High school aged girls in the ACT will today get to hear from inspiring young women leaders to help them identify their own leadership ambitions, thanks to YWCA Canberra’s She Leads College Conference.
This year’s inaugural College Conference was jointly inspired by the success of the broader She Leads conference in 2014 and a survey conducted by the YWCA late last year regarding young women’s attitudes to leadership.
The survey found that while the majority of young women (71%) want and plan to be leaders in their future careers, the majority also feel held back by gender stereotypes. Seventy nine per cent of the young women surveyed said that discrimination affects them in their day-to-day lives.
While the majority said they want to be leaders and fight for greater gender equality, they also said they found it difficult to move forward because of a lack of female role models. Only 23% of the young women surveyed said they currently see effective leadership in Australian public life.
So following the success of the She Leads conference and the disappointing realisation that young women are determined to lead but unsure how to do so, YWCA Canberra decided to host a new conference dedicated to the needs of younger women.
“Overwhelmingly, these women and girls said they needed more support. They asked for government programs that can develop their leadership skills and give them access to leadership roles. They want to see our leaders taking tangible action to combat gender stereotypes and eliminate discrimination on a national level,” YWCA executive director Caroline Lambert told Womens’ Agendain response to the organisations’s survey of young women’s leadership ambitions.
After identifying that these young women needed support in developing their leadership goals, YWCA moved to provide it in the form of the inaugural She Leads College Conference.
The conference is taking place today at the University of Canberra, and aims to “provide a safe space for girls in year 11 and 12 to be inspired by young women leaders, and gain the confidence, knowledge and practical skills to kick-start their leadership journeys”.
A series of high profile panelists will share their stories of both success and failure with the students, in order to help them forge their own leadership identities.
The conference will be hosted by the ACT’s 2015 Young Woman of the Year Zoya Patel, who is also the communications and advocacy director of YWCA Canberra as well as a writer, editor, and founder of her own feminist arts journal, Feminartsy.
The young women attendees will hear the personal reflections of writer and appearance activist Carly Findlay, government data ninja Pia Waugh, horticulturalist and ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman of the year Sally Moylan and Young Vagabond co-founders Haylee Collins and Ashleigh Grogan.
The event will also feature a YoungVagabond workshop. Young Vagabond is a magazine aimed at breaking down gender stereotypes and promoting and supporting women chasing their dreams.
As well as producing the magazine, co-founders Haylee Collins and Ashleigh Grogan run workshops encouraging young people to interrogate the gender stereotypes they see in the media and think more carefully about their own views about men and women.
The conference will also feature inspirational stories and advice from US businesswoman and leadership coach Heather Dawson.