men. But women need to register that men go through the same ordeals and are treated as if their problems aren’t a “big deal” because they’re not conditioned to share their emotions. Balance between the pair is what our communities need, so everyone has an understanding of how to treat others and how to command respect.
It’s not about why it’s important to just me and my community, we are one community out of millions who want to fulfil this dream of living in peace and equality. I am one person promoting this global issue.