Likewise, with more than half a billion women worldwide currently lacking access to education and employment opportunities, the majority of women globally remain marginalised and economically disadvantaged leaving them wide open to gender-based oppression and various forms of modern slavery including sex trafficking, debt-bondage, forced marriage, wage labour exploitation, violence and abuse.

 

Without access to critical knowledge, resources and agency to make rational economic choices, millions of women around the world continue to be marginalised and vulnerable to modern slavery. In the process, many of these women are also exposed to dangerous and exploitative working conditions. A significant number of them develop chronic physical and psychological health conditions including sexually transmitted diseases, substance use disorders, social isolation, depression, self-harming, and suicidal ideations to name a few.

 

These underlying health conditions can in turn create an additional layer of trauma for victims that can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms, disordered personalities, criminal behaviours, lack of social support and destructive thought patterns reinforce the status quo. Additionally, some of these women lack knowledge and access to much needed critical support services. 

In this regard, many women remain stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and disadvantage. These women are examples the new slaves of our generation -  modern day slaves of patriarchal legal systems and unregulated dark markets. As such many disadvantaged women around the world continue to be dehumanised and denied their right to self-determination. 

 

Crucially, the growing prevalence of modern slavery worldwide and ongoing lack of access to education for over 500 million women across the world together work to uphold the systems and institutions of oppression that enslave women, creating a reinforcing feedback loop of double disadvantage and rendering a staggering proportion of the world's population powerless and excluded from participating in the global economy. 

 

Imagine if our generation banded together to change this dire outlook. What if together we rallied round to support organisations working to educate and economically empower half a billion women worldwide? Imagine what a generation of empowered women could mean for the global economy and achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals! 

 

Grace + Grit Social Enterprises believes in this alternative vision of the future. We believe we can end gender inequality and emancipate women and girls the world over and we are committed to realising this vision.  As such we call on every educated woman with the privilege, means and platform to rise up to the challenge. As #generationequality and witness to the urgency and complexity of the problem, we need all hands on deck.

 

As the fortunate half of our gender, we must use our knowledge, power and platform to radically transform the dire prospects of the remainder of our gender. The need is evident, and the solution is clear - education and advocacy as a movement and key to emancipation and empowerment of women. We cannot afford to be complicit and unmoved by the subordination, oppression and abuse of our gender lest we remain marginalised across every level of society. For women of colour across the globe, their prospect is even more dire when we account for the interplay of race, class and sexual orientation in their experiences of oppression and inequality.

 

Our duty as the educated minority and therefore representative of our gender is to educate and empower marginalised women to create opportunities and pathways to enable them to break free from modern slavery with courage and dignity. 

 

The problem is great but the solution is simple and the goal is clear - close the gap for 500 million women.