First Lady Arya Ali is advancing the view that women need to be economically empowered to lead independent lives in order to erase the imbalance in power relations between men and women.
According to release yesterday from the Office of the First Lady, these remarks were made at the One Young World 2022 Summit in Manchester, United Kingdom, where she participated in a panel discussion on education, gender equality, and women in leadership. The Summit was attended by more than 2,000 young leaders from across the globe.
The One Young World Summit brings together youths from all over the world who are actively working to positively transform the socio-political landscape in the areas of human rights, the environment, gender equality, discrimination, and injustice.
On Wednesday, the First Lady shared the stage with former First Lady of Colombia, María Juliana Ruiz, for a First Ladies session which focussed on global challenges which disproportionately affect women and girls. The release informed that Ali and Ruiz are founding members of the Global Network of First Spouses which works closely with the One Young World group to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In discussing the area of gender equality, Ali underscored the need for women to be economically empowered to lead independent lives. “One of the reasons gender based violence exists is because of an imbalance in power relations between men and women and this often time happens because women do not have equal access to the same economic opportunities as men.”
And as part of her effort to support the economic advancement of women, the First Lady shared that her office has been providing fully-funded academic and technical skills training scholarships to victims of domestic violence who are in institutional care. She also highlighted her groundbreaking period poverty project – the Menstrual Hygiene Initiative – noting that it has been one of the barriers to girls receiving quality education.
Reference was made to a recent study by the Ministry of Education in Guyana which indicated that girls are at a high risk of experiencing learning loss or dropping out of school altogether because of their inability to afford or access sanitary pads, Ali told the gathering of young people that she could not sit by and not do anything about it.
“This is why I embarked on an ambitious initiative… which aims to provide every school aged girl free sanitary pads at no cost to them. This provides our girls equal access to educational opportunities. A better education for our girls will mean better economic opportunities for them.”
The First Lady moved on to discuss the issue of the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles. She dismissed the notion that women ought to prove that they deserve a seat at decision making tables.
“Defending why representation of women in leadership position matters is akin to defending someone’s right to live. The fact that women make up just about half of the world’s population is sufficient enough a reason for us to be represented equally at all levels of decision making,” Ali contended to a round of applause. She added that for too long women have sat on the sidelines and watched men make decisions which impact their personal and professional lives and they have had little to no input. “No longer will we be complicit. No longer will it be a man’s world,” she declared, to another round of applause.
