Feminae Carta: a digital advocacy tool & a space for feminist research

What if we could make gender equality a global policy priority through digital advocacy? This is the goal we had when the two of us were on a walk in the summer of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused everything to go online, but many issues that exist in the world, particularly those that impact women, were being exacerbated.

After many more walks, planning, and discussions amongst each other, our proposed solution emerged in the form of Carta: the first digital advocacy tool of its kind.

Carta advocates for solutions to world issues using interactive multimedia elements, the support of reliable research, backing by evidence-based case studies, and endorsements by key stakeholders. Our first ‘carta’ is Feminae Carta, which makes the case for gender equality by presenting background, evidence, and research on why investing in women is important, and it’s connection with economic growth in the world. We focused on three main areas for this particular Carta: women’s well-being, women’s voices, and women’s participation in society. 

While there are many phases to the project, the initial aspect is raising as much awareness as possible about women’s rights and the current challenges faced by women around the world. One of the most rewarding experiences during this process for us was getting an opportunity to work with incredible researchers from around the world. We recruited more than 20 researchers from all six continents for the project, who have collectively studied at more than 25 of the world’s top universities. They are all such passionate individuals, who share our goals of achieving gender equality globally, and their work throughout this project has left us hopeful for the future.

In this article, we highlight the recommendations and conclusions that our researchers came up with while conducting their research for Feminae Carta, and hope that you find their words as inspiring as we did. 

Anna Bennech, a Brazilian researcher currently based in Germany to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Würzburg, was researching women’s health in North America and Latin America. In her research, she concluded:

In a nutshell: women’s health challenges are intrinsically connected to political and social structures, such as misogyny and racism. What can we learn from that? As they are complex and multifaceted phenomena, one may not believe that solutions or changes will arise from unidimensional perspectives. That is so to say – multi-dimensional problems demand multi-dimensional solutions involving multiple actors (Cerna, 2013). Structural struggles demand joint action – multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and multistakeholder (Mnandhar et al. 2018). 

Maurice Munga, a Kenyan researcher, Development Consultant, Entrepreneur, and Green Leader in Kenya studied the impacts of Gender-Based Violence in East Asia and Central Asia. He concluded: 

Affirmative action and raising of educational awareness on issues dealing with women and girl’s rights is needed, to build a cohesive society that enables women and girls to thrive. To prevent more cases and eruption of gender-based violence, countries need to adopt and hold a capacity-building framework that has a community participatory approach. This framework will ensure gender equality is considered an important aspect for the growth and development of a country at all levels of sustainable development that is economic, social, and environmental. 

Mariana Anaya, a Mexican researcher currently based in France and a gender equality advocate, researched women empowerment in North America and Latin America. Her research ended with a powerful call to action:

Women shouldn’t have to sacrifice their careers in the name of motherhood, and motherhood has to be wanted, not imposed by the lack of sexual reproduction rights. There are many areas of opportunity to be worked on to live in a world where women are just as empowered as men, and this can’t be achieved until gender equality becomes a reality.

Constance Kell, an American researcher and private contractor in professional lighting design with a desire to help other young women enter technical fields like hers. She researched the status of women in the workplace in North America and Latin America, and concluded the following:

We need to set up mechanisms for benefits to actively keep up with inflation with minimums as a percentage of the cost of living. That way, when one’s cost of living rises due to inflation, benefits rise automatically. We have the opportunity to recalculate the current benefit programs, and we need to restructure so that those who have been underpaid thus far will receive reparations. By understanding others, we can begin to see how to become a positive impact on the disparities between men and women. 

Each of our researchers developed many important insights about women’s rights, and Feminae Carta hopes to be both a digital advocacy tool and a space in which feminist research into the pressing issues facing women can be housed. In this article, we shared a glimpse into our findings. There is a lot more work to be done, and in the next phases of our project, we will continue to engage the public in creating policy changes globally. You can find out more and read our full background guide on https://www.theworldwithmnr.com/feminaecarta