The campaign against gender stereotypes #NOMOREGRINGE kicked off on TikTok in Ukraine

TikTok recognized the Ukrainian campaign #NOMOREGRINGE as an impactful and influential project. Officially, 15 most popular TikTokers of Ukraine, 15 opinion leaders from business, public sector, television, and more joined the campaign. They chose the theme of their video from a collection of more than a hundred common stereotypes. Their bias-eliminating videos are available on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, with the official hashtags of the #GRINGE, #NOMOREGRINGE campaign.

The #NOMOREGRINGE hashtag is a neologism originating from the slang word Cringe, a feeling of embarrassment and shame, and the letter "G" from the English word "gender". Gringe is a shame and embarrassment that you feel when someone applies gender stereotypes or voices them.

The very idea of implementing the project arose after a survey of 175 teenagers aged 13-19 years from 25 cities of Ukraine, that was conducted within the framework of the program "EU for Gender Equality: Together Against Gender Stereotypes and Gender-Based Violence", with the support of the EU in conjunction with UN Women and UNFPA. 66.3% of them experienced gender bias towards themselves, 47.3% faced discrimination in various forms, while 53% of Ukrainian teenagers would like to learn more about gender equality issues so to recognize and struggle with gender stereotypes.

"Deep seated discriminatory norms, stereotypes and prejudice remain pervasive, thus holding back women and girls from realizing their rights. We all learn very early on the expectations and limitations of our gender roles, and they are deeply embedded in our social, political and economic structures. Definitely the changes will happen, not overnight, but incrementally and steadily", – comments Erika Kvapilova, UN Women Ukraine Country Representative.

The problem of stereotypes in society is much deeper than individual reactions in response to societal pressure. "A woman has no place in business or IT", "Didn't fight - not a man", "Men don't take good care of children, it's a mother's job, not a father's", "Cooking is only for women". This artificial distribution of gender roles has a very negative impact on society, political, and economic progress as a whole. People feel ashamed, have to comply with social expectations, and fail to be their true selves. Society, in turn, loses so many talents that could be manifested in various fields and areas.

"Biases, prejudices and, as a result, discrimination, create toxicity, reduce productivity, creativity and innovative potential of people and systems. The first step in overcoming any problem is its recognition. That is why we launched the project that, with the voices of 30 influencers from different fields and generations, will show the rudimentary perceptions that influence the behavior of millions of people, - comments Iryna Rubis, founder of Biasless and author of #NOMOREGRINGE.

Opinion leaders, business leaders, TV presenters and actors also joined the campaign, including:

Hector Jimenez-Bravo, Judge of the MasterChef project; Andriy Pyshny, Chairman of the Board of the OschadBank (2014 -2020), founder of the NGO "Vidchui"; Monroe, TV presenter, blogger, public figure; Dmytro Shchebetyuk, public figure, founder of Dostupno.UA; Hryhoriy Reshetnik, TV presenter ("The Bachelor", "The Bachelororette"), actor; Yana Brenzey, host of "Vikna-News"; Julia Zoriy, host of "Morning in the big city"; Volodymyr Yaroslavsky, co-owner of the restaurant “LUCKY”, judge of the MasterChef Ukraine project; Oleksandra Kucherenko, host of "Morning in the Big City"; Oksana Gutzeit, journalist, radio and TV presenter; Serhiy Kostyra, host of the "One for All" project; Olena Voznesenska, actress; Albina Pererva, actress; Olga Martynovska, Judge "Master Chef. Professionals 2"; Nadiya Matveeva, TV presenter.

About the campaign:

The campaign was developed and implemented by the Biasless team - an educational platform to combat gender stereotypes, in the framework of the "EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence" programme, funded by the European Union, implemented jointly by UN Women and UNFPA. This video was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.