Edited by: Carol Eugene Park
Julia Mogus, President and Founder of UN Women University of Toronto, sits down with Her Campus to tell us all about how her passion for international relations and gender equity led her to create this empowering club that aims to raise awareness of UN Women.
So, UN Women UofT. In your own words could you describe what this club stands for?
UN Women University of Toronto was born from a desire to create an international political gender empowerment club. The club provides a political voice for strong female leaders in our community and has worked very hard in opening up the conversation about gender equity, inclusivity and social justice. Our mandate is to support the goals and mission of the United Nations agency UN Women. UN Women is the UN agency for gender equality & women’s empowerment. It was established to accelerate progress on meeting the needs of women & girls worldwide. Our mission is to help advance the goals and objectives of UN Women including fulfilling their mandate of:
- Elimination of discrimination against women and girls;
- Empowerment of women; and
- Achievements of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security
What are the objectives of this club?
Our club’s objectives are to advance and advocate for gender equality. UN Women recognize that gender equality is not only a basic human rights but also an indictor of socio-economic development. Evidently, gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society. Such inequalities include lack of access to sustainable work, glass ceiling, gender wage gaps, denied access to basic education and health care and suffer violence and discrimination at an alarmingly higher rate than male counterparts. UN Women at UofT aims to help address these inequalities by mirroring the system of governance that is in place. UN Women works with government and non-governmental partners to help them put in place the policies, laws, services and resources that women require to move towards equality.
How do you go about achieving the club’s goals and objectives?
We have weekly meetings where we open the floor for academic debate on the policies being discussed at the UN Women. We also host an annual conference that brings together undergraduates, graduates, professionals and other members of the public to discuss issues pertaining to gender equality and women rights. The goal of our conferences is to advocate for increased political representation of radicalized, Indigenous, queer, disabled and gender diverse women. Our club though at its heart was designed to help other women on campus build life-long friendships and provide a platform for both males and females to become more educated and more aware of issues currently being faced by women across the spectrum. We want to bring to the UofT community an enlightened perspective on gender and women rights.
How did you get involved with UN Women UofT?
In November 2016 I founded UN Women UofT and by January 2017 I had registered the club with Ulife. In my high school and now university career I have been active in the model united nations community, representing both my high school and university at UN competitions and conferences. Subsequently, I became very passionate about the issues pertaining to international relations, human rights, and international law. But I noticed that in the midst of discussions surrounding human rights, political and national security, civil war, refugees, etc there was an absent voice in the dialogue which was gender.
I began brainstorming ways in which domestic and international political dialogue could be better integrated into the community life at UofT. It was then when I came across Emma Watson’s movement He for She. After contacting the representatives at He for She they explained that I could open a club and start fundraising and raising awareness about the mission of UN Women. Today, I continue to serve as President and Founder of the UN Women club here at the University of Toronto.
So this club is still relatively new to UofT. What tips can you give for anyone looking to join? How does one go about joining?
Yes, our group is brand new and readily looking forward to hosting our first general meeting in the first week of October. We are excited and would love for anyone from any discipline, any year and any gender to come out. For those that are interested in joining please feel free to check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/UNWomenUofT/ or send us a quick email at unwomenuoft@utoronto.ca.
Images are credited to the writer.