Today's Education & Gender Inequality Comments (from Gina's Elevator Pitch)

Depriving one of a higher and quality education deprives them of one of their fundamental rights. As Gina explained in her elevator pitch, education quality indirectly affects gender equality and reduces inequality and poverty, which was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gina’s artifact shows a representation of an all-girls school based in Africa, suggesting how critical it is for young schoolgirls to receive a quality education in today’s world regardless of outside factors (e.g., financial conditions, current events like the pandemic, etc.). In the artifact, the blank white area (portrayed as a schoolgirl) could be represented as how the world needs to unite together (i.e., blacks + whites) in order to ensure that all schoolgirls receive a quality education. Alternatively, one can view the figure as bearing some resemblance to the Statue of Liberty; since men and women are committed to equal opportunity of education, all schoolgirls have the right to freedom and justice, two core principles in the Declaration of Independence, as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty.

In addition to a rhetorical lens to analyze the artifact, Gina could consider using pathos (i.e., the dismayed schoolgirls’ faces) and a representational lens to show how schoolgirls, especially those in third-world countries, are forgotten and excluded from having a say about their rights in today’s world.