Creating the next generation of female leaders: G(irls)20 and its empowering impact on young women
Globally there are still 37 States in which women account for less than 10 per cent of parliamentarians, including 6 chambers with no women at all. We live in the 21st century and yet worldwide there are only 3% to 4% female CEOs, the gender pay gap hasn’t been reduced as women still earn 24% less than men and some countries won’t even allow girls to go to school.
Sadly enough investing in girls and women actually benefits countries, strengthen companies and boost economies:
Companies with the most female managers turned a 34% higher profit, when 10% more girls go to school a countries GDP increases by 3% on average, if women had the same access to land as men world hunger would be reduced by 150 million people and if countries and companies around the world work to ensure women reach their full economic potential, global GDP could increase by $12 trillion by 2025.
Girls and women should be able to participate fully in the economic growth, political stability and social innovations of their countries. G(irls)20, a Canadian based, globally active organisation (launched in 2009 at the Clinton Global Initiative),made it to their mission to advance the full participation of girls and women globally through their economic and educational empowerment.
Background
G(irls)20 is the first social profit enterprise to advocate that female labour force participation (FLFP) be a key element of G20 priorities and actions. The Summit brings together one delegate from each G20 country, plus a representative from the European and African Unions, the MENA region, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to discuss the same topics as the G20 Leaders, but the participants are all girls, aged 18-23.
Delegates attend workshops and participate in panel discussion with local and global experts. The purpose is to produce a communiqué with solutions towards increasing FLFP rates, which is then presented to G20 Leaders for their consideration.
There have been 6 Summits so far: Toronto, Canada (2010); Paris, France (2011); Mexico City, Mexico (2012); Moscow, Russia (2013); Sydney, Australia (2014); Istanbul, Turkey (2015).
The 7th Annual G(irls)20 Summit will be held in Beijing, China on August 8th & 9th, 2016.
Phoebe Price, English Literature student at Durham University is the UK delegate of 2016. She heard about the programme only a week before the deadline and had to work hard in order to complete the application form and express all of her ideas in time. The effort paid off and the organisation couldn’t have chosen a more suitable participant.
Phoebe is a blog editor and a college representative for the University. She also petitioned in the community to collect signatures which were subsequently sent to David Cameron to encourage him to accept more refugees.
“Giving women equal opportunities is such an important issue relevant in all countries today. Every girl has so much potential, if you want global progress you need to listen to more than half of the population,” she says.
The empowering impact on young women
Discussing the barriers for women around the world with other delegates widens perspectives and inspires more innovative thinking about how the world can work together to create change and help women globally progress. And this doesn’t stop once the Summits are over, as Charlie Liang, 2014 delegate for China, confirms: “The best thing is probably the great community we have formed. We still talk from time to time to update each other on life progress, arrange reunions, and inspire each other.”
What to expect is uncertain, but each girl is confident about a cause, which they want to fight for. Phoebe hopes that the summit will give her the skills, understanding and experience to make her ideas about how to help women achieve equality a reality: “If we are to achieve gender equality in labour force participation society’s view of caring roles needs to change. The government needs to invest in paid care and also make it easier for mothers to return to work.”
As studies show, gender biases and stereotypes still affect the hiring rate for women. Phoebe aims at inspiring people to embrace the idea – in both men and women – that women could solve national and global issues. “People need to become aware of their prejudices before acting to change them.”
She also hopes “to encourage women to believe in themselves and strive for opportunities, contribute their ideas in discussions and be confident to overcome barriers and push their career path.”
Creating the next generation of female leaders
Previous delegates have already achieved what Phoebe is dreaming of and the programme has played a big part in who they are now and the causes they fight for.
Ayendha Kukuh Pangesti, was the 2014 Indonesian delegate. She comes from a small village in Indonesia and is the first person in her family to go abroad. The programme encouraged her to make a change in her community, she said.”Women have an important role in terms of a country’s stability. When you educate women it means you educate generations.”
Once Caterina Milo, the 2014 Italian delegate, found out about the G(irls)20, she felt empowered by others’ success stories and initiatives and began researching information about the everyday struggle for gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and girls.
After the summit
G(irls)20 encourages the delegates to continue to fight for the cause and supports every participant that wants to make an impact outside of the Summit:
After the Summit in Australia, Caterina has been in the process of launching her own non-profit organization. Through interdisciplinary and interactive events, she wants to inform young people in her community on the importance of human rights.
Likewise, Phoebe will be launching an initiative to help empower girls and women in England, which will give her the opportunity to make a difference to the progress of women in society. Its aim is to increase women’s knowledge, skills, confidence and self-belief.
“Be ambitious and believe in yourself; if you work hard and have confidence in yourself then you will overcome any barrier that comes your way.
“If anyone says you can’t do something, prove them wrong. Learn as much as you can about the world, participate in discussions and take every opportunity available to you” (Phoebe)
“Be an example. Be brave. Be vocal. Sometimes all that we need is to see someone else do what we feel is impossible and to realise that it’s not as hard as it seems.” (Caterina)
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