How can "Scrubs" teach us about gender equality?

I’ve spent the last week rewatching episodes of Scrubs. It was a popular TV series in the early to mid 2000’s and has become somewhat of a modern classic.  I love the show, I think it fits well into its time.  However, if Scrubs was airing now it would probably be considered politically incorrect.

It’s the little things in the way we relate to each other that have changed.  It’s no longer okay to insult men by calling them girls names.  It’s not okay to insult someone by saying they do something ‘like a girl’. You can watch a video about that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs.  It’s not okay to dismiss a woman’s opinion because she may be menstruating.   We’ve come a long way in the last ten to 15 years but we’re slowing down and we still have a long way to go before we can say gender equality has been achieved.

It’s International Women’s Day on the 8th of March and this year’s campaign is focused around the theme Pledge For Parity.  Parity essentially means equality of rank.  The International Women’s Day page (which can be found here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/) tells us that in the last year we have gone backwards.  

In 2014 the World Economic Forum estimated, based on current progress, that the gender gap would not be closed until 2095; last year they estimated that it would not be achieved until 2133.  That means that girls born in the next decade may be lucky enough to have great grandchildren born into a world where women and girls are received as equal world citizens.  

I’m not really okay with that.  

So I have been doing small things like changing AFL teams (even though I don’t really follow football) to the team which has both a women’s league team and the most female board members.  Encouraging our communities to stop victim blaming, keeping up the momentum on the period taxing debate.  Even things as simple as supporting our mothers as they go through menopause, instead of treating ‘the change’ as a taboo subject.  These are things we all can do and a good place to start is to head to the women’s day page and make the pledge.  

This March is also an opportunity to celebrate the work women and men have done and are doing all around the world.  If you would like to do something outside of your local community then head to http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/ to get updated with information.  The page is a partnership of over 600 organisations in 40 countries all determined to end the practice of child brides.  The International Women’s Day page is also full of valuable information on what you can do to celebrate this women’s day.