Rosario Perez Explains Why Economic Gender Equality Is So Important

Rosario Perez, chief executive officer of the women’s development organization Pro Mujer, spoke to HuffPost Live at Davos about the importance of economic gender equality.

Perez said the issue is important “for productivity, economic development, health care, you name it.” Perez also said economic gender inequality is a cultural issue that needs to continue to evolve.

“Sometimes the mothers tell [women], ‘I was abused, and I took it on the chin, so you have to do the same,'” Perez said. “We have to change that.”

“Until you’re independent financially, all those cultural things, you can’t get away from,” Perez added.

Perez said it’s not just important for women to be empowered financially, but also for men to be passionate about economic gender equality.

“There’s no single magic bullet, but I think that also as more men begin to realize, not just because it’s convenient, but because truly they are passionate about it, when men are passionate about it things in this area move very fast,” Perez said.

Below, more updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:

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.@Pharrell and @algore announce Live Earth 2015 — concerts on 7 continents! #WEF15 pic.twitter.com/2RS8fk7swT

— Daniel Arrigg Koh (@dank) January 21, 2015

Change.org founder Ben Rattray spoke about the White House’s “We the People” page, which accepts petitions from Americans and response to those that reach a certain number of signatures.

“It’s a huge step in the right direction,” Rattray said.

“The challenge is that when tools are owned by and built by government, they tend not to be optimized for citizen empowerment,” Rattray added.

When HuffPost Live asked Rattray about the wide variety of petitions on the White House’s website, he said it’s a positive thing.

“We want to see a world in which social movements and organizing is an every day experience,” Rattray said.

“When we see the culture currency of Change.org spread to pop culture, we think that is a very healthy thing,” Rattray said, noting that the trend shows people are recognizing they can influence big institutions, making them “more likely to take action.”

Rattray said there’s a “false divide” between what he called “clicktivists,” or people who engage in activist causes “from their couch,” and people who are out in the streets fighting for change.

Rattray said about 20,000 new petitions start on Change.org every single month. The petitions cover a wide array of topics.

Rattray said people’s desire to push for change is global and is “fundamentally human.”

The Huffington Post