Learning to Navigate: Day 1 Experiences

Courtney Harchaoui
3/10/14

When leaving the hotel this morning, I found myself full of nervous excitement. For the past few months, I have had certain thoughts and expectations about what the UN, and attending CSW 58 would be like. As Kristin told us on our first day here in New York, my expectations were completely blown away. In viewing all of the different schedules, I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed with everything; what should I do first? How will I fit all if this into my schedule?! Out of the confusion I ended up choosing to attend the parralel event, "From Higher Education to Women's Leadership", hosted by the Open A Door Foundation. This event focused on the role of higher education for women from the Global South, targeting how education can foster leadership and global change. The event was in a panel format, featuring four speakers; Barbara Bylenga, Daniela Kaisth, Leo Motiuk, and Simin Wahdat. Each individual had an interesting an innovative take on how higher education can create strong female leaders, as well as raise awareness for social justice issues.

This panel was great overall, but certain aspects really stood out for me. One included the message that we need to stop viewing higher education as a luxury, and instead see it as a necessity. By having a higher education, women can feel more empowered to enter male dominated spaces, as well as set a strong examples for others in their home community. In providing women from these areas with a university education, they are receiving knowledge and skill sets that they can take back to their community, and engage in real change as they out of everyone can truly attest to what will work in their communities.

After leaving this panel, it was time to head to the UN building for a side event hosted by Sweden entitled "The Role of Men and Boys in Contributing to the Achievement of Gender Equality Goals and Women's Empowerment". As someone who is very interested in masculine identities, I was very excited to attend this event. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it due to mass confusion (I swear I was not the only one!) on where the conference room was even located! This made me feel frustrated at first, as I had the full intention of focusing this blog post on that talk. However, I decided to try to not dwell on the negative---this is all part of the learning process of attending the CSW! I ended my day with a great tour of the United nations, buying and writing postcards for myself, and for loved ones back home in Ohio. Even though today was nothing like I expected, it was still a great learning experience, one that I am grateful to be a part of.