A major global gathering in March is focus of course
Radhika Balakrishnan (center) with students Elizabeth O'Brien and Halimat Oshun as the class prepares for a foray to the United Nations.
The meeting at the United Nations was packed with human rights activists, journalists, and diplomats.
The topic up for discussion was huge: Achieving gender parity so employees throughout the UN would be evenly split between men and women.
“This is long overdue,” said Ana María Menéndez, an under-secretary-general and part of a high-level panel that included a former deputy president of South Africa as well as ambassadors from Qatar and Ethiopia.
Joining them was Rutgers University–New Brunswick professor Radhika Balakrishnan. When it was her turn to speak, she broadened the discussion.
Radhika Balakrishnan speaking on gender parity at the UN. CREDIT: UN Women/Susan Markisz
“We need to go beyond gender parity,” said Balakrishnan, a professor of women’s and gender studies in the School of Arts and Sciences and faculty director of the university’s Women’s Center for Global Leadership. “We need to really change the patriarchal attitudes that are not just in the UN but all over the world.”
As she spoke during the 2018 session, Balakrishnan could see familiar faces from Rutgers. Three of her students had seats amid the standing-room-only throng. And more than a dozen others would be attending UN events over the next two weeks during the 62nd annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
“This is an unbelievable opportunity,” says Steven Haverlock, a senior majoring in women’s and gender studies and human resource management. “Most undergraduates don’t get to do this.”
Beginning March 9, when the CSW convenes its 2020 session, a new group of Rutgers juniors and seniors will get to participate in that global learning experience as they are granted high-level access through Balakrishnan’s “Feminist Advocacy at the United Nations” course.
"I am so excited to take Rutgers students again to the Commission on the Status of Women meeting at the UN and to watch them engage with the issues," Balakrishnan said.
An economist who focuses on poverty and gender inequality, Balakrishnan has long been involved with the UN. She serves on the Civil Society Advisory Committee to the United Nations Development Programme and recently joined the Global Advisory Council for United Nations Population Fund .
“I bring a voice that reflects both my training as an economist and my work on gender equality issues,” she says.
In her course, she teaches students about global issues and then brings them to the UN as those issues come to life during the CSW’s 10-day session, which draws thousands of observers, activists, and officials. Students get observer status, allowing them to participate on behalf of various non-governmental organizations.
Students in Feminist Advocacy Class
“We have a surprising amount of power,” says Jake Wasserman, a 2018 graduate who majored in public health and minored in cognitive science. “We have the ability to go up to any of the ambassadors and negotiate with them about the issues we have been studying in class.”
Students come well-armed with knowledge.
“We read the same documents that the UN people are reading so we know what’s on the table,” says Tasnia Shahjahan, who is double majoring in women’s and gender studies and political science. “In class we discuss the gaps in the documents, and the various fault lines, which give us insight into the underlying issues.”
The main focus of the CSW 2020 session is will be on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly.
The 2018 theme of Empowering Rural Women and Girls provided the students plenty of material for research and discussion.
Shahjahan read UN reports of an increase in child marriage in her native country of Bangladesh, and how that development may be related to global warming.
“Climate change leads to a loss in agricultural land, and then families who can’t support themselves respond by marrying the girls off at a young age,” she says.
After visiting the UN, the students work on final projects that are presented publicly at an event that draws faculty and students from across the university. This year's presentation takes place at 12:00 pm, April 23 at the Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building.
“The entire experience is life-changing for students,” Balakrishnan says.
Halimat Oshun, a 2018 graduate, agreed. A Rutgers University–Newark student, Oshun was so intrigued by the course description that she took the train to New Brunswick to attend the class.
“Having conversations with people who make a direct impact in the world encourages me as a young woman to strive to shatter that metaphorical glass ceiling and go for my dreams without reservation,” Oshun says.
She explored the impact of menstrual health on educational opportunities.
UN Logo
“When rural girls don’t have access to sanitary materials, they don’t go to school,” she says.
“They end up missing one to three months of school every year.”
The course attracts students from many majors, creating a lively mix of opinions, experience, and aspirations.
“I am a public health student, but we have students from philosophy, English, women’s and gender studies, and film,” Wasserman says. “You get to hear ideas that you may not have heard in your own department.”
One student created a documentary about the course. Morgan Sanguedolce, a 2018 graduate who majored in English, says she was impressed by her fellow students. Her film, which is titled “Participation Generation: Feminist Advocacy at the UN,” includes interviews with Balakrishnan and students.
“I wanted to show how young people are taking strides and doing amazing things, like attending the UN Commission on the Status of Women,” she says. “The world should know how serious we are and how much we care.”