Laurel is the daughter of Angela Anderson (AWC Shanghai). She is a senior at a US college. We were happy to have a FAWCO daughter as part of our delegation, extending opportunities for UN involvement to our youth.
While I’ve always considered myself a feminist, attending the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) confirmed this for me. I was fortunate enough to attend the second day of the CSW Youth Forum. There I heard from many inspiring speakers. One was from a Native American reservation in the U.S. and had started her own non-profit to help educate children on the reservation and help them get careers in the medical field. Another was an acid burn victim from India who had been burned at 18 because she refused a marriage proposal in order to continue her education. Now she is receiving a degree in fashion in New York City. These women made me feel inspired and renewed a since of urgency in the fight for gender equality not only in the U.S. but also abroad.
My favorite parallel event was at the U.S. Mission to the UN. It was on women’s rights in North Korea. We heard from four North Korean women and the stories of their torture and experiences inside North Korea, as well as their experiences leaving the country. I am currently taking a class on East Asian Politics and the week after the conference we were discussing a book about a North Korean refugee. I was able to draw on my experiences at the conference and share them with the class. It was an amazing experience and even better that I was able to use it in an academic setting.
Attending CSW was a life-changing experience. I was able to learn about different women’s experiences from all around the world. I was especially pleased to see a large amount of men fighting for gender equality. While we often here about things in the world that make it seem like the fight for gender equality is not going anywhere, CSW made me realize that while we can’t stop fighting, we can already see that our efforts have made an impact.