As the world listened in shock to claims by a Polish MEP that women should earn less than men because they are “weaker, smaller and less intelligent”, Sara Ezabe and Samantha Pace Gasan were less outraged by the attack.
This was not because the claims by the parliamentarian did not anger them as much as it did everyone else, but because the two young women hear similar claims on a daily basis.
Speaking to the Times of Malta ahead of International Women’s Day being celebrated on Wednesday, the two said that women leaders, especially those just starting out, often have to deal with discouraging comments from others simply because they were women.
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“Those things should not be said by someone in that position but the reality is that these things are said because people out there still believe them.
The ultimate aim of this NGO is to promote the importance of leadership among young women
“He is representing people who still exist and even if you silence someone like that, he has people’s support and that is what worries me,” Ms Ezabe, 20, who is reading for a law degree at the University of Malta, said.
The pair were speaking to this newspaper as they gear up to launch their new NGO Network of Young Women Leaders (NYWL).
The NGO will also be participating in a conference on women in leadership organised by the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society being held today.
The NYWL was set up to promote and encourage young women to seek leadership roles, especially in politics.
While women were becoming more active and their presence on different platforms had increased, still more needed to be done to inspire, the two women insisted.
“It’s not that there aren’t other similar organisations but what we want to organise is a network of young women who experience the same struggles,” Ms Pace Gasan said.
On what some of these struggles were, Ms Pace Gasan explained that she often found that after stating something, someone else would step up and explain what she had just said. This, she insisted, was something that both men and women did and which other young women claim to have experienced.
“And it’s not just about being a woman. There have been cases where older women feel superior and look down on us younger ones and that is why we are emphasising the fact that we’re a group of young women,” Ms Pace Gasan explained.
While open to anyone, the network will at first primarily target women aged between 16 and 30 as the pair feel it is important to help those already in leadership positions, enabling them to shatter existing glass ceilings.
“The ultimate aim of this NGO is to promote the importance of leadership among young women as we attempt to encourage more women to take up such roles,” Ms Pace Gasan said.
At present, the NGO is made up of seven women from all walks of life who believe that despite their different backgrounds, their struggles are one and the same.