A 9-year-old girl named Cash Cayen is fighting sexism from an early age, successfully petitioning to join a "boys-only" robotics course.
The young lady lives in Timmins, Ont., and wanted to sign up for a robotics course at a local library. She was denied access, however, on the ground that she's a girl and the course is only for boys.
The robotics course in question is a "special buys program ages 9-12 years old," as the Timmins Public Library described on its website (the page is no longer available now).
While some little girls dream about princes and ponies and fabulous dolls, this one had her heart set on robotics and was not willing to give up just because she's not a boy. Instead, after speaking with Assistant Library Director Elaine De Bonis to no avail, Cash Cayen started an online petition on Change.org, asking people for help to convince the Timmins Public Library to open up the robotics course to girls as well.
In the petition, the girl explained how De Bonis rejected her request to join the program, arguing that this course was only available to boys because they don't improve their academic and literacy skills over the summer.
"She said I could be added to a waiting list and if enough girls showed interest they could possibly look into offering it to girls in the future," the girl noted in her petition.
"I explained that it was unfair that I was being denied this opportunity simply because I am a girl, but she insisted I could not register."
The petition quickly went viral and has more than 30,000 supporters at the time of writing, far exceeding the young girl's expectations. Following a firestorm of criticism over such gender discrimination, along with the large number of signatures the petition received, the Timmins Public Library has reversed its decision and the robotics program is now open to all children between nine and 12 years old.
The library apologized for the "misunderstanding," according to an update to the petition, and started allowing girls as well to join the course, no longer making discriminations based on gender. In other words, the petition was a smashing hit and served its purpose, while also raising awareness of how important it is to encourage and support girls to participate in science, technology and other such endeavors, from an early age.
