Kofi Annan, the seventh U.N. secretary general, knew empowerment was key in 2005 when he said, “There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.” Turns out it’s good tool for girls in 2016, too.
At least this is what For Girls Global Leadership, or 4GGL, found in its Women’s Empowerment Global Survey. The results, “Voice & Choice: What Young Women Want,” were released this spring. The survey found that 60 percent of the young women interviewed see themselves as the main catalyst for change. What they desire most is personal development that will lead to more control over their lives.
The Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization surveyed 145 females, including adolescent girls and young-adult women, and 22 men from 26 countries, including Australia and those in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and diasporas in the United States. They found that girls need to feel they have a voice and the power to create change in their own lives in order to achieve their personal, educational, societal and career goals. One survey-taker from Jordan said voice is “both our right and duty.” This comment reflects what the survey found that girls strive for, yet in both economically rich and poor countries, only 30 percent of girls and young women use their voice regularly, according to the report. For at least one participant, voice was a “space to speak, and listen with love and understanding.”
[For more of this story, written by Altana Elings and Clara Malekshahi, go to http://womensenews.org/2016/08...werment-study-finds/]
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