Approximately 50 students gathered at Seven Palms Thursday, April 3 to watch a screening of the film “It’s a Girl,” which addresses the ongoing issue of the murder of young females because they are not deemed as valuable as males in certain cultures, particularly India and China.
The screening and the following discussion were hosted by five students involved in a small-group communications class and Give Her Life, a nonprofit based in Pasadena.
“It’s just crazy to think that there’s this kind of mindset out there that just ingrains it into people that it’s not OK to have a female baby,” said junior communication studies major Taylor Overton, one of the student organizers.
According to the film, female children are considered a “burden” because when a daughter is married, her family is expected to pay a dowry to the groom.
“Our group is four girls and one guy. But I think for us girls, it’s pretty hard to think about … the simple fact of if we were born in a different country, we could’ve [been murdered],” Overton said.
Senior applied health major Clarissa Prewitt said she attended to support a friend who interns with Give Her Life, but had her eyes opened in the process.
Give Her Life was founded April 2013 by Westmont College alumna Elizabeth Reno.
“If you remove women from society, it kind of affects everybody,” Reno said. “So there are lots of ways that it has global impact, and removing women is what drives a lot of things like trafficking, and child-brides being married to much older men, and bride buying, and even now having millions and millions of Indian and Chinese men [who] will never be able to find wives. … It affects a society to have millions of single men.”
Reno said she is passionate about women being able to bring the best of what they have to offer to their families and their communities. She said she hopes attendees became aware of the effects of gendercide and realized that while the problem is widespread, there is still hope.
“There are ways to be part of helping to create a world where women are valued,” Reno said.