UN ad campaign uses Google to show how world really feels about women

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‘Time for fathers to make room for daughters to come through’

A campaign from UN Women places popular search terms about women in front of portraits and brings the social media to a rude awakening.

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To highlight the extent of global gender inequality, UN Women known as a division of the UN that focuses on women’s issues has created a dynamic advertising campaign that uses data collected from Google on the most popular search terms. As it turns out, the most popular Google queries are indicative of deep-rooted sexist attitudes that still persist in society today.

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This ad, created for the United Nations Women campaign has caused a stir in the media and after looking at the ads one is left with a rather unpleasant taste as you realise that the Google search boxes are the results of genuine searches, although the ad-crafting and Googling were all done by Christopher Hunt at Ogilvy & Mather in Dubai. Ogilvy has won numerous awards in South Africa for ad campaigns.

About the ads, Hunt states:

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This campaign uses the world’s most popular search engine (Google) to show how gender inequality is a worldwide problem. The adverts show the results of genuine searches, highlighting popular opinions across the world wide web.

In the four pictures used in the campaign three points speak to women in church. One stating women should not speak in church and the other stating they should not be bishops. This shows that abuse and women’s rights in the church are being exposed on a global scale now and it is not just violence against women being brought to light but a heart condition toward women and their roles in this era in the church.

This is not an opportunity for women in the church to scream and shout: “Give us the pulpit and our rights!” This is an opportunity for fathers of the faith to step up and make room for daughters to come through. That is true covering and true submission. I have seen this in the church time and time again and have sat down with pastors who have told me how they felt women should be silent. I never debated but listened and took in what they were saying. It is not for me to fight with anyone but to wait to see how God unravels His heart. I have been given such a great opportunities to preach alongside men and women of God and to sit under great leadership. The truth is if the church does not make room for women they will go elsewhere. In every sphere women are coming to the front, so why not the church? The Church looks at one scripture written years ago when women were not educated at all and believes that enforcing that will suffice when in fact we have to read it in context.

“…as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” — 1 Cor 14:33b-35 (NIV)

These women were not the women of today and to enforce this on a generation like this would not show Jesus but would look like control. We have female presidents ruling nations. Did we forget about Deborah, Esther and Miriam? The Church needs to look different from the world out there. It needs to be a place where women are esteemed and acknowledged. Kathryn Kuhlman changed Church history not because she was a woman but because of how God was with her. The question of whether women should preach cannot not be based on their sex but on them showing themselves approved in the Word of God and seeing the anointing of God resting on them. Jesus always made mention of the women and the Bible is full of mention of women in different positions and I believe this is the era of God redeeming his daughters and saying: “Your voice matters.” Let the Church lead the way in saying the oppression on women is not acceptable and let us show what liberation looks like.