Name: Tahli Stimpson
Community/State: Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory
School: Nhulunbuy High School
Age/Grade: 16 Years, Year 11
Overcoming the odds – how can we push through barriers to achieve gender equality?
Over-arching patriarchal constructs lie deeply rooted within our global society, and though the need to protect is engraved within the very foundations of human function, women are being severely neglected that protection. Under the very governance of those sworn to protect their citizens, more than 2.5 billion girls and women worldwide are affected by discriminatory laws and lack of legal protection. It is seen within the states of America where the rights of a woman’s choice have been stolen, cast aside by the 25 Caucasian men in Alabama who cast their votes that day, when abortion was made illegal; to silence women and bind them to the model of society where the scales of power remain tipped. It is a betrayal difficult to overcome, when gender equality lies within the very right to choose.
To choose when and who you have a child with.
To be granted right to an abortion.
To not be punished for being sexually assaulted, and to not be jailed for having an abortion.
To be granted a right to extensive paid maternity leave.
And to be given choice, and authority over your own life, and what you choose to do with it.
The attitudes towards powerful women in society must change. It is something that will be achieved through the education of the forthcoming generations, by not rewarding but reforming stereotypes of all genders and identities, and striving to remind all people that they are capable of all things.
Governing bodies must introduce anti-discrimination laws, eliminate online harassment, and criminalise revenge porn. They must stand up for women and gender equality. And they must allow women autonomy over their bodies, and grant reproductive rights. On a national scale, however, the degradation of powerful women – making powerful changes – within the media must end. To stand in unity with the women who lead, and subsequently, empower women like me, who live in remote Australia, to strive for a empowered future.
The only way in which we can push through barriers to achieve gender equality is through solidarity. Empowered people, empower people. To empower all citizens who walk upon this earth is to create and sustain equality, and to manifest a safer, more joyful world.