Letting The Leader Shine (Equity and Women's Services)

The concept of a Girls’ Leadership Conference sprang from a successfulthree-day Girls’ Leadership Retreat with 80 Grade 7 girls. These same girls and eight teachers who attended the retreat were also invited toattend the conference.

By inviting the retreat participants to theconference, organizers intended to meet some specific goals. The first was to provide a venue where the participants could reconnect with each other, re-energize, and reignite the leadership skills they had begun to develop at a retreat sponsored by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in the fall. The second was to offer workshops that would give the girls the knowledge and skills they could use to transform the world they live in. Thefinal goal was to compare the effects of a one-day conference with a three-day retreat.

The Elementary Teachers of Toronto and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario provided financial support. Katrina Kenny and Dara Schwartz, (in photo above) teachers with the TDSB, were the organizers.

The retreat featured indirect approaches to develop leadership and communication skills, and promote self-confidence. The girls participated in co-operative games, team and individual challenges, and outdoor education activities. The conference, on the other hand, aimed to promote leadership by tackling gender-based issues directly in four interactive workshops.

In one workshop the young women discussed abuse against women, and were helped to identify the signs of abusive relationships. A second workshop got them kicking and punching as they learned self-defence moves, which empoweredthem and enhanced their self-confidence.

A third workshop highlighted healthy eating and active living while challenging the stereotypes of women’s bodies our society presents. The fourth helped the girls illuminate their personal strengths and interests, matching them with a wide variety of career options.

The goal of both initiatives was to support young women as they travel through the murky waters of adolescence. The events were designed to invoke a sense of leadership through self-reflection, empowerment, and confidence, and to promote academic achievement. The development of these leadership attributes, along with the increased support network established between many of the girls, dovetails with decreased aggression in relationships andother at-risk behaviours.

To determine which initiative was more effective, some of the girls were interviewed and all of them, as well as the teachers who attended, completed surveys. The preliminary results demonstrate that overall the retreat had a strong influence on skill development. Activities which actually required girls to display bravery, camaraderie, and compromise appeared to instill in them a better sense of what it means to be a leader.

These results do not mean that we should no longer organize one-day conferences for students. The data collected from the conference indicate that it did have a positive impact. However, the experiences of the retreat may be moreeffective at achieving these goals.