The Optimist
  • Home
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Policies
    • Staff Contacts
    • Jobs
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Multimedia
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos
  • Features
  • Print Edition
    • The Pessimist
    • Special Projects
  • Police Log
  • Classifieds
You are here: Home / News / Speaker from UN Women Skypes in with faculty, students

Speaker from UN Women Skypes in with faculty, students

April 14, 2015 by Abbey Bowling

Dina Deligiorgis, a representative from UN Women, spoke to ACU faculty, staff and students Tuesday about the progression of gender equality and how to end violence against women.

Deligiorgis is a knowledge management specialist for UN Women, a United Nations organization that was created to address the issue of gender inequality.

“From a young age, I’ve been very concerned with everyone’s wellbeing and it’s just over time that I started realizing that my heart was really in gender equality work,” Deligiorgis said. “Violence against women and girls, in particular, is such a lifelong detrimental experience for women. It actually impinges everything else – it impinges their productivity, their mental and physical health… it’s something that colors the rest of their life experience.”

UN Women particularly works with prevention methods of violence against women. They implement concepts at the individual level and community level with institutions to deconstruct masculinities, femininities, relationships and social norms, Deligiorgis said.

“A trend we’ve seen in the last five years is engaging men and boys to end violence against women and girls,” Deligiorgis said. “Not because they’re primarily the perpetrators, which does happen to be the truth, but because there are a lot of male champions out there who understand and believe that violence is wrong.”

This semester, a faculty reading group has been reading former President Jimmy Carter’s book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, in which Carter addresses the issue of ongoing discrimination against women.

“Carter’s book reads almost like a catalog of 11 primary ways that violence is practiced against women around the world,” said Joyce Haley, co-leader of the reading group. “He describes the discrimination and abuse as the number one challenge in the world today and points to the role the worlds’ main religions, especially Christianity and Islam, contribute to the ongoing violence.”

The book raises the question of what can be done to help advance the progression of women around the world to create equity and fairness, and one of the points Carter argues is that a correct interpretation of religion does not support the violent treatment of women, said Trevor Thompson, co-leader of the reading group.

“Carter directly calls on people of faith to step up and confront religious beliefs and systems that abuse and oppress women and girls,” said Jennifer Shewmaker, associate professor of psychology and member of the reading group. “I think that’s really important, and as a faith-based school, we should be leading the charge when it comes to offering equal respect, opportunity, and access to every child of God.”

Filed Under: News, Showcase Tagged With: Books, Politics

Other News:

  • Provost adopts new policy for emeriti faculty

  • Demolition begins on Sherrod residential apartments

  • ACU Gives exceeds goal, raises over $919,000

About Abbey Bowling

Arts & features editor. Journalism major. Texas for now, but not for long. Lover of Jesus, coffee, dogs, pizza, and sports.

You are here: Home / News / Speaker from UN Women Skypes in with faculty, students

Other News:

  • Provost adopts new policy for emeriti faculty

  • Demolition begins on Sherrod residential apartments

  • ACU Gives exceeds goal, raises over $919,000

Follow us online

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Optimist on Twitter

acuoptimist The Optimist @acuoptimist ·
2 Dec

BREAKING: The internet is now up and running after a short campus-wide outage.

Reply on Twitter 1863647460322640102 Retweet on Twitter 1863647460322640102 Like on Twitter 1863647460322640102 1 Twitter 1863647460322640102
acuoptimist The Optimist @acuoptimist ·
7 Nov

The Optimist and ACUTV partnered together to produce a 3-hour live election show on Tuesday night. A team of 25 students worked for weeks preparing while doing research and interviews with guests like Dr. Phil Schubert and Rep. Stan Lambert.

Reply on Twitter 1854352279605817812 Retweet on Twitter 1854352279605817812 2 Like on Twitter 1854352279605817812 9 Twitter 1854352279605817812

Optimist on Facebook

The Optimist

10 months ago

The Optimist

Video

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

The Optimist

1 years ago

The Optimist
"Ending my college education early was always the plan for me, but the things that I have been able to see, experience and examine about ACU’s community were not. I have found immense growth in ACU over the past three and a half years, but ACU still has a long road to climb if it wants to keep catering to students as the world changes around them." To read more of this article visit acuoptimist ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Videos

Optimist Newscast Feb. 28, 2024

Our top stories today include a recap of The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, the ... [Read More…]

  • Optimist Newscast Feb. 21, 2024
  • Optimist Newscast Feb. 14, 2024
  • Optimist Newscast Jan. 24, 2024

Latest Photos

1
2
3
4
5
PrevNext
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Subscribe
    • Policies
    • Advertising Policy
    • Letters to the Editor and Reader Comments
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Photo Galleries
  • Features
  • Advertise
    • Paid Advertisement
  • Police Log

© 2025 ACU Optimist · All Rights Reserved