[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]

From Feb. 26-28, approximately 150 McMaster students gathered at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre to discuss and find solutions to global issues.

Acting as delegates representing nations around the world, the weekend was the first large-scale effort in hosting a Model United Nations at McMaster University. Model UNs serve as both a conference and simulation to allow students to immerse themselves in numerous complex issues that they can debate and learn about from other students.

Saad Ejaz was one of these students and a delegate for the United States at the Economic and Social Council, one of three groups that discussed recommendations on economic, social and environmental issues.

“ I learned a lot from this conference ... all the delegates that came were well-informed about their topics,” he said.

“I had to defend different topics that I didn’t necessarily agree with, topics that certain countries had strong stances on.”

Each student delegate was assigned a country whose stances they had to defend. In preparation for the conference, they had to research its policies and produce a paper on the subject.

Teddy Saull and Ramya Kancherla, the Secretary General and Director General at the conference, respectively, echoed the value of defending an unfamiliar country’s position; in many ways, this was the cornerstone in hosting a model UN.

“The reason why it is important ... is because it provides the opportunity for student dialogue through a mechanism they haven’t [used] before,” said Kancherla.

“When you’re given a country to represent that isn’t necessarily aligned with your own views, it truly allows you to empathize and get a better understanding of views that may not be similar to your own,” she said.

The conference was the latest milestone in the Perspectives on Peace initiative that McMaster President and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane has worked on with Saull since late 2014.

Originally started as a project under Forward With Integrity, Perspectives on Peace has grown to involve various events and speakers on understanding different cultures and issues in the world. Previous Perspectives on Peace events have recently included speakers like Marc Kielburger, a co-founder of Free The Children, and Samantha Nutt, the director of War Child Canada.

As Saull explained regarding the focus on a model UN, “it fits well with the idea of coming to know other people’s perspectives. This campaign is all about trying to complicate people’s world views and trying to come to understand the world as something that everyone sees in a different way.”

Kancherla expressed her excitement for the students at McMaster’s first model UN, having been a veteran of seven previous model UNs herself throughout high school and university.

“Those experiences through those opportunities really allowed me to get a better perspective of world issues and how that is so important in an ever-globalizing world,” she said.

Despite her experience, she said that the enthusiasm and diversity of the students surprised her, even after all these years.

“A lot of these events, it’s mainly political science students, individuals who are really passionate about these issues based on their undergraduate program. However, we had such a diverse planning team of people in Health Sciences, Arts & Sciences, Life Sciences, Communications ... it brought together a diversity of individuals.”

Photo Credit: Monish Ahluwahlia

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]

By: Suzy Flader

On Sept. 20, 2014, actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson gave a speech at the New York UN headquarters discussing the new HeForShe campaign. HeForShe is a “solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other of humanity, for the entirety of humanity.” In her speech Watson argued that in order for women’s rights to be taken seriously, society needs to start tackling male issues that seem to be underlying causes. In her words, “it is time that we all start to perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of as sets of opposing ideals.”

Despite the initial positive responses and its big splash on social media, critics have found flaws with Watson’s argument. Mainly, it is argued that the type of feminism she is supporting is too “watered-down” and “mainstream” to have an actual effect. While it may not have been a perfect speech, it did bring up an interesting point: how do our prescribed gender roles affect us and others in ways we do not necessarily think about?

Globally, we see examples of how gender norms and values are negatively affecting our health. In various parts of the world women are unable able to get to clinics because they are not allowed to travel alone. Teenage boys die in accidents because they are expected to be “bold” risk-takers. Women contract HIV because societal standards encourage a husband’s promiscuity, while preventing women from insisting on condom use. Generally, a country’s lung cancer mortality rate is much higher for men, because smoking is considered an attractive marker for masculinity while it is frowned upon for women.

Evident in these examples is that the gender issues in healthcare are not restricted to developing countries. As Watson reminded us in her speech, there is not one country in the world that can currently claim women and men are given equal rights. It can be easy for us as Canadians to forget about this, as it seems strange for a developed country to lack something as basic as equality for all citizens. Also evident from these examples is that gender norms do not exclusively affect women; societal expectations of men can also negatively impact their health.

The WHO Gender and Health Department’s goal is to “increase health care professionals’ awareness of the role of gender norms, values, and inequality in perpetuating disease, disability, and death, and to promote societal change with a view to eliminating gender as a barrier to good health.” While it is great that a global organization is attempting to solve these problems, it is up to us to start making actual change. Emma Watson’s address may have its flaws, but there were certainly aspects of it that should make us reflect on how we perceive both others and ourselves. Are there certain expectations that we have that may not be conducive to promoting gender equality?

Love it or hate it, Watson’s speech should make us think about how we might want to change our gender norms – not only because it’s the equitable thing to do, but also because it’s the healthier choice.