Close! But no cigar

The Story

Hi. My name is Sanjna Nair from AlESEC in Sunway. I've joined the Action for Equality project in AIESEC Sunway that complies with the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which is gender equality. I would like to share a little something with you.

As of right now, most attempts at creating a society that achieves gender equality can be summarized into one phrase, close but no cigar. Fun fact, this phrase originated in the early 20th century in the United States where cigars were given as prizes at carnivals instead of stuffed animals in the modern days. “Close! But no cigar” will be shouted by the booth owners when the participants fail to win the prize. This brings us back to the topic at hand. Most steps taken to achieve this "prize" has been good attempts, but unfortunately, they all remained as attempts as gender inequality still very much exists in this day and age.

There are various reasons why we still can’t achieve gender equality. One of the more obvious ones is that though many awareness campaigns are held by various organisations, the general public is still not aware of the severity of gender inequality in this day and age. Many people are still not aware of the very real gender pay gap that exists, where according to Bloomberg, women in the U.S. earned 83.4 cents for every dollar their male counterparts made. This is clear discrimination against women towards their gender. The good news is, we, as a member of society, can help change that. 

The project that I am affiliated with is dedicated to raising awareness of gender inequality. We are setting up this fundraiser page to raise funds that will be donated to NGOs that support our cause. Your donation matters, no matter how small it is, you are helping us in taking the next step towards a gender-equal society, where both men and women have equal opportunities in anything they are involved in, where no one is bounded by their gender in order to progress in society. 

All in all, I would like to thank everyone that decided to donate to our cause. Even if you can’t donate, sharing this fundraiser page around would help too. A sincere thank you to everyone that took the time to read this.