What if you were discriminated against because of something you can't change, what if I wanted to kill yourself now because of your gender? What would you do, defend yourself, tell the authorities maybe even threaten me. What if I couldn't? And if I lived in a place where I could kill you just because you were the "inferior" gender and I didn't like something you were doing, guess what that's just not a thing if it were more of a reality. They shot a sixteen year old girl, does anyone care? Her name is Malala Yousafzai. They shot her because she was a girl. What about the three hundred girls who were kidnapped because they were studying? However, those were only the stories that became public. What about the twenty-five year old female who makes $5,000 less than her male counterpart or even the forty year old male who is afraid to report his wife for abusing him because he doesn't want to be seen as an inferior man. That's the gender gap and guess what it will take two hundred and twenty-eight years to close. It will take two hundred and twenty-eight years for women to be completely equal to men and that's just in Canada, this supposedly glorious and free land that has the twentieth smallest gender gap. Did you know? We would have been dead for 160 years, considering that we die of old age. Then I wondered if my peers knew how many years it would take to fully close Canada's gender gap, after asking my classmates, "How many years will it take for Canada's gender gap to fully close?" Only a few managed to guess two hundred. This simply shows how much we don't know about our own situation, much less what the situation is like in other countries. I am... middle of paper... I will save lives and give freedom to many. However, if we continue on our path and do nothing, things will remain the same and perhaps get worse. Women will continue to lag behind men in the world of work, men will be afraid to do “feminine” things, girls will be even less educated than boys, we would live in the world we have now. I told you today, if any of us want to live in a world where men and women are equal, we must act and demolish the standards set by society. But don't sit here and make plans for change, stand up and make that change, you could start by avoiding using the double standard to judge both sexes, you could support gender equality and treat each other equally. With everyone trying to do their part, maybe we'll live in a world where men and women are equal, and I'll do my part and I hope you'll do yours.