On August 26th of each year, the United States celebrates Women’s Equality Day as a commemoration of the day women were first granted the constitutional right to vote. I am a huge fan of any day or time or place that wants to celebrate how far women have come on our quest for equality, but it is no secret that we’re not quite there yet. Women in the United States are more fortunate than most. As chronicled in the ongoing debate about France’s Burkini Ban (that has since been suspended), for example, women in other countries are still struggling to determine what it even means to be equal. In other countries, Saudia Arabia for one, women have only been granted the right to obtain a driver’s license and vote in the last five years.
So the world still has a way to go before gender issues stop being relevant (and they probably never will be). But there are people in the world that are doing their best to ensure that equality is supreme, despite age, class, gender, sexual orientation or identity, or race. Here are a few:
1. Muna AbuSulayman
After being born in the United States, Muna AbuSulayman grew up living in the United States, Malaysia and Saudia Arabia. Most notably in her career, Ms. AbuSulayman founded and co-hosted a Saudi television show that discusses homosexuality, divorce, and broader gender equality. In addition, Ms. AbuSulayman serves as a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and heads Glowork, a website that assists Saudi women in finding employment so that they may be financially independent.
2. Chetna Sinha
Chetna Sinha has committed her life to helping female entrepreneurs (primarily in India) feel empowered and capable to maintain their own business. Her belief, and what I have found evident, is that women have a multitude of talents to offer and when we, as a global society, commit to tapping into those talents, the world wins. Chetna Sinha founded the Mann Deshi Mahila Bank in order to help low-income women acquire business loans so that their entrepreneurial dreams may become reality.
3. Esra’a Al Shafei
Esra’a Al Shafei has committed her life’s work to fighting for free speech and continued change in the Middle East and northern Africa. To do this, she founded Mideast Youth, the parent organization of crowdvoice.org, to crowdsource social justice movements, and Mideast Tunes, a growing site that serves underground musicians in the Middle East and northern Africa.
4. Justin Trudau
Yes, there are men in the world working just as hard as women for gender equality because gender equality is NOT a female issue, it is a human issue. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, most recently wrote and published a letter to ONE, an anti-poverty organization, about the unique ways that poverty affects women and children and how women and children in poverty are at a greater disadvantage than men. This call for greater efforts and urgency for gender equality is not a deviation for Prime Minister Trudeau, who has committed to making gender equality one of his most steadfast pursuits (and he keeps a gender balanced cabinet).
5. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie changes the world with her words, every day, over and over. This Nigerian-born poet, novelist, essayist writes pieces that consistently bring new light to feminism and the essential nature of female equality. Perhaps most widely known, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a TED Talk titled “We Should All Be Feminist” about her experiences with equality and what she has observed in society. A piece of this talk was featured in Beyonce’s song “Flawless.”
