Glows and Grows

Glows and Grows

For my You and the World project, I dived into a topic that I wouldn’t have otherwise, which was Women’s Rights in the workforce. It was a topic that I really hadn’t put much thought into before since I didn’t think that it affected me. I knew that my family was made up of strong and independent working women so me joining the workforce was just expected but now I realize what actually takes place behind the scenes and how serious the whole situation really is.

The original research part of the project was probably the most successful, since not only did I collect actual facts and statistics, but also personal opinions and experiences. I learned about how much of a difference gender actually does make when in the workplace which hadn’t occurred to me before. Equal pay, gender stereotypes, low percentages of women, and inadequate benefits are just a few of the issues I touched on and also spread awareness of through numbers and facts, but I mainly got personal accounts from issues such as lack of confidence, lack of self-belief, and also lack of self-application. I think that was another successful part of this project, reaching out to people. I was able to conduct a survey with the help of a senior and her feminist blog, which got twenty-two results, and I also led two interviews with Buzzfeed workers which was a huge accomplishment. Aside from that, I heard numerous personal accounts from people which added greatly to my final product. One thing I would have changed are the types of questions I asked because they seemed a bit redundant and at times a bit irrelevant.

For my agent of change, I created a presentation where I summarized the information I collected and taught my classmates about the injustices that afflict the female working world and also how things are getting better in this day and age. Most of my peers partook of social media trends and school-wide protests but I decided to take a different route, one that I knew couldn’t end women’s issues as a whole but would at least educate my classmates on a topic I’m very passionate about. The result was great and I was successful in bringing this issue through to light, not only through my blog posts but through my Agent of Change. I almost wish I had started a petition or a strike or something a bit bigger that would have a larger impact, but I feel that education is the strongest form of change and taking that information, I went forth and made my presentation. One thing I would change though, is the amount of time I put into the initial rehearsal, since I was pretty much winging the whole thing, which most times I’m good at but this time a bit of practice wouldn’t hurt.