Indicative of entrenched sexism and negative sentiments of women
“Long way to go to achieve gender equality”
New series of gender equality ads unveiled by UN Women shocked the world with its creative ideas.
The 4 ads reveal the widespread stereotypes and taboos on women. In the ads are close up images of 4 women of different races with the messages “Women shouldn’t ~,” “Women cannot ~,” “Women should ~,” and “Women need to~.”
The phrases included in the ads are popular Google queries that actually appeared for a search on March 9. They show the rampant stereotypes of women and how much women are denied their rights.
The search results differ by country, so trying it for yourself would help you realize women’s status in your country. For instance, if you type “Women should” in the search box of Google Korea, unlike what the ad says, “Women should have babies before 35,” “Women should go to military,” ”Women should not serve in the military,” and “Women should serve in the military” would appear as results, displaying how sensitive the issue of military service is in Korea.
Christopher Hunt, Art Director for the creative ad, explained, “When we came across these searches, we were shocked by how negative they were and decided we had to do something with them.” “The ads are shocking because they show just how far we still have to go to achieve gender equality,” added Kareem Shuhaibar, copy writer, hoping it would serve as a wake up call.
UN Women urged everyone to take part in the discussion ongoing at #womenshould on Twitter, hoping this would spark constructive dialogue globally.
