Maya Krishnan believes women have a place in the house — the House of Representatives, that is. Krishnan, a senior studying business administration and international studies, presented her research about the role of women in political leadership in March at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. She was one of five students selected by WomenNC as a fellow for the 2015–16 school year. 

“It’s so frustrating that gender is used as a construct to tell people what they can’t do,” Krishnan said. “At this point, I’m 23 now, I feel like I’m trying to un-learn all of the things that I’ve been taught and fed by society in general about gender my whole life.”

Krishnan and the four other fellows spent a week in New York at the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, attending sessions on topics ranging from female genital mutilation to human trafficking and also presenting their own research. 

WomenNC uses a “local to global to local” format in which the fellows research and write a policy paper about a local issue impacting their community, present their findings on the global stage at the UN and return to the local community with ideas for how to implement policies or solutions based on what was learned at the CSW. Krishnan’s research focused on the lack of women in political leadership, particularly women of color. 

Krishnan said despite the diversity of countries represented at the CSW, women face similar problems around the world.   

“Honestly, it’s painful, but so many of these things transcend geographic boundaries,” Krishnan said. “And that’s very frustrating, but also gives people, I think, a lot of drive to go forward and tackle them together and in a collaborative way.”

The United Nations General Assembly released its Agenda for Sustainable Development in September, which includes 17 goals to be accomplished by 2030. The goals include wiping out poverty and hunger, promoting responsible consumption and production and providing quality education. The fifth goal is to achieve gender equality — a goal that the UN said is essential to progressing in all 17 areas.  

The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development states, “The achievement of full human potential and of sustainable development is not possible if one half of humanity continues to be denied its full human rights and opportunities.”

WomenNC reflects the same belief, promoting the advocacy of women’s rights as human rights. 

“WomenNC’s big, underlying mission is that when you support women, you’re supporting communities, and you’re supporting nations at a time,” said Katie Starr, public relations chair for WomenNC. “We see women really as kind of the backbone to any household and to any community and beyond.”

Krishnan began her fellowship in September and worked with Lillian’s List, an organization that provides training and resources for pro-choice progressive women running for office in North Carolina. However, Krishnan emphasized that it is important to promote women’s leadership regardless of party affiliation. 

“I think getting more women involved in the political process isn’t just a Democratic thing or a Republican thing, it’s something that has to be looked at from a bipartisan standpoint because in general, in political leadership, there needs to be more diversity of voice,” Krishnan said.

In researching data for her policy paper as part of the fellowship, Krishnan found that since 2004, only 2.3 percent of candidates for elected office in North Carolina have been women of color, according to a 2015 report by David McLennan, a visiting professor of political science at Meredith College.

“It’s hard because some of these issues with race and ethnicity are systemic in nature, and so finding like a policy solution that’s going to target that is really difficult,” Krishnan said. “But I think that what I found is that there are partnerships you can develop, and this is where the power of NGOs comes in, the power of organizations.”

According to Krishnan, much of the reason for gender discrimination is how gender norms and stereotypes are programmed into society. This discrimination, she said, takes form in both big and small ways. 

“Big ways like the pay gap, big ways like a lack of women in leadership roles, and then small ways of discrimination and stereotypical ways that people think about femininity, and gender and women and what their roles are,” Krishnan said. 

Discrimination also presents itself in everyday language, such as how the nickname “boss” is primarily reserved for men, according to Krishnan.

“People will say, ‘oh, you’re being too nitpicky,’ but this is literally a way that gender has been scripted into our daily interactions,” Krishnan said. “It just affirms over and over again these very stereotypical roles, so it’s very hard to break out of the cycle.”

WomenNC is a nonprofit organization that started in 2009 and has trained 30 fellows. In addition to Krishnan, this year’s fellowship was also awarded to Madelaine Katz from Duke University, Laura Douglass from Meredith College, and Leah Ford and Olivia Horton, both from UNC-Chapel Hill. The fellowship is funded by community partners, who in the past have included NC State, Meredith College, UNC Global and Duke University.

“It’s a really great opportunity for students to receive the fellowship and interact with a global audience and then share their expertise on the issue they’re interested in locally in North Carolina,” Starr said.

All five WomenNC fellows will reflect on their fellowship experience and their time at the CSW at a symposium on Thursday at 7 p.m. The annual symposium, titled “Global-to-Local: Reflections on the 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women,” takes place in the Freeman Center for Jewish Life at Duke University. The event is free and open to the public. For more information and to RSVP to the event, visit womennc.org.

All five WomenNC fellows will reflect on their fellowship experience at “Global-to-Local: Reflections on the 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.” The event will take place in the Freeman Center for Jewish Life at Duke University Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. For more information and to RSVP to the event, visit womennc.org.