Dziś prezentujemy Wam speech zainspirowany 'I have a dream' M.L.Kinga ( przedmiot : English A: Language and Literature, komponent matury - Written Task 1) jednej z uczennic IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi:
Ladies and gentlemen, honourable supporters of Female Rights Movement and distinguished guests, as a member of this movement, I am grateful to be with you in what will certainly become one of the most prominent moments in the history of feminism.
Let me start with some simple yet striking statistics. The geographer Garrett Nagle states that seven out of ten world’s hungry are women and girls. According to Newsweek, female employees earn even 23% less than their male counterparts. Experts estimate that because of gender-biased abortion, India has lost 10 million female foetuses.
Plainly, the pervasive problem of gender discrimination still perseveres. Due to tormenting traditions and cultural constraints women are the ones most adversely affected by hunger and poverty. It is evident that, although the modern world has recently seen substantial advances in gender equality, many still suffer from different forms of discrimination and experience deeply ingrained prejudices. Certainly, measures must be taken to implement and perpetuate equal opportunities for women.
Those brave who battle with gross inequalities encounter insurmountable problems. Notwithstanding years of social and cultural changes, the aim of women rights activists is still only looming on the horizon. There are places around the globe where female rights are not only violated but have never even been implemented: South Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa… The list is long! Long and tarnished with tears silently cried by women chained in the malicious manacles of oppression. Females find themselves hopelessly trapped in the vicious circle of discrimination that is gradually clenching until its victims find themselves stifled and too far from any helping hand. Their sorrowful situation is further aggravated by limited access to land, restricted education, lack of healthcare and no legislation against gender inequality.
However, these are not only African and Muslim countries that are notorious for gender discrimination. In the highly developed USA that venerate the virtue of equality and that has endured a long journey along the rutted path to justice, gender inequality preservers. In 2010, president Obama announced that women are paid 77 cents per every dollar that men do. Female are like desolate islands of deprivation amidst vast oceans of national comfort and prosperity.
But women are not helpless. They account for half of the world’s population and they are not at men’s mercy. Half of the population can no longer live pitiful lives in the sinister shadow of the persecutors, half of the population can no longer be oppressed by the flames of scorching injustice and this magnificent half of population will not play the grotesque role of servile and subordinate servants.
Let us not wallow in despair and depression!
It must be stated firmly that it is incumbent on the government to alter the howl of injustice into the merry sound of sisterhood. There is a vast number of solutions to be used, starting with the implementation of new legislation, through defying gender stereotypes by educational campaigns, ending with the help centres for persecuted females.
But above all, honourable friends, these are the women themselves who must set the examples for their sisters. We – the women cherishing our freedom, should act like a beacon of hope lighting the rutted road towards gender equality for those females afraid to leave dark caves of injustice.
We are the motivation, the incentive, the evidence of the success of our struggle.
Let me present an example of a lawsuit from 2010. A group of brave women sued Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation for forcing them into a corporate culture that tolerated sexism and gender discrimination of pay. Such an attempt may have looked ridiculous since the female workers were expected to lose the case. But they won! Against all prejudices, against unfair competition, against exploiting and abusing by the company much stronger than themselves – they won.
Honourable friends, it does not involve complex reasoning to deduce that if a small group of determined females won with a much larger group of oppressors, the half of world’s population has enough power to abolish gender discrimination. The simple rule is: if they could, we also can.
Because we can and we have a right to be given fair reward for our job because the prices are all the same.
We have a right to be judged not on the basis of our gender but the might of our minds.
We have a right not to worry about our daughters’ future
We have a right to justice, equality and safety for the simple reason of being a human.
Imagine the world in which females and males live in harmony and their intertwining existences contribute to a colourful mosaic of their opportunities and achievements. Bear in mind that women and men are inextricably linked with each other. They are the two halves of one mankind, therefore do not seek to empower women by weakening the position of men and clipping male wings under which a female may also find a shelter.
This is the bright future towards which we strive.
However, if we do not commence any action, there is a crouching catastrophe coming. The vicious circle of hideous inequality will engulf new innocent and unaware women, who will have been devoid of any illuminating beacon of hope by this time. The longer we let the injustice rule over our societies, the more lives are crumpled under the onerous burden of discrimination.
Let us not be naïve that these reigns of terror will be abolished without our arduous struggle. Open the eyes of the oppressed women before they become too blind to see their own pitiful position.
We are standing on the threshold leading to the paradise of justice but we stay transfixed - afraid to go forward, unwilling to turn back. Treat my words as guidance, as a warning and as an encouragement. Make the freedom of women, achieved by women and for women, flourish like a flower on the grave of gender inequality.
Agata, uczennica
IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi
