Historically, women have experienced limits on anything and everything. Clothing, career choice, education, and marriage. We just celebrated the centenary of women getting the right to vote, which means Women have had this basic civil right for only one hundred years. There are a lot of women in this world who still do not have these rights.

Looking at the statistics, it is clear to see how underrepresented the female population is. I collected some jaw-dropping facts about women in leadership positions:

• In 2011, women held just 1% of the world’s wealth. That means that 99% of the world’s wealth is held by men.
• Out of 199 Heads of State or Government around the world, only 20 women hold the office. That means that 89 percent of the countries in the world are led by men.
• Currently, 10 women are the highest representatives of their countries. This represents 5.6% of the total number of Heads of State in the world. This number represents a slight decrease in comparison with 2017 when 13 women led their countries.
• List of all female presidents current in office
• And even looking at the non-profit world – an arena where woman make up for majority of staff, leadership positions are still mostly held by men.

That raises a question: why do we have so few women leaders? Especially considering girls often seem more likely to do well in school from a very young age then boys.

One reason that is often given for women not making it all the way to the top is that they are dropping out or falling behind in school, university and work to focus on family, but that never stopped men. So why does it stop women? To understand the reason behind, we need to understand what happens when young girls are making their transition to adolescence.

In a HR class I learnt that, prior to adolescence, many girls can voice their feelings and demonstrate a strong sense of self. However, too often this transition is marked with problems surrounding lack of confidence due to the dominant culture ideals and societal pressures for girls to be beautiful, feminine and likeable.  This means little time for a girl to form her own opinions, try out new skills, or safely explore her world. They are further disadvantaged because there is more resistance from adults to listen to girls than boys, especially marginalised girls. As a result, adolescent girls often lose their voices. While for boys, adolescence means greater possibilities and a broadening world, for girls it means greater limitations. ^[1]

I feel that EmpowHER really makes a difference by focusing on early adolescence to enable girls growing in leadership skills and opportunities through mentoring and volunteering. Although it should begin at an early age, leadership training should be continued as they go through puberty. That way, leadership essentials are strengthened, expanded and deepened. By giving girls a chance to continue as volunteers in the Red Cross after the program and teaching them the value of non-formal education this project ensures that girls are continuously empowered. The focus isn’t in building future leaders—it’s about building female leaders for today. If successful, these qualities will follow them into their adult lives as well.

One thing I discovered through my research is that while there are countless articles and references that speak to women’s leadership in general, much of the discussion defines leadership from both a developed-country and adult-business perspective.

So, what exactly is leadership?

A simple definition is that leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Because of that, youth leadership models are based in strengthening young people’s sense of self, develop confidence, provide opportunities for youth to speak out, and play an important role in their communities.

Still, there is also a need to adapt the mainstream definition of what a leader looks like. The “traditional” approach to leadership does not appeal to girls and their desire to improve their world because it normally focus in very masculine features, such as dominance, decisiveness, ambition and competitiveness. This may later translate into women not being receptive to jobs which emphasise these masculine traits. This does not mean that women do not hold these qualities, but that often they don’t view themselves in these terms when they have to describe themselves. This is also true for election processes which are seen as too confrontational to a lot of women. This means, there is a need to adapt the way we see leadership and this should start in youth work. I really liked a definition that I came across during my research; the authors define youth leaders as individuals “who think for themselves, communicate their thoughts and feelings to others, and help others understand and act on their own beliefs.”^[2]

This is what makes EmpowHER special, it gives young girls the chance to contact with female role models. Women they can relate to, aspire to be and that don’t seem unreachable. A leader is often perceived as a CEO, but there is so much more than that to it. Leadership should never be perceived as something hard to reach, but something that anyone is capable of. We can all be leaders in different ways.

I believe we should be teaching young girls and boys that a leader is an active learner who believes that they can make a difference in their world, and who acts individually and with others to bring about positive change.

By Rosa Soares

[1] McLean, T., C. Gilligan, and A. M. Sullivan. Between Voice and Science: Women and Girls, Race and Relationship. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. & Levine, R., C. Lloyd, M. Greene, and C. Grown. Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, 2008

[2] Conner, J., and K. Stroble. “Leadership Development: An Examination of Individual and Programmatic Growth.” Journal of Adolescent Research 22 (3): 275-297, 2007.

With January well underway, and our first set of girls and young women speeding through the programme, we wanted to take a moment to update you on the great things that have been happening in EmpowHER across the country.

As the EmpowHER Youth Engagement Workers, it seems like no time at all since we were starting our new roles at the British Red Cross back in September.  But since then a lot has happened!  

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We’ve kicked off the project with local youth groups throughout the North West, West Midlands, and South West, taken delivery of our fabulous ‘Call to Action’ resources, and best of all we’ve been thoroughly inspired by the energy and creativity of the young women we’ve started working with. 

Here are some snapshots of the brilliant work going on in our EmpowHER regions…

North West

The EmpowHER youth groups Greater Manchester and Lancashire have been teeming with activity in the last couple of months.  The British Red Cross Christmas Card scheme (for more details check out our previous post) caught the imaginations of several groups who all got involved, and the cards were really well-received by the members of the community they were sent to.  Lots of the girls want to continue with the spirit of this Call to Action and have offered to make cards for other occasions.

Learning first aid skills has been a popular choice amongst a lot of the EmpowHER groups, with some planning to take it further and challenging themselves to get as many people as they can to download the British Red Cross First Aid apps – so people in their communities will have first aid skills as their fingertips!  One group are going to use one of their Family Days to get this life-saving message out as far as they can.

It’s been wonderful meeting with the young women and their youth workers, and to get to hear them discussing all kinds of issues.  A big focus for some has been body image, with one group taking a trip to the local shopping centre to look at how advertising and media images might affect women when they shop.

West Midlands

Throughout Coventry, Birmingham, and West Brom, young women and girls from EmpowHER have been getting stuck in to a host of social action activities.  Lots of the girls really enjoyed taking part in the Christmas cards scheme, and one group have been inspired by it to set up a pen-pal scheme through the British Red Cross Independent Living service.

Several groups have been taking part in British Red Cross first aid learning sessions, and are planning to cascade the life-saving skills they’ve learnt to others via posters and social media.  Others wanted to learn about the stigma faced by refugees, and have decided they’d like to run a donation-drive to collect everyday essentials like toiletries for their local Refugee Centre.

On top of all that – anyone popping into the British Red Cross shop in Kings Heath will have had the chance to buy hand-crafted key rings, made and donated by some of our younger EmpowHER girls. 

South West

In the South West, our secondary school EmpowHER groups have been asking the all-important question ‘What is social action?’, as well as tackling some big issues like resilience, how women are portrayed in advertising, and how that affects our body image, self-confidence, and relationships. 

They’ve been exploring what it means to help others, and the impact that social action has on themselves, their immediate communities, and the wider world.  The passion these young women have shown so far is going to stand them in great stead as they pursue their social action activities over the next few weeks.  Some girls might be linking up with British Red Cross groups who work with female refugees and those who’ve experienced gender-based violence, whilst others have shown interest in spreading the word about first aid skills and helping the elderly and vulnerable in their communities.

Our primary school groups have also been really interested in the work the British Red Cross does with vulnerable people who experience loneliness.  They put themselves in the shoes of people who might not have loved ones to spend time with over the holidays, and responded by making dozens of fabulous Christmas cards that for the British Red Cross campaign.

We can’t wait for our next update, when we’ll be able to report on the outcomes of all these great social action projects.  Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton