We've all seen jokes, skits, memes, and other humorous bits that try to get a laugh at the expense of marginalized individuals' identities. This includes women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and others.
Why does this matter? Many people argue that such jokes are simply for fun, and that anyone who takes offense is simply too sensitive. We categorically disagree, and it's not a matter of personal opinion.
Read MoreIn the midst of both the global COVID-19 pandemic and the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests across the country, it's natural to wish for a return to "normal"...but unfortunately, our former "normal" was both unequal and unjust.
One of the most glaring of structural inequalities that exists in the United States and globally is the wage gap.
In the 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama said: “It’s time we stop treating child care as a side issue, or a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us.”
Fast forward five years: a global pandemic has revealed the extent of the gaping deficits and deep inequalities in our economic and social structures, including access to child care.
Fun fact: the word "female" is a full-fledged adjective. Typically, its adjectival use is clinical and biological (e.g. "the female plant").
genEquality is led by a number of leaders who are women. Or should we say female leaders? It's definitely not lady leaders, right? (Tip: don't get our founder started on the term "girlboss." TL:DR, if ever necessary, "boss" works just fine.) At our organization, since we #MindTheAdjective and all, we generally prefer to use the term "leaders."
How do we make sexism visible?
In the film I Am Not An Easy Man, directed by Eléonore Pourriat, sexism is made visible by flipping gender roles & stereotypes. The protagonist wakes up in a world where women have more power, as employers, lovers, and leaders. As viewers, we’re faced with the blatant absurdity and injustice of the occasionally funny, but mostly awful and uncomfortable situations that he encounters — situations that are common and normalized for women across the world right now.
Read MoregenEquality is thrilled to announce that it has joined a coalition of organizations that are mobilizing a grassroots letter-writing effort to amplify civic engagement and increase voter turnout across the United States.
The initiative is The Big Send, a massive letter-writing campaign aimed at reaching 10 million voters around the country by November 2020.
Throughout the pandemic, women have been on the frontlines. Women make up 70% of the healthcare workforce, and they're on the frontlines in a variety of other ways, from leading the COVID-19 vaccine trials to gaining recognition for superior leadership in the management of the coronavirus crisis.
Read MoreThere's an old riddle. If you haven't heard it before, give yourself time to answer before reading past this paragraph:
”A father and son are in a terrible accident that unfortunately ends the father's life. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he's about to undergo surgery, the surgeon says, "I can't operate on this boy - he is my son!" Explain.”
On April 5, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a powerful statement calling for governments, civil society, and individuals to keep up efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of women and girls everywhere: "For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest: in their own homes."
Read MoreYesterday marked Equal Pay Day. On average, for every dollar earned by a man, a woman will earn 82 cents. We don't have to say it, but we will: that's not #EqualWorkEqualPay.
The pay gap is a nuanced issue. Mothers and women of color all experience the pay gap to different extents, and so we mark numerous "Equal Pay Day" events throughout the year.
As Katica Roy recently wrote in Fast Company, perhaps the greatest economic lesson the U.S. will glean from this global pandemic is not only that slow-acting fiscal policy leaves the vulnerable more vulnerable; it’s also that any fiscal policy, slow-acting or not, without an #InvestEquitably lens leaves women to bear the brunt of a global health or financial crisis.
The pandemic has highlighted the structural inequalities of U.S. society - particularly around job security, pay, sick leave, family leave, housework, and caregiving - in a way that little else could.
Although gallows humor can be a coping mechanism in difficult times, the challenge for all of us is to make sure that the humor we spread and laugh with doesn't fuel racism, homophobia, xenophobia, bigotry - or unhealthy attitudes.
In times of stress and uncertainty, the easiest instinct in some people is to find someone to blame; more often than not, the scapegoats are outsiders and minority groups that already vulnerable due to structural inequality.