A Discussion with Emma Cooney about Gender Equality, Life and the Future of Feminism

By Jane Churchill

“Gender inequality is the unfinished business of the 21st century.”
That’s the quote that is printed across the back of the T-shirts worn by One Woman Project (OWP) volunteers, and after reading the 1 Billion Voices Survey Report created by Emma Cooney, I was once again reminded of just how true that statement really is.

Emma initially discovered OWP through a mentor at school who received OWP newsletters. Several months later after some internet surfing, Emma found the high school ambassador program and applied! For those who don’t know, the OWP ambassador program engages young feminists through regular gatherings and workshops. “It’s kind of like a book club where we come together to share ideas” Emma says. Emma joined in year 10, and had a fantastic experience learning about different feminist concepts such as intersectionality. It really makes you wonder how much progress we could make if EVERYONE was equipped with this knowledge. Shout out to the OWP team members who are trying to curb these gaps with our in-School Workshops!

One of the tasks the OWP ambassadors had to do was come up with a project to celebrate International Day of the Girl. “Me being in year 10” Emma says, “I thought I was going to get thousands of stories for my project from all around the world, I even set up a website! Turns out I only received 15 and they were all from my family and friends...” Emma declares, laughing.

“I was so passionate about it, so the fact that it didn’t go as I expected was a bit of a downer…” Emma reveals. However, a year later, in 2019, Emma decided to bring the project back, but this time with a different focus.

“What I realised was that I wanted people to tell me their stories, but the people who wanted to share their stories with me were already on board. What I found through discussions with friends and people at school was that lots of people have different views on gender equality issues but are often too afraid to voice them. I wanted to create the project again – but this time try and understand people’s true opinions.”

Emma gathered a few friends to work on the project and advertised it online – which brought together some girls from other schools in Brisbane who were keen to get involved. Then the idea of the survey was born, and the rest is history!

We then had a chat about the results, which were honestly a bit surprising to me. I was genuinely shocked that 83.6% of respondents had admitted to witnessing sexism, yet 50% of people thought gender inequality was not an issue. Or the fact that 20% of people thought that the wage gap did not exist (I thought this was public knowledge?!)

“I was aware that there’s a lot of people that don’t actually believe in feminism,” Emma explains, “and when we conducted the survey, I thought we would receive some results that prove that, but honestly, I was shocked! I wanted some proof, but not this much proof - 50 percent is a lot!”

Emma and I had a bit of a longwinded discussion on how we, as feminists, can do better. With 50% of Brisbane high schoolers thinking gender equality is not an issue, there is clearly some more work that needs to be done. So, we discussed how to make the feminist community a more open, yet more productive space. After all, any movement for social change is not perfect and there are always ways we can improve.

We discuss the idea of ‘preaching to the converted.’ Perhaps we need to create spaces where everyone, of all perspectives and genders, can feel like their voice is heard. Being open minded means having the ability to have conversations with those who might disagree with us, as well as taking the time to listen to what others have to say.

“Some people truly believe there shouldn’t be quotas or women getting STEM scholarships. Regardless of what [we] think about this, I think it’s important that we listen to why these people have these thoughts, in order to try and help educate them,” Emma explains.

Immediately shutting someone down because we don’t agree isn’t a productive strategy when it comes to trying to get more people on board. Most people just want to feel heard. It is worrying to me that only 8.4% of respondents to the survey had a strongly positive view of feminists, and 60% of those who identify as males felt they were restricted in expressing their views about gender equality. After all, gender equality really is about everyone, and not just people that identify as women or share a certain political belief. As Emma concludes, “we need to be willing to listen, and then we’ll get things done!”

Have a read of the report and leave your comments and thoughts down below – we would love to hear what you found most surprising.

And of course, thanks to the incredible and inspiring Emma for chatting and collaborating with me on this post.

You can read Emma’s 1 Billion Voices report here