Women’s Center to screen Girl Rising to raise awareness about the importance of accessibility to education.
In hopes of raising awareness about the importance of having the rights to education, the Women’s Center will host a screening of the Girl Rising documentary.
Directed by Richard Robbins and narrated by several renowned actors, the documentary follows the lives of nine girls from nine different countries and their struggles to overcome the societal barriers around them as a female.
“The film is about the ways in which education for young girls could really empower not just them, but also their communities and, as a result, the world,” M. Geneva Murray, director of the Women’s Center, said.
Murray said the Women’s Center had decided to showcase the film because they felt it was important to talk about issues surrounding gender in education.
Citing globalization and developing countries as some of the issues that should be discussed when talking about girls in education, Murray said having women dropout of school can lead to the economic damage of a country.
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Sarah Jenkins, program director of the Women’s Center, said just because the issue of accessibility to education is not a topic commonly talked about around us doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be aware of it.
“There are plenty of girls in America who don’t have access to education (and are) forced to stay home as oppose to going to school,” Jenkins said. “It’s a problem that is a part of our country and part of many other countries.”
Jenkins said the Women’s Center wants to educate people about the issues of the rights to education and the gendered ways that education has been denied more often to girls and women.
“(We hope) to start dialogue about what that means for us, ways we can make education more accessible and activities that people can get involved with,” Jenkins said.
Phoenix Crane, a junior studying psychology, said by having the rights to education, a person is able to have access to more opportunities and personal development.
“You can only learn so much from people within your own society,” Crane said. “Being exposed to other people and other viewpoints, you just become a more well-rounded individual.”
By bringing up topics that are not commonly talked about, Crane said it could help people feel empowered to start making a change in not only their lives, but also the lives of others around them.
Jenkins said students who have interest in social justice rights, international policies, politics, gender studies or health might be interested in the film.
“Not only can (watching the film) help in terms of thinking about how we as an individual can cause change, but it can also help us in thinking about the careers that we’ll have in the future and what kind of philanthropies we’ll be involved with,” Murray said.
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