Mary Robinson is the woman involved with the urge to fight climate change that I chose to learn more about. She was the seventh president of Ireland and the first-ever woman to hold this position. Many women cried on the day of her inauguration merely because they didn’t know it was possible for a woman to become president and hold so much power. She was born on May 21, 1944. After being president she became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2010, she established the Mary Robinson Organization- Climate Justice. It is the injustice of climate change that she finds so striking. Is that it affects the poorest countries and the poorest communities. In the United States, there have been storms that have destroyed the poorer regions. The poorer community is less resilient so it takes longer for them to recover from such great damage that the bad climate has caused them.
After talking to a lot of women she has realized the gender dimensions that are involved in climate change. The roles of women and men are different and she has noticed that it is the women that are “supposed” to be in charge of putting food on the table, have to go get the water and firewood and if there is a drought it makes the situation worse. Climate change is setting back development for poor means of support and she says it impacts women in particular because they are the ones who want to try and keep their families together. Her mission is “to put justice and equity at the heart of responses to climate change, particularly those concerned with how best to respond and adapt to the challenge that it poses for the poorest and most vulnerable peoples of the world.”
An important way that we are different is that she is a very confident woman and had no problem becoming the first-ever woman president of Ireland. She knew that she could do it just as well as any man and do it even better. This happened thirty years ago at a time when gender equality wasn’t understood by everyone. The fact that she put herself out there and did what she wanted and accomplished it greatly says a lot about the person she is. I wish I had that much confidence and it is something that I can hopefully work on in order to make an impactful difference in the world like she did.
An important way that we are similar is that firstly, we are both Irish and secondly that she is very people-centred and is also fighting for a more equitable future. I like that she cares and finds it unfair how people in the poorer communities are the ones that suffer the most from the consequences of climate change. I always help the less-fortunate in any way I can, especially around Christmas time my sister and I always make food and donate toys for people who can’t afford it. I think what she is doing is different and stands out from what other activists are doing because her non-profit is targeting a demographic that people sometimes forget about.
I chose this woman because I liked the fact that she is fighting climate change for the less fortunate, I did my research on a few people beforehand and I just liked how not only did she want to protect the environment but also the people that can’t save themselves from the damage that has been done. A lot of the other women were scientists but I felt like her reasoning hit home.
I think she is a very inspirational woman. She had so much courage to put herself out there and become president. She did what a lot of young women never even thought was possible and made it possible. I define inspirational as someone who has made a difference in our world and is someone we can look up to as a role model.
Works Cited
“Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice.” Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, www.mrfcj.org/.
Robinson, Mary. “Why Climate Change Is a Threat to Human Rights.” TED, www.ted.com/talks/mary_robinson_why_climate_change_is_a_threat_to_human_rights
Marsh, Michael. “Mary Robinson.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 Feb. 2020, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Robinson.
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