Rachel Lloyd, Founder and Executive Director of GEMS (Girls Education and Mentoring Service), on the epidemic of gender based violence as a root cause of atrocity and the need for equal balance in power.
"Wow, what an awesome thought, right? A world without crimes against humanity.
Obviously we are conscious of racism, and prejudice, and those things impacting genocide and violence against certain groups of people. But sexism and gender-based violence, in every single form across the world, is an epidemic, and I think stems from this deeply held notion of women as inferior.
We don’t have women in positions of power and there isn’t kind-of an equal balance of women in positions of power and kind-of decision-making, right. The folks who are making decisions tend to be men. So we never really see a change in our society because the same people who are benefiting from the way that society is set up continue to be the ones who make the decisions. If we’re going to see kind-of real change we need to shift that power balance dramatically.
Ultimately if we created a world without prejudice and this sense that it’s okay for some people to be subjugated, it’s okay for some people to lose their lives, it’s okay for some people to die as children. There are so many different forms of cultural genocide that we have a lot of work to do to kind-of create an equal playing field."
Retweet