My biggest strength is being a girl
By: Renata Félix
Tags: Gender Equality, Aiesec, Sdgs, Women

Photo by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash

Today I want to tell you about a situation that I recently faced.

Has a currently unemployed and college drop out student, I’ve been job hunting until I can get my life back on track. Last month, I went to one of the most disturbing interviews of my life.

I walked inside the room where I was going to be interviewed and there’s a middle-aged man sitting there waiting for me. Until here nothing is suspicious. As I sit in my chair the man gets ready to start is questions and I mentally prepare myself for the answers.

He asked me to talk a little bit about myself so I did. As I finish my little monologue, he asked the following question.

‘’That’s great. But my point is are you single? Do you have kids? Will you be getting married this year? That’s what I really want to know.’’

For a moment, time stopped while I was processing what he had asked me. But then, I brought myself together, and politely answered no to all those questions. The interview went on and I put this in the back of my mind. It’s no big deal, I think, he probably asks this to everyone.

‘’Final question, if you are selected for this position you will have to sign a term of agreement saying that you won’t have children in the next three years. Would that be a problem?’’

Too embarrassed to answer anything else I said no. What else would I answer? I’m 21, I want to enroll in college next year and my love life sucks. Getting married or having children is not in my list for the next three years. But what if it was?

I left the building and grabbed my phone to google something along the lines of “is it normal to be asked about having children in job interviews’’. I was shocked with what I found:

Endless blog posts and magazine articles about advice about mentioning children if you are a woman or what to answer when you are questioned that in an interview. I even found an article about illegal questions to ask in interviews.

That’s when it hit me: he asked me that because I am a woman.

I started doing research then. About the state of SDG 5 — Gender equality — and data on inequalities in the workforce.

Did you know that only 1 in 4 parliamentary seats are occupied by women? Honestly, I’m not investing in my education to be denied a place in the parliament because I am a woman.

I don’t want to be denied my dream job, or any job, just because I am a woman. Things only get worse if, besides being a woman, you are part of a minority because of your skin color, your religion or your culture.

According to the 2014 corporate diversity study, out of 69 high positions in 100 companies, only 22,9% are women. Out of those 22,9%, only 18.3% represent non-white women.

Want to know why this is even sadder?

According to a 2014 report, the more diverse a team is in terms of race and gender, the more likely it is for that company to have a financial achievement above average.

So why aren’t we talking about this? I think it is so engraved in our minds, as girls, that it is normal to be asked about children and for people to assume we would leave everything behind to build a family and take care of those kids, that we don’t even see this as a problem.

That’s why we need to speak up about these issues. That’s why we need to unite and speak as one loud voice that screams : ‘’BEING A WOMAN IS MY BIGGEST STRENGTH’’.

And you can start speaking up by filling this survey. Right now, AIESEC is conducting a survey called Youth Speak Survey, where we are trying to collect the youth’s voice on different subjects, one of them being gender inequalities. Go and speak your truth.