Reaching beyond the glass ceiling
On International Women’s Day, UN resident coordinator Shoko Noda offers a personal insight into issues of gender equality she has faced over the course of her personal and professional life.
08 Mar 2017, 9:00 AM
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Halfway through fourth grade, I opened my report card and saw that my teacher had given me a C for ‘behavior’.
Understandably, it shocked my parents. I had always gotten top grades in class. I was taken aback too. It was when I got the same grade the following semester, and read my teacher’s remarks, that the truth dawned on me. My teacher had written: Shoko is finally improving her selection of words, and has started to behave more like a gentle girl.
I think among other things, I had upset the teacher by climbing trees with the boys during PE class. I was also quite independent-minded and expressed my views in maybe not-so-polite terms. My parents were quite happy when, with a new teacher for the next two years, I went back to getting A grades for good behaviour.
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