Scraps of paper scattered across the floor of a room at the University of Michigan Hillel alerted students to gender inequalities at an event Wednesday.
A small group of students gathered at Hillel for the TEDx Salon on Gender Equality in the Workplace. The event was one of a series of TEDx talks covering a wide range of topics hosted on the University’s campus this year.
This discussion, hosted by Hillel, included a viewing of the pre-recorded TEDx talk, “Why we have too few female leaders,” by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook chief operating officer. The talk discussed the struggles women face due to gender inequalities in the workforce.
Business junior Dalia Adler, chair of the Governing Board of Hillel, said she partnered with TEDx to create the salon in order to address issues that students are already discussing on campus.
“This has been a very relevant topic that groups within Hillel have been focusing on. Word of mouth has been all about women’s issues lately,” Adler said. “It’s relevant to conversations in daily life and relevant to college students going into the workplace. We thought it was a really beneficial conversation to have.
LSA senior Celia Shecter, who also worked with Adler create the event, said she thought TEDx was helpful in sparking topics for small-group discussions.
“This was my first introduction to a salon. I thought it was a really cool idea to be able to have a discussion after the video in a small group,” Shecter said.
Shecter added that her goal in helping create this event was to raise awareness on the issue of gender inequality in order to give students an idea of what to expect when they leave college.
“Gender inequality in the workforce specifically interested me because I feel like, as undergraduates, we are here preparing ourselves for some sort of career,” Shecter said. “I’m really passionate about women’s issues. I think it’s important to be aware of what’s coming up; what is it going to be like in the future, what is it really like for women and men in the work place?”