Civis Femina: by girls, for girls

Civis Femina seeks to raise awareness about the inaction and phlegmatism that modern society—and yes, surprisingly, women themselves —has shown in the face of the unspeakable injustices that are being done to females. The data is clear and painful. Millions of people are trafficked per year, and a significant portion of the population is female. Every year, these women are exploited as pr...ostitutes and sweatshop laborers. And yet, a person still does not have enough fingers to count the number of countries without laws prohibiting human trafficking. Countless women are forced into marriages at terrifyingly young ages. In their lives, the golden opportunity of education is replaced with the responsibilities of housework and child-rearing and in the male-dominant society that most of them live in, domestic violence is commonplace. You might have seen the cover of Time magazine’s recent cover story on Aisha, a young Afghan woman whose ears and nose were cut off as a punishment for abandoning her brutal in-laws. The list of physical, economic, and social injustices that weigh women down everyday can go on and on. But the bigger problem lies somewhere else. Even looking solely at the United States, the picture is clear: women are 17% of Congress and 11% of top executives at Fortune 500 companies . You might wonder…why is this “the bigger problem”? Is this not just a continuation of the other inequalities? It is most definitely not. As a matter of fact, they are two pictures working against each other. Civis Femina’s philosophy is that without enough women leading society and providing a voice for women, the same injustices are going to continue year after year. This is precisely the reason that Civis Femina seeks to engage women from young ages in paving for themselves ways to become leaders, and encourage them to believe that they are the change-makers of the future. We believe in the Butterfly Effect, that inspiration is contagious, that one woman after another is going to be able to change the world and the current situation for many women in less privileged situations through the act of influencing others. It is finally time that women feel the need and obligation to pay back for their educations—educations that too many girls around the world are deprived of and forced away from every day. More importantly, it is time that they learn to stand up for each other, and slowly fix and undo the remaining injustices being done to women.