For centuries, women have fought relentlessly for their political and social rights.
Now, moving into the 21st century, and with the surging impact of the media, more and more people are starting to sense the importance of equality from a younger age.
There have been numerous instances where mere teenagers have been vocal about equalizing opportunities. An example of such a democratic and brave initiative was Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teen who has spoken adamantly about female education. She was the youngest ever Nobel Prize recipient, and has even penned a memoir recounting her ordeal.
Malala isn't the only girl out there who advocates the rights of young women and fights for their access to often more off limits, privatized forms of education.
Let us introduce you to Cash Cayen. Like any child, she is curious to learn as much as she can. She loves spending time at her local library, and really looked forward to signing up for a summer session there on robotics. The shocking part? The program was specifically only open to boys. Read on to find out what Cash did to stand up for herself — hopefully you'll be as moved by her story as I was.
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Typically, a library is the last place that one would expect to feel rejected. Libraries are shrines to books, the original temples of education. No one could have foreseen what one particular library did to this little girl.
Nine-year-old Cash Cayen loves to frequent her local public library in Timmins, Ontario. This library has a wonderful offering of programs for kids throughout the summer — including reading clubs, crafts and games, and history lessons. One program stood out from the rest: an intriguing session on science robotics.
Unfortunately — and very shockingly — this July 20 session was only open to boys. "Special boys program," it reads on the calendar pamphlet. Cash was all ready to sign up for the program until she discovered this rule. Cash and her mother went directly to Elaine De Bonis, the assistant library director. The library concluded that because boys' literacy and academic skills don't seem to improve over summer breaks, they were therefore the only ones allowed to participate in learning experiences like the robotics lessons.
Initially, Cash tried to fight back by saying that this was unfair, and that it was wrong for her to be denied the right to participate just because she was a girl. However, the library wouldn't listen to her.
So, Cash decided to do an extraordinary thing: she launched a petition. On the petition page, she details the library's reason for turning her away from the program, and focuses her effort on encouraging others in seeing the importance of gender equality. So far, her cause has gained just shy of 34,000 supporters — her goal is to reach 35,000. We believe with all our hearts that she will reach this number.
Many people have expressed solidarity with Cash. She was even granted a visit with Timmins Mayor Steve Black! Very notably, she's received support from FIRST, a program that encourages and helps youths who express an interest in science, technology, and engineering. Here, design engineer and robotics mentor Karen Kowalczyk put it very simply: "We need more girls in engineering!!!"
Another supporter, Sabrina Varanelli, works in New York as a robotics engineer and has encouraged Cash to reach out to her. "I would love to chat with you about robots, robotics engineering, and anything else robotics related that you might want to learn about," she wrote.
Cash has to know that there is a high level of warm support out there for her, a very great community of people who would love nothing more than to see her grow in future endeavors related to science, engineering, and robotics.
Speaking of the supportive community — it's not made up solely by women. One of Cash's enthusiastic supporters is Jim Forbes, who is helping to push for gender equality in the predominantly male-dominated computer sciences industry.
"The girls and boys of Timmins are better because you took a stand," he wrote, before stating that he and the rest of their community is completely, 100-percent behind her.
Ultimately, the Timmins Public Library Board and its staff issued an official apology, stating that it was all a "misunderstanding." Now, all children between the ages of 9 and 12 can freely register in the summer robotics program if they choose to do so.
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