March 2020
THE EIGHTH MARCH EXHIBITION AT THE INTERNATIONAL BURCH UNIVERSITY ENTITLED: ''HOW CAN WE SPEAK OF GENDER EQUALITY?''
On the occasion of March 8, Women's Day, International Burch University and the TPO Foundation organized an exhibition on "How Can We Speak of Gender Equality?" and a panel discussion of students "Do Men and Women Have the Same Worth?" on 10 March 2020. The inspiration for the exhibition is the message that is still being sent to women today and restrain them from exercising their rights even though they are legally equal to men. Some of the conveyed messages, we can often hear are: " With or without a PhD, you still you have to wash the dishes"; "Why would she need any property, she'll get married anyway''; "There must be something wrong with her, since he left her"; " He must have beaten her up because she was naggy"; "It's not a problem if my wife is working as long as I' m earning more.''. The exhibitions have been organized in high schools so far, and for the first time today, it is staged at a higher education institution, International Burch University. High school and college students are a key target group, because they are at an age where they are developing critical thinking skills.
Given that, the exhibition and discussion aims to present them with facts that show the real situation in society and the labor market when it comes to gender inequality. During the panel, students questioned equality throughout history, and how much biological and sociological reasons contributed to inequality. Then they asked and answered questions such as "are women guilty because they are not sufficiently fighting for their position," are women behaving like a wolf to one another, "are the women those who set standards and values for their children, and doesn't it make those children become aware of the need for equality " The conclusion made by students, and at the same time an answer to the question "Do we have the same worth?" was that: "We should not divide the rights on men's and women's, because they are all human rights and we should value them equally." They also underlined that March 8, Women's Day, is not only a fight for women but also men, as it relates to the fight for basic human rights, and that we would be able to build a better society with gender equality.