The Mott Hall School United Nations Junior Ambassador Capstone Project
Google Slide Presentation: Gender Equality and Child Marriage
Spring 2021: Cohort VI
The Mott Hall Capstone Journey
In partnership with the United Nations Association of New York, Mott Hall School students were introduced to the organization “Freedom United” and were presented with a workshop on child marriage. The Junior Ambassadors at the Mott Hall School identified child marriage as a focus of SDG #5, Gender Equality that they wanted to study. Background information about child marriage in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia through the showing of videos, reading of articles and moderating of group discussions was presented and discussed. Students viewed the animated film “Sitara: Let Girls Dream.” The goal of the film is to bring awareness to child marriage and to inspire young girls to dream and not give up on their futures. By using animation, the film producers were able to tackle a difficult topic in an age appropriate manner. Then an employee of the organization Freedom United put on a presentation and workshop about child marriage. Freedom United is dedicated to ending all forms of modern slavery including forced marriage, bonded labor and human trafficking. The students then worked on a shared Google slide presentation to bring awareness and knowledge to the school and wider community about the SDGs, gender equality and the issue of child marriage. Each student was responsible for two to three slides. The slide show includes information about all aspects of child marriage, such as the why, who and how of child marriage, the negative impact and the resources available to combat this problem. In addition to child marriage, the slide show will briefly cover information about the UN, SDGs and gender equality. The hope is having the students learn about and become informed on this topic will perhaps inspire some of them to become activists in this area.
The United Nations
What is the United Nations?
The United Nations is an organization that promotes peace between countries which was established 1945 as a result of World War II.
The United Nations headquarter is located in New York City on international territory. It has other offices in Vienna, The Hague, Geneva, and Nairobi.
Where is the United Nations?
Who is included in the United Nations?
The United Nations consists of 193 ambassadors representing their countries. It also has permanent members. They are Russia, the United Kingdom, United states, China, and France.
Why was the United Nations established?
The United Nations was created in 1945 to promote peace between countries after World War II and to defend human rights internationally.
The Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are goals that will help build a brighter future for all people. The goal is to help humans and the environment. The expectation is to reach these goals by the year 2030. The United Nations General Assembly set up these goals in 2015. There are 17 goals that include the well-being of human beings and the well-being of animals/environment. Gender equality is the 5th sustainable development goal. This strives to empower all women and girls around the world. Equal pay, less violence towards women and representation of women will be achieved by this goal. There have been improvements but we are not close to full gender equality. By 2030 we hope to end all discrimination towards women and girls around the world.
Click the link to find more information on the SDGs
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals
Gender equality & gender inequality in the United States
Ever since the 20th century and most likely even before that, women have been getting paid less than men. According to Stanford Center on poverty and inequality, women only earn 80% of what men do in the U.S.
Also, a much larger percent of women happen to have jobs such as preschool teachers, receptionists, and nurses in comparison to men. Meanwhile these jobs pay sometimes less than half as much as the jobs that men usually happen to work in such as engineering, the piloting of planes, and chief executives of businesses.
More about Gender Equality and Gender Inequality
Gender inequality is when one genders is seen as above than the other. Those who have to benefit from gender inequality is men because they have more power and get more benefits than women do. Women in society are seen as objects that bare children, take care of children, cook and clean the house. While as men are seen as those who go outside and do work and pay bills and do whatever they wish. In order for women to be seen as equal as a man they have to take bigger steps. For example, men in some jobs get more pay than women and child marriage happenes to girls more. This shows that men have all to benefit from the gender inequality that is normalized but more women are speaking up about it and it’s getting recognized.
Gender equality is both genders being seen as equal instead of one gender being higher than the other. There are programs that help girls who are young in schools and teach them more about tech skills to get them into jobs that require coding and other skills that involves computers. Of course there isn’t fully gender equality, slowly we are on our way to change the norms of women and men are seen as in society. It doesn’t happen overnight but we are getting there.
What is child marriage?
Child Marriage is when a child is married at an early age. The child is usually below the age of 18. In a child marriage children are normally forced to marry and can’t really do anything about it. This is due to their limited rights. Child marriage can result in abuse, lack of education, poor health and less opportunities for the future.
More about child marriage:
Child Marriage is an arranged marriage where one person in the marriage is under the age of 18. It is normally to help with financial/food problems as well as to continue social and cultural norms. It’s very common in areas of lower class people in the world. The graph on the right shows which gender is more likely to be married young . It shows 87% of girls are at greater risk to be married under 18.
More about Child Marriage, and who it affects
Child marriage is when usually someone who is under 18 is forced to marry someone without their consent. Their forced to go and marry someone, no matter the age difference, and it’s legal in some places. What makes it so disgusting is that the federal laws don’t protect those who are forced into child marriage, and might even encourage it. It’s also litteral rape, and it get’s looked over because their married. It happens more to girls but it does happen to both genders.
Child Marriage affects the child making them feel like they need to grow up faster and can’t live their childhood. Since the children are under 18, they can’t sign divorce papers meaning they can’t leave the marriage if they wanted to, meaning that they are stuck with that person and have no way to leave. Not all child marriages are sexually, emotionally and or physically abusive, but they can be and get away with it. This can make children who are younger than 18 with this experience can feel depressed and trapped. Though child marriage affects the child the most, it can also affect the families. Not all families want to see their family members being forced into a marriage knowing they might never see them again especially for the parents that were forced into child marriage when they were younger as well.
Who Does Child Marriage Affect?
Child marriage affects so much more than just the girl being married. It affects the next generation/children that she births. Giving birth at such a young age can interfere with the health of both the mother and the child. It can cause illnesses and even death.
Mother
With the huge sudden change of having a childhood become adulthood, it takes a toll on the mothers mental and physical health. Delivering a child won’t do any good to the mother.
Infant(s)
If birthed by an unusually young mother it can cause problems in the health of the baby. These problems can be caused because of the young age and the nutrients the mother might not have for both herself and the infant.
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Where is child marriage happening?
Child marriage is a global issue that happens across different countries, religions, cultures, and ethnicities. Child marriage is at its highest in Sub- Saharan Africa where 38% of girls get married. In addition to the 30% of girls growing up in South Asia that experience child marriage. The country with the highest rate of child marriage is Niger with 76% of girls being married before the age of 18. In addition, 28% of underage girls are married before the age of 15. Child marriage also happens in the US! Between 2000 and 2018 just about 300,00 minors were legally married in the U.S. Child marriage is happening all around the world and you can take action by sponsoring a child, making donations, etc.
Links about child marriage and how to help !
https://plan-international.org/take-action
https://www.freedomunited.org/freedom-university/forced-marriage/
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/
Explore the atlas to learn more about child marriage:
https://atlas.girlsnotbrides.org/map/?_ga=2.224643866.1607521466.1622404847-1421470506.1622067448
More about where is child marriage happening
Child marriage happens all around the world and for many different reasons. Though child marriage happens everywhere, it happens much more in some places than others. The places with the highest percentage of child marriage are places such as Niger, Bangladesh, and South Sudan. There are other places with much lower percentages for child marriage such and the Dominican Republic, Liberia, and Ethiopia, but they’re still high percentages compared to many other places in the world.
How Common is Child Marriage?
Culture
Some cultures inherit ways and styles from ancestors. This way child marriage is passed down. Different cultures do this differently. Some cultures have the girl choose who she wants to marry and others don’t. Others have the girl not be able to choose and is stuck with whoever was chosen for her to marry.
Child marriage is more common than you think it is. It happens in so many countries around the world. Child marriage is inherrited in certain cultures and sometimes is forced upon girls regardless of their cultre.
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Forcing
Sometimes girls are in the position where child marriage isnt part of their culture but they still are forced to get married. Sometimes the girl can’t speak up for herself. Sometimes the parents want them to be married and the girl doesnt. Young girls sometimes don’t have the courage to speak up for themselves because there’s so little a girl her age can do to change what her parents want.
Whether the cause is from culture or from force, it is all over the world and in so many places.
More about how common child marriage is.
Between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 girls under the age of 18 were legally married in the United States. Worldwide however, 12 million girls per year are married before the age of 18. To put that into perspective, that is nearly 23 girls every minute and nearly 1 girl every 3 seconds.
Why does child marriage happen?
At its core, child marriage is a violation of child protection and human rights. Many factors can lead to child marriage or a forced marriage — from financial or food insecurity to cultural or social norms.
More about why child marriage happens
Child Marriage can happen for multiple reasons. Sometimes it’s due to traditional reasons. For example, they might have a child marry at an early age so it would be to protect the child. Sometimes if they don’t marry at a young age, it may dishonor their family or tradition. Sometimes child marriage happens due to lack of food. If one of the children were to get married, that would mean one less mouth to feed. Sometimes it’s a forced marriage and the child being married would most likely not be able to do anything. The reason for this is because of the limited amount of rights that the children have. Even if they wanted to they’d probably wouldn’t be able to sign for a divorce.
10%
50%
40%
12 Year Olds 13 Year Olds 14 Year Olds
Data on ages of girls that are married
Child marriage happens under the age of 18 and usually when pubuerty starts.
How is child marriage happening?
Child Marriage is happening when kids under 18 are being forced by their parents or country to get married. The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, estimates more than 650 million women alive today were married before the age of 18. In 2016, another 5.6 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides. This proves how many women are still being forced into marriage without their consent.
How is child marriage happening?
Child marriage can happen in many ways. The most common ways, as found in most countries, is the parents of the groom and the bride, or just the parents of the bride, sign an agreement with the groom to marry their daughter.
In Pakistan, the number of boys who are arranged in child marriages is nearly 60% lower than girls.
(Majority of the time this would be because of the money that the man would have but there are some times where it’s just to have one less mouth to feed.)
What is the usual age difference between a child bride and her husband?
The usual age difference between a child bride and her husband is anywhere from five to up to twenty years. The bride is usually younger than the husband.
Negative impacts/consequences of child marriage.
Most of the negative impacts from child marriage are on the child bride. The bride will often be abused/ mistreated in both a physical and mental way. The child bride is often neglected and isn’t well taken care of. There are many mental health risks as well such as depression, anxiety and PTSD. Some physical health risks can be sexually transmitted infections, some types of cancer and maternal mortality. The women are often controlled by the man and don’t get to have any self care.They drop out of school as well because they can’t focus on school while forming a family and taking care of their children. Abuse is also common and 29% of women married as children were abused compared to those married as adults (20%). According to EqualityNow.org “an estimated 70,000 girls die each year of pregnancy and childbirth related complications.”
More negative impacts and consequences of child marriage:
Reflection of women who were married as child brides.
Many girls are forced to get married at a young age. A lot of them get married before the age of 18. Some girls just want to study and make something of themselves. But after they get married some give up their hopes and dreams and their reflection as a child bride is not good.
Child marriage can cause girls to get abused and there is a high risk of violence and this can cause them to think it is ok for man to abuse them but it is not ok. Most girls once they are marry, stop their education and “It negatively influences children’s rights to education, health and protection” according to UNICEF.
Many girls might have kids at a young age and will have to focus on the child rather than herself and her education. Also, many girls have their childhood ended because they have to work to take care of her husband and she now has a family to take care and she is not really allowed to act like a kid but rather as a wife.
Most girls lack knowledge to lift their family and help them and help their countries grow economically. Most girls get their human rights taken away from them because their are minors and they still do not have the ability to get a divorce.
Child Marriage in the United States
Child marriage is a practice that happens all over the world, no matter how terrible it is, and the United States is sadly no exception.
Why Is Child Marriage Still Legal In USA? Only 4 States Have Banned It So Far – AsViral
The above is an article from May 14, 2020. It states how only 4 states have banned child marriage: Minnesota, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It is still legal in the other 46 states. I’m very disappointed in states like New York and California.
The article states that In the US there isn’t a minimum age limit. For marriage meaning people younger than 16 could get married with court and parental consent. And the most infuriating thing is that the child's consent isn’t asked for. Meaning a child could openly show their discomfort with the situation through crying or screaming but the clerk wouldn’t be able to intervene.
Child Marriage in the United States of America
Over the years 650 million girls all over the world were married at a young age and many of them were in the United States.
Child Marriage Is Legal in the US. Here's How You Can Help End It. (globalcitizen.org)
In the article it states that the founder of Unchained At Last, has talked to people and they are always shocked that CHild Marriage is legal in the United States and not underground. Since it was written in 2019, only two states at the time completely banned child marriage: New Jersey and Delaware. All the other states had legal loopholes like parental and judge consent, or the child is pregnant or had given birth(That is disturbing). The problem sadly isn’t youth or lack of maturity, it’s the disregard of basic protection and rights. “Child marriage has to go because children don't have the rights of adulthood until they turn 18, and that makes it very dangerous for a child to be married because the child simply cannot get out of that marriage,” Reiss explained. I find it unfortunate that such a practise is still legal in a country which claims to be the greatest. Many people suffer because of this, and it shouldn’t be said that it’s unfair for CHILDREN to be tasked with Adult responsibilities, like taking care of children. Not only does it pose a threat to both the mother and child but it also is unfair to force a still developing human to house another developing human in a developing and unstable body.
Child marriage country profile: Pakistan
Pakistan is one of the many countries that has a high percentage of girls who are married as children. After watching a short film called Sitara about child marriage in Pakistan we saw how most girls are forced to get married with a man who is much older than they may be. Many girls drop out of school and have a child soon after marrying. Many girls also have to survive domestic violence because they are not yet old enough to get a divorce because most girls are married before the age of 18. In Pakistan it is sometimes a tradition to marry at a young age and to take care of a household at a young age. In most cases in Pakistan child marriage is a forced marriage and the parents pick who the girls will get married to. Most girls would have like to get married after 18 years old but they got married at a younger age. Some parents get a paper with a different age on it to get their daughters married.
Child Marriage in Niger
Niger is the country with the highest rate of child marriage in the world. 76% of girls are married before the age of 18 and 28% of girls are married by the age of 15. It has been estimated by UNICEF that about 3 in 4 young girls are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 4 before the age of 15. Not only do underage girls get married, but so do boys. 6% of boys in Niger have been married before the age of 18. Child marriage is not only driven by gender inequality but also by poverty, gender norms and displacement. Since Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world daughters are often married to men of wealth as a survival tactic. Child marriage is also driven by polygamy, in which child brides are most likely to be second, third, or fourth wives. Many of the fifth wives in Niger have been trafficked to houses of richer, old men. For instance, it states at https://atlas.girlsnotbrides.org/map/niger “Many fifth wives have been trafficked as young girls from rural regions across West Africa to the houses of richer, older, urban males. This was highlighted as a form of slavery by the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery in 2015”. Child marriage is not only happening in Niger but around the world and there are many ways that you can help such as joining UNISEF, making donations, etc.
More information about child marriage in Niger.
Niger has one of the highest if not the highest child marriage rate in the world. 720 million women in Niger got married before 18 years old and 156 million men got married before 18 years old. Boys as well as girls are married as children. In Niger, for instance, 77 per cent of women aged 20 to 49 were married before age 18 in contrast to 5 percent of men in the same age group according to unicef.org.
Male Child Marriage
Boy child marriage does happen, just not as often as girl child marriage. In the countries with data, 4.5% of men 20 - 24 years old were married before the age of 18. While not happening often it still exists and does happen on occasion. Boy child marriage usually happens in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia and East Asia. In the Central African Republic 28% of men were married as children, making the Central African Republic the place where the most boy child marriages occur. While there is lots of child marriage research on girls, there is not much research on child marriage for boys; and a whole 8 countries have a 10% child marriage rate for boys.
Child marriage in New York
From 2000 to 2018, an estimated 4,890 minors got married in New York State. Previously in New York State, you could get married at ages 16 - 17 with parental consent and get married at ages 14 - 15 if a judge or court grants permission. However as of 2017, the youngest age you can get married is 17 years old with both parents consent and a judge from the supreme or family court’s consent.
Why people should be made aware of child marriage:
People should be made aware of child marriage because they could really do something about it. We can all work together and save those children. Those children will have to be more responsible than any kid their age would need to be. This is because marriage is a big responsibility that a child should never have to worry about. The children are also forced to do this and their kids will probably also be forced to marry at a young age. We can all come together and find a solution to this problem.
How to make a positive impact:
A positive impact would be to stop child marriage or at least help the kids that married at a young age. There are a lot of ways we could do this. One of those ways is to protest. We won’t stop protesting until they make child marriage illegal. Another way is to simply show people that their traditions are hurting young girls and should be stopped. In many countries child marriage is like a family tradition. Thousands of voices are louder than a few. If thousands of people come together,we will be heard and we will get what we want.
How can working toward gender equality combat the issue of child marriage?
Working towards the issue of gender equality might help people see that child marriage although resonable to the parents, is wrong. I don’t live in a country this happens so I can’t say what is right or what is wrong but by the way it has been explained, it seems like it is not good for the girls.
Gender equality is a fight for women’s rights Child marriage is most commonly a marriage between girls and older men. By working towards gender equality, it will show people that girls who are forced to get married have no say about it and how unfairly they are being treated. It might show people that women and girls deserve rights to their own life and should have a say in whether or not they want something that will affect the rest of their lives.
How can working toward gender equality combat the issue of child marriage?
Evidence-based strategies to delay or prevent child marriage:
1) Empower girls with information, skills and support networks
2) Provide economic support and incentives to girls and their families
3) Educate and rally parents and community members
4) Enhance girls self esteem
Child marriage negatively affects the Indian economy and can lead to an intergenerational cycle of poverty.
Sitara: Let Girls Dream
Sitara is a short film which includes no dialogue, that tells the story of a little girl watching her sister get put in an arranged child marriage against her will.
Sitara hopes to accomplish worldwide awareness that child marriage still happens. It also hopes that it encourages young girls to dream and accomplish things. Parents should allow their children to have a childhood and accomplish what
they want to do.
In the short film Sitara, two sisters dream of becoming pilots and flying planes. Then, shortly after the older sister gets forced to marry an older man against her will.
Resources to find more information about child marriage
https://www.freedomunited.org/freedom-university/forced-marriage/
https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-marriage
https://www.worldvision.org/child-protection-news-stories/child-marriage-facts
https://www.unfpa.org/news/say-idont-top-7-things-you-didnt-know-about-child-marriage
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/
More resources to find more information about child marriage