The word is spreading about gender inequality and everyday sexism
THANKS to the widespread movement towards gender equality, there’s a growing awareness among young women about the discrepancies between men and women, especially in terms of the wage gap.
This year, #PledgeForParity is the theme of International Women’s Day on March 8, an event people are taking to their hearts around the world.
“Worldwide, women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievement, and we have much to celebrate,” say the organisers of IWD.
“But progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places.
"The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity.
Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap wouldn’t close entirely until 2133.”
Thanks to social media, the word is spreading among young people about gender inequality and everyday sexism.
Yet despite its power and reach, strong messages on Twitter and Facebook are often eclipsed by selfies, filters on Instagram and influencers selling products to the masses via their profiles.
Inspiring young women are everywhere we look around the world; Malala Yousafzai was the youngest ever Nobel laureate, awarded at 17, British philanthropist Katie Piper came back from an acid attack to build a foundation to help others with burns and scars.
We have our own shining beacons in Ireland, award winners in the arts, science, business, media and sports, showing young women that their future is indeed bright.
Name: Louise O’Neill
Field: Author
Age: 31
Awards: Bord Gáis Energy Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2015, Best Newcomer Irish Book Awards 2014, YA Book Prize 2015 from international site The Bookseller.
In the past couple of years, Louise O’Neill has become one of Ireland’s most vocal feminists, making her own personal experiences political in the hope that other young women will learn from them.
As well as getting the message of gender inequality and body image problems across in her novels, she’s appeared on television many times, spoken at feminist events, in schools and also writes a weekly column for the Irish Examiner’s Weekend magazine.
O’Neill first rose to prominence in 2014 when her first novel Only Ever Yours was published.
It immediately drew comparisons with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, depicting a dystopian future where young women are groomed entirely to meet men’s exacting standards for a wife, or be doomed to a life of servitude or prostitution.
The Clonakilty native found herself in New York in her 20s after completing a masters degree in Dublin.
Working for Elle magazine as an intern, she had a glamorous job, a boyfriend and everything seemed rosy.
But O’Neill wasn’t happy, and sought therapy for an eating disorder she’d had as a teen that was threatening once again.
Her relationship ended, her visa was up and she found herself back at home in Cork feeling lost. That’s when she put pen to paper.
Her second novel Asking For It ignited a conversation around sexual consent when it was released in late 2015; O’Neill wanted to write about a flawed young woman who perhaps places too much emphasis on her looks and sexuality, and what happens when she realises she has been the victim of rape.
The novel deals with the emotional fallout, shame and self-doubt, and then the impact of fighting for justice in a small town.
Asking For It won the Book of the Year prize at the Irish Book Awards, voted for by the public.
Around the same time the novel came out, O’Neill signed a deal to sell the film rights to Only Ever Yours to an American production company. She is currently working on novel number three, and regardless of the subject matter, you can bet her next book will continue the theme of educating and empowering women young and old — and men, too.
Name: Saoirse Ronan
Field: Acting
Age: 21
Awards: She has 7 IFTA wins to her name, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and three BAFTAs.
Saoirse is the apple of Ireland’s eye for her impressive performance on this year’s awards season circuit, and her stellar acting career thus far.
She’s also incredibly unaffected by her fame and success, and credited with being one of our most accessible stars.
She was so thrilled about her Golden Globe nomination this year that she told the story of how she was in a Dublin nail bar when she heard the news on the Ellen show on US television and also recounted it on the awards ceremony red carpet — proving she has remained an ordinary woman, despite her extraordinary talent.
Nominated for her first Oscar at the tender age of 13, her stirring performance in the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement brought her international attention.
A relative unknown even in Ireland, her portrayal of Bryony Tallis put her on the map, and since then she’s taken the lead in films like Hanna, The Lovely Bones and The Host. But it was her first adult role that saw the spotlight shine on Ronan in recent months.
She’s described playing Eilis Lacey in John Crowley’s film as difficult, but incredibly rewarding and almost like she and her character were growing up at the same time.
She endeared herself to just about everyone with her down-to-earth personality in the lead up to the Oscars, appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair with the likes of Helen Mirren, Diane Keaton and Cate Blanchett, and is about to tread the boards of Broadway for the first time in The Crucible.
As well as all that, she has four films in production, so it’s safe to say that she will continue to be a shining Irish light on the international stage for many years to come.
Name: Marissa Carter
Age: 32
Field: Business
Awards: Image magazine Irish Start-up of the Year 2013, UCD James Joyce Award 2016.
Carter is the brains behind Cocoa Brown Tan, one of Ireland’s most successful indigenous beauty brands.
A mother of two, she developed the formula while on maternity leave after she had her first child Charlie in 2012.
She’d previously owned a beauty salon in Blackrock, Co Dublin, but wanted to create a tanning product that ticked all her boxes as a beauty therapist and as a consumer.
Thus, Cocoa Brown was born with a low price point of €7.99 and quickly drew a devoted fan base.
In the subsequent years, Carter has seen her original product win countless beauty industry awards and added several more tanning and highlighting products to her distinctive pink-packaged range.
Cocoa Brown is now sold in Australia and America as well as Britain and Europe, and is even on shelves in the new Primark store in Boston, Massachussets.
She welcomed daughter Isabelle only 11 months ago, but was back to work promoting and expanding her brand within weeks.
An admirable entrepreneur, mum-of-two, and regular contributor to television and magazines, Carter is proof that you can have it all — if you’re prepared to work hard enough.
Name: Lizzie Lee
Age: 35
Field: Athletics
Awards: Cork Evening Echo Sports Star of the Year 2016, gold medalist at the 2012 European Cross Country Championships
Lee only started running competitively at the age of 26, but since then she’s made great strides in Irish and international athletics.
As it stands, Lee is first in line for a qualifying spot in the Olympic marathon in Rio 2016, having run 2:32:51 in the Berlin marathon last September, the 5th fastest time ever by an Irish woman.
Then in December, she was part of the Irish cross country team that won bronze in the European Cross Country Championships in Hyéres, France.
Hopes are high that she’ll be one of the three Irish ladies heading to Rio in her event, a fact made all the more impressive by the fact that Lee works full time as a project manager at Apple in Cork.
Lee is known for her true grit and determination and even credits her break due to motherhood last year with giving her the push she needed to get back on the international circuit.
Name: Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shuillebháin
Age: 32
Field: Science
Awards: PhD and Ussher Award from Trinity College Dublin, National Ambassador for Science in 2005 and 2008, Rose of Tralee 2005, Science Foundation Discover Award 2015.
She is a well-known face in Irish broadcasting, but her role as the host of various science-based TV shows on RTÉ is only the tip of the iceberg.
Ní Shuillebháin is a university lecturer at University College Dubliner, a contributor to many academic programmes in maths, a science communicator and also a researcher; her current work focusses on how students learn mathematics in Ireland, and may change the way the subject is taught in the future.
She was also involved in the City of Physics initiative last year in Dublin, and the recent Chime for Change programme, a campaign that raises funds and awareness for girls and women around the world.
As Irish ambassador, she highlighted the importance of education for women in Ireland and globally.
She will also be fronting a new science-based TV programme in the works; a comedy panel show that will aim to challenge misconceptions about the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.
It’s her hope that many young Irish women will get involved with such roles from a young age.
She’s spoken about changing the way we educate young women in science and maths, in the hope that they’ll get into them early and pursue jobs in the sector when they’re older.
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