Monthly Archives: October 2011

In honour of the Girl Effect’s Blogging week, I’ve written this post to show case the amazing GGMD women out there in the world.

GGMD is made up of girls who are making a change in their lives. I believe we’re incredibly strong individuals. We are placed at the interesting intersection between culture and gender. The fact is, nobody knows what to do about it. While governments ponder about the effectiveness of the Afghanistan war to free Afghanistan women, or what to do when a father fights with his daughter for refusing to wear her hijab, it is the GGMD girls who come to the rescue. We’re the ones who have a deep understanding of the cultural and gendered issues.

Sometimes when I see a political gendered issue on the news, I wish I could tell the head of the department “It’s ok, you don’t have to worry about it, because the young women of the diasporic community will come and resolve this.” Why do I say this?

1)      We know our boundaries. We know when it crosses cultural rights boundaries, and we know when it crosses women’s rights boundaries.

2)      We have a deep understanding of the strengths of being a woman from an immigrant background. We deeply relish in the amazing opportunities of being a woman and the terrific privilege of being from an immigrant descent.

3)      There’s a saying of when you’ve hit rock bottom, that’s the best place to build your foundations. Many GGMD while looking out at the gorge having to decide between their family and their own values have built stronger foundations. It is these foundations that are our key assets.

The girl effect is definitely real. I can sense it in the GGMD community. I believe we have something of value and the rest of the world should pay attention.

The Good men’s Project is hosting an “End of Gender” week. While a bit confusing topic, I think the authors are doing a good job thinking about what it means to them.

Matthew Salesses writes about raising children through gendered paradigms, and the different gendered paradigms in a Korean context.

“My wife and I are not the type to try to do away with gender roles. They exist. We have to acknowledge that. The roles may be slightly different in America, but it only takes a single advertisement to show that they are no less strict, or deeply embedded.”
This is something that is important to me. I realise that all cultures have their own gendered paradigms. There’s this false impression that the western world has empowered women, that they are less oppressed than women from other parts of the world. I’m beginning to learn that this isn’t always true.

” My wife and I recently had the chance to switch roles—I stayed home with the baby while she was away, but at the end of the weekend, we both agreed we preferred the roles we had. “

It’s great to see his reflection and the experiments they’re trying in the home to see what works best for them. He admits that Koreans have a certain way to raise their children and that they exist in gendered paradigms, but so does raising children the American way.

It’s interesting to see people navigating through these questions in a cultured context.