#IBMCSC CSCUSA2 tech2empower

[cinhanez]

When Xs and Ys work together for women’s rights

After an intense month working with WAKE to create a growth plan for them (as part of the IBM Corporate Service Corps), I depart back to Brazil feeling changed, and determined. I arrived a supporter and leave believing that equality and women's rights is the key struggle for human rights for this and the next decade. The current political happenings in US and Brazil, where gender issues have surfaced to the mainstream of the political discourse, show that we are a key turning point.

I also leave with the certainty that it is essential to include Ys in the fight for women’s rights. And most importantly, it is time to work with this generation of boys and young men so the idea of gender inequality is for them as repugnant as the concept of slavery is today for our society. Feminism have advanced in large steps among Xs, but I do not see it happening  at the same pace with Ys. The message of equality has to be worked since the infancy of boys and girls, in the media, in the language, and in the behaviours. 

There is a lot to be worked out on how to do this, and we should not underestimate the strong forces against such a change. But that is why Xs and Ys should work together to promote gender equality.

[cinhanez]

When Xs include Ys

How Ys would feel if suddenly they would be the object of inclusion and of active action for their rights, the inverse of what happens today in most situations? Working the last 3 weeks very close to the founders and staff of WAKE, a social organization focused on empowering women’s rights activists with technology, has taught me one thing or two about that.

It is refreshing, and at the same time provocative, to be in situations where someone says “we should also include men”, or remind that in an event “some of the participants were men”. Ys are not used to be in contexts where they feel they should be included but they are not present in majority. Except for situations socially constructed as “feminine”,  the notion that Ys should be included by Xs is often seen as bizarre. That is the unfortunate state we are in.

Of course, the only thing bizarre here is the presumption, or self-entitlement, of Ys that they are the ones should be in control, and therefore the ones who should be doing, if they want, the inclusion. But it is one thing to talk and digress about the idea, and another, much more interesting, to actually experience it like it has happened to me in a couple of occasions in the last weeks.

I have experienced discrimination before in my life, as a foreigner in Japan and USA, and that is a very unpleasant experience. What has happened in the last weeks is quite different, because I am in an environment where people actually care about inclusion, but have to remind themselves constantly to act in that way also for Ys. More than that, I am used to be in situations where I am actively pursuing inclusion of Xs and minorities, where I have to patrol my own language for inclusion. But rarely I am in a context where my gender is the one which people around me want to make sure that feels included. It is good to feel welcomed (as a member of a group), but it is not good to perceive that being part of the group is not a natural thing.

I do not pretend that I can feel or understand the complexity of Xs dealing with such situations, often since they are very young. But it has been a wake-up call for me to see that even when people around you try very hard to be inclusive in their language and their acts, that very behaviour also works as a remind of the need of inclusion and, of course, of the reality of exclusion.

As if inclusion was not natural, as it should be. Simple. Thanks to the Xs in this IBM CSC project to help me understand it.