I have gone to school since preschool and there are times, many times, that I really dislike school and wish that I did not have to do that math homework or write that paper or read that chapter for psychology. However, it was not until my sophomore year of highschool when I realized how spoiled I was. It was in my sophomore year that there was a presentation at school about the girls in Niger who did not get an education. The girls had to drop out of school as soon as they got their period because they could not go to school while on their period due to the fact that they did not have feminine products at their disposal. This made them miss too much school that they could not keep up and to leave school. This baffled me. The fact that girls were not able to finish their education for a reason that they could not help; they were not able to finish school because of their gender, because of biology. This made me really upset and opened my eyes to how lucky I was to be able to go to school and get such a quality education. With this, this blog post will focus on girls who are not allowed to have a good education.

There are more than 130 million girls who are not in school. Why is that? This number is way to big. Each and everyday girls face barriers to get an education that are caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence, and fragility. War and violence reduce opportunities for girls to go to school and continue their education because girls and women are the most vulnerable group in the population and they are the first ones to get things taken away from them during hard times. Another reason for girls not being able to continue their education is due to child marriage. When girls get married, they are expected to have children and take care of the home, not go to school and realize their full potential. Also, an proper education can be expensive and the high cost of school can prevent marginalized and impoverished girls from getting an education. In these underdeveloped countries, boys are going to get an education before girls so if they are more boys in a family, the girls have no chance of getting an education. Also, child labour is another reason that girls are not in school. In many cases, it is more important to be bringing in money than getting an education so girls are put to work to help support their families. There are many health risks to girls not having an education. Uneducated girls are more likely to get sexually transmitted diseases, get pregnant earlier, and have other health complications.

The countries with the highest level of uneducated girls are the more underdeveloped ones with weaker economies. The ten worst countries for girls to get an education are:

1. South Sudan
2. Central African Republic
3. Niger
4. Afghanistan
5. Chad
6. Mali
7. Guinea
8. Burkina Faso
9. Liberia
10. Ethiopia

In these ten countries, statistics show that more than half of the girls of the population are married before their 18th birthday and on in for are child labourers. However, in the countries that actually spend a significant portion of their budget on education, like Niger and Ethiopia, factors that prevent girls from gaining an education are extreme poverty, child marriage, and cultural and economic barriers.  

When girls are educated, it strengthens economies and creates more jobs, it makes communities more stable, and education of girls allows for healthier citizens, and therefore, healthier families. Aside from making sure that girls are getting a quality education, it is important to make sure that all girls feel safe in school and learn in a way that will allow them to be able to compete in the labor market of today’s world. This is not just girls issue or a gender issue, this is an economic issue and a global issue.

Girls not being able to get an education is clearly an issue that needs to be fixed. This is something that we, as a society, need to work towards each and every day We need to raise money for the underdeveloped countries in order to allow them to let girls go to school and we need to publicize how it is just as important for women to get an education as it is for men to get one. The World Bank, which is an organization that focuses on helping refugees and those in underdeveloped countries, has a plan to help these girls in these countries. Some of their ideas include:

• Providing conditional cash transfers or scholarships to these countries.
• Reducing the distance of schools in relation to the girls.
• Targeting boys and men to be a part of these discussions, particularly about cultural and societal practices.
• Ensuring gender-sensitive curriculum.
• Hiring and training qualified female teachers.
• Building safe and inclusive learning environments for girls.
• Ending child marriage.
• Addressing the violence against girls and women.

If we work together, we can do this. It will be hard and take time, but it will be worth it. We cannot let girls live like they are in those countries listed above. This simply cannot stand. Education for all.  

Please consider donating to the Malala Fund to help these girls get an education.

Feminist movements have made a big splash in Hollywood, especially at award shows, like the Golden Globes. As talked about in my other blog post, the Golden Globes was a way for people to talk about the Time’s Up Movement and spread the word about sexual assault and discrimination of women in the workplace. With this, everyone was curious to see how that would transfer to the Oscars. Unfortunately, there was not much discussion about Time’s Up as compared to the Golden Globes. Instead of the discussion happening on the carpet, it happened more on the actual Oscar stage.

This Sunday, six women took home the legendary Oscar trophy with them. Six. That has been the fewest number of female winners since 2012 where only four women won. With this, only four women took home Oscars that were in categories not actually designated for women. Aside from actress in a leading and supporting role, women won for best animated feature, best makeup and hairstyling, vest short film, and best original song.

Women have had the most Oscar wins in 2014 and 2016, bringing in 12 awards which is two times the amount of 2018. People were not happy about this and many people, especially celebrities, had a lot to say about it. One of the women who had the most to say about it was the Oscar-winner herself, Frances McDormand. During her speech, she said, ““All the female honorees, stand with me — all the women. Look around because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.” Also, when asked how she felt about demanding more gender and ethnic diversity in Hollywood, she said, “Oh, yeah. Majorily. We’re not going back.” Emma Stone, who presented the award for Best Director, also pointed out the male-dominated award ceremony by simply stating, “These four men and Greta Gerwig created their own masterpieces this year,” which was met with an overwhelming applause.

While these two, among other women, were enthusiastic about the progress of women in Hollywood, other’s were not so happy about it. For example, director Sam Taylor-Johnson is not happy with the “progress” that has been made, saying, “How many times have we felt, ‘Oh there’s going to be change,’ only to turn the corner and be let down.” Fellow actress, Laura Dern, is discouraged yet hopeful, saying, “It’s changing.” However, she notes that the fight has to continue each and everyday. Talk alone won’t be able to fix this, it will only take action, especially from inside the system. It has been clear that white men are the ones who are winning, yet not many of them even mentioned the Time’s Up Movement or any of the politics surrounding women in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who is the first woman nominated for best cinematography, was very upset with these men who did not step up and talk about this issue, “Why can’t a man get up there and talk about some of the same issues that we’re all facing?”  

With this, here are some women who made history in this year’s 2018 Oscars:

1. Rachel Morrison:  first woman ever nominated for cinematography Oscar for her work on the movie, Mudbound. She also did the cinematography for Black Panther, which is getting much praise for its special effects.
2. Greta Gerwig: she was the only women nominated for directing as well as the only solo woman nominated for screenwriting in 2018.
3. Mary J. Blige: the first person in Oscars history to be nominated for both Supporting Actress and Music (Original Song) for the same film.
4. Ildikó Enyedi: the only female director nominated in her category of Foreign Language Film. She is only the fourth woman to win in this category in history.
5. Tatiana S. Riegel: she is the only woman nominated in
   the category for Film Editing because of her work on I, Tonya.

Feminism. This word has been passed around all over the past couple of years, especially most recently. Today, almost everyone knows what the word “feminism” means. However, this was not the case twenty years ago, this was not even the case five years ago. In 2018, we are more focused then ever on feminism and women’s right. This is very important and clearly a good thing but we need to keep this momentum going. One of the problems with the this movement is that people do not understand what feminism means. Many people have the wrong idea of feminism and think that is is simply hating men. This, however, is not the case in the slightest. With this, we need to be teaching everyone, especially the younger generations, about feminism, what it means, and how to apply it.

Of course, women have a long way to go to be recognized equally to men but if we continue this fight, with both men and women of all ages and ethnicities working together to put an end to this, we will succeed.