almost every morning depending on how
much sleep I’ve got but I get up excited
to learn more and take action to see
more access and opportunity in the world
regardless of where we’re born what
color we are born and in particular for
today if we’re born with a Y chromosome
or not now I I was born with Y
chromosome and in Australia very
peacefully and I had access to you know
my right to health education my right to
play as a child and beautiful native
Australian desert flowers but
unfortunately the same can’t be said for
this young Afghan refugee girl I met a
few years ago worst whilst working in
polio eradication in Pakistan and I
think it’s about time that we can fix at
least one of the small inner qualities
that she faces which is gender equality
and so hopefully we can go on a little
bit of a journey with me as a
five-year-old with Melua flower through
to today where I still care about the
world just as much as I did as a
five-year-old and working towards gender
equality see I grew up in a large family
I’m the youngest of six children in my
family and I grew up loving sports and
in a pretty typical Australian kind of
way as you can tell by my beautiful
accent or my lack of dress code ahead
and and so from from that time you know
I I knew not to be mean or abusive
towards women but just by having been
brought up as a male in Australia and I
think pretty much anywhere in the world
when it came to gender equality I just
didn’t get it so it first took me to
have the lens of inequality put in front
of my eyes before I could see it in
other parts of the world and I first got
that lens of inequality in 2001 when I
traveled to a small mountainous country
in Central Asia called Kyrgyzstan also
one of the hardest countries to spell in
the world only one vowel in all of that
and I went there to go on climb
mountains but whilst I was there I also
decided to do some volunteering and not
volunteering in a beautiful city in
eastern Kyrgyzstan surrounded by
mountains and next to a crystal pier at
Clear Lake lake issyk-kul um and whilst
I was doing this volunteering I always
say that my education started the day I
finished University because I had some
of my biggest life lessons impressions
and inspirations from this amazing group
of women and one of their grandmother’s
so these we were all 23 years old we’re
all teachers but I felt that I was so
immature and lacking in wisdom compared
to these amazing women see they they
knew how to look after themselves but
also the people around them and they did
this all on the salary of 14 US dollars
for one month and so that meant they
were incredibly resilient resourceful
they knew how to build community around
them and these equalities have always
tried to continue on with me ever since
then but this wasn’t so much an issue of
gender inequality a bigger insight came
to me a few months later when I was
working as a teacher in South Korea and
my salary was 40 US dollars for one hour
and I remember at the end of that first
week of working and the salary and the
so the money was in my hand that really
hit me I just thought well hang on why
why does the world work like this you
know I didn’t work longer I didn’t work
harder and I certainly wasn’t smarter
than my friends in Kyrgyzstan who just
taught me so much about life basically
the only difference was was that I was
born where I was born and my friends
were born where they were born having
different access and opportunity in the
world and so ever since then I’ve
continued to ask myself the question of
why and to do my best to learn more and
take action to see more equality access
and opportunity for anyone anywhere
again regardless of where they’re born
or what gender they happen to have
received or identify with and I think it
can be that easy and I think it’s about
time that maybe we can all join in to do
these things and so since
2001 in Kyrgyzstan have been extremely
privileged to travel to more than 85
countries around the world in the last
15 years working in social justice in
many many different ways in fact the
three hardest questions I get asked is
what’s your job where do you live and
how do you get paid nope no simple
answers especially for my poor mother
miss do still ask me those questions but
but once I had this insight into
inequality I started to notice that
everywhere and one of the biggest
inequalities are soon noticed was my
ability as a young single male traveling
continuously around the world and that
was a combination of having been brought
up in Australia having access to income
and and the privilege to do so but also
as a male because I’ve always felt the
travel that I was doing was always just
a bit easier or maybe with less concerns
and fear than if I’d been a female
ultimately I felt like had a sense of a
greater sense of freedom and didn’t have
to have as many concerns going up hiking
in the mountains by myself sleeping on
the floors of strangers and I never once
had to read up on the next country I was
going to to see how well they treated
young single males which there isn’t in
Lonely Planet guide books where there
are four femurs unfortunately and so my
point here is is that women you know
when we were doing what I was doing but
I was probably just doing a bit easier
with a little more freedom and it was
society around me that was really
dictating the way I approach traveling
the trust I put into people and my
perceived risks when really travel
considerations it shouldn’t matter if we
are male or female and something I’ve
noticed across the board in all my years
of traveling in many many cultures is my
privilege as a male you know the freedom
for me to be able to travel as I’ve just
mentioned less societal pressures to get
married and have children as I say this
is 38 years old with our children and
our marriage and also not having to face
extra challenges in a male-dominated
world and so you know really society and
the way we are brought up has a
significant impact on gender roles and
the quality and so always had to kind of
deconstruct my privilege
mail for me to better understand what it
means and the way that I approach the
world and it doesn’t have to be this way
there’s no reason why females should
have more fear walking alone at night
than a male in exactly the same
situation women shouldn’t have to face
extra and endure it surrenderer extra
challenges to rise up in patriarchal
systems and structures and I think it’s
about time to do anything in the world
it should not matter which body parts we
do or don’t have and I honestly think it
is that simple so what are some of the
solutions especially for males to work
towards more gender equality in the
world
so I created a concept that helps frame
these big issues like gender equality
but also to think of practical and
tangible actions for them and it’s
called teaspoons of change and these are
personal choices decisions and actions
that have a positive impact on people in
the planet creating positive change it’s
a bit of a mouthful just remember the
tea spoon but for me I’d always been
taught you know what are the things that
I can do for others without ever really
having to look at the things I do myself
and I think tea spoons have changed
gives us the opportunity to double our
positive impact in the world while not
only looking at the things that we do
for others which is great but also the
things that we can do in our own lives
the way we approach world and society
and the choices that we make on a daily
basis and so the concept starts were
their selves as individuals looking at a
multitude of small bit significant
actions and I kind of refer to this as
like a piece of paper using both sides
using one side is good but using both
sides is so much better and that’s kind
of a teaspoon of change as well for the
environment and so I will share with you
some examples for me personally if my
teaspoons are change for gender equality
so it took me a long time to kind of
break through my privilege as a male and
to really understand it and I remember I
resisted at first justifying it to
myself well men get it tough too so why
should females get special treatment but
as I spoke to FEMA’s listened and really
started to analyze society around me
finally begin to understand and realize
women aren’t asking for special
treatment they’re only asking for equal
treatment and that was though almost an
epiphany for me and all the women are
going yeah of course that’s right
another one for me was to undo society
around me and this is quite tricky know
I had had inherited all these white male
ways of thinking and doing I really had
to sort of undo them and try and fit
back into the world around me that does
that and that’s something that I try and
continue to do even today and I hope for
males that can start today or continue
to move you along because it’s about
time we did but it is a bit difficult
task to unpick all those sorts of things
as we go along for me I hate that you
know there’s so many little lessons they
had to turn myself into to better see
gender equality like ensuring I had
female perspectives in my life the
things I care about and the things that
I do in also in all aspects of my life
personally professionally academically
and socially all of these different
factors and also you know I had to
really ask myself am I just you know
thinking about these things or am I
actually acting on them I’ve been to
gender equality to workshops in a number
of different countries around the world
you go and get all the right facts and
figures and all the the vocabulary that
you’re meant to learn with other males
and okay yep good now we’re gender
equality because we don’t say this and
we do say that but it didn’t always
translate into mindsets and attitudes or
when we get home later that night and so
our big challenge is to go beyond the
words that we change and put it into
action and my friend Hilary from an
organizers that she’s a founder of the
female voice I think puts this directly
but beautifully when she says real
change comes when we challenge the
things staring us square in the face I
think that’s a very direct but beautiful
thing to say and so for me to help me in
all of this I also use a little tool of
analyzing my thoughts my actions and
society around me and as my balance of
help versus harm for gender equality so
for me an example of a harm is often to
speak too quickly too often and without
ensuring female perspectives when my
teaspoon of change of help needs to be
made sure that there are female
perspectives and inputs
in group conversations and decisions
another help for me is a pretty simple
idea but I think it has quite a big
impact in the world and that is to know
good people doing good things in gender
equality I make a point of knowing lots
of great people doing great things for
gender equality the he fishy campaign
with Emma Watson or could project who’s
looking at eradicating female genital
cutting fair agenda from Australia the
female voice as I mentioned before seven
women in Nepal and many many many others
own always locally and globally and I’m
sure the room is full of people as well
who are doing this so our task is to get
to know them support them and
importantly share them with others so
these can come from government
initiatives NGOs movies social media all
these different areas and so our point
is to make sure that we get to know them
support them and share them with others
so one that I want to share with you
today that looks at good people doing
good things is this year’s world’s
largest lesson so the world’s largest
lesson is one lesson each year for every
school teacher and student in the whole
world that’s dedicated to equality and I
was in London a couple of months ago and
I hope create the lesson for this year
which is called from where I stand and
it’s dedicated to gender equality and
there’s an important task in this lesson
students fill out a survey anonymous
survey only depicting their country and
their age and then they have to put a
tally of the decision-makers the gender
of the decision-makers in their life
community and country according to this
this survey thousands of students have
taken part in this this survey already
and the data was used for International
Day of the girl on October the 11th and
it’s still being captured but
unfortunately what this map shows us is
that the global average of the ratio of
decision-makers in the lives of our
students in the world is 31 68
female-to-male and so what this
essentially tells us is that males are
still the bigger
decision-makers for the students in that
lives and that doesn’t make for gender
equality and so our challenge is to not
just look at these statistics but
actually act upon them as well and so
people can still participate in this
lesson so if you have access to students
or schools etc then get them to add
their voice to this important task so we
can highlight these things and most
importantly act upon them as we go along
decision-makers need data and they need
excuses to make good choices so let’s
provide them now each of these are all
small but significant teaspoons of
change actually fit into a greater
context of global context the global
goals for sustainable development and
global goal number five dedicated to
gender equality but here’s the thing is
that when we act personally and locally
we are impacting globally and we’re
working towards solving some of the big
issues for all of humanity but it has to
start in our own homes and with
ourselves and in teaspoons have change
is kind of the metaphor that I think
that can help us get there and for me to
always think of new teaspoons of change
and analyzing society around me I’d love
this lyric from musician Michael Franti
and he says are you a part of the
pollution or are you a part of the
solution and I think this is a really
good lens the way to look at the world
and and see how we are going to be a
part of this and then if we’re not doing
anything then we’re being a part of the
pollution to make sure that stuff that
up if we’re being a part of the
pollution so let’s really analyze what
we are doing and what we can do because
any action does count but just there’s a
few things to keep in mind as we do this
often we have to be brave in the face of
backlash maybe from other men and
probably even some females when we do
stand-up on gender equality but just
remember women have had to endure this
often violently throughout the course of
history my own girlfriend Serafina said
to me that men are an important key to
turn the tide on gender equality we need
to make sure that we raise their voice
and in support so that we can all live
in a world without fear and share the
same opportunities
freedom and so that conversation with my
girlfriend I think is a good starting
point for all conversations to be open
brave and honest men we need to really
listen and learn on what we can do for
gender equality so we can see that in
our own homes our workplaces and in
society in general we also need to
embrace and celebrate positive shifts in
our society and I think a great example
of this was last year with Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he
ensured gender parity across his cabinet
and reporters said to him why and his
simple answer was because it’s 2015
well it’s 2016 so it’s about time we saw
gender parity for all cabinets and
society and there’s a formula that I
love to use with teaspoons are changed
in today for gender equality and that is
to know that any action even small
actions multiplied by lots of people can
and will create big change and this is
how we solve some of the biggest issues
in society isn’t just by clicking our
fingers and making it happen but being a
part of that change teaspoons have
changed at a time in particular for
gender equality so as we look back at
this photo of the young Afghan refugee
girl you know it’s about time that she
and all other females grew were born
into and grew up in a world with the
same access and opportunity that was
available to me as a boy more than 30
years ago I hope we can all add our
little teaspoons of change because it’s
about time that we work together to make
gender equality reality thank you very
much [Applause]