UTM student advocates for women’s economic empowerment

Promoting greater economic empowerment for young women worldwide was the focus of an international conference in Australia last month, and representing Canada’s perspective was U of T Mississauga student Estelle Ah-Kiow.

The G(irls) 20 Summit, which took place Aug. 25 and 26 at the Sydney Opera House, focused on how to create more educational and career opportunities for girls and women worldwide. The event mirrors the annual G20 meeting of heads of state, which will take place this November, also in Australia: its delegates are women from the same G20 countries, but also includes representatives from the European and African Unions, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa; and they discuss the same topics — job growth, infrastructure and economic sustainability — as well as the relationship between mental health and productivity. The summit then provides the G20 with its recommendations for ways to fully include women in their countries’ economies.

“If we want leaders to care about advancing opportunities for women, we have to speak to them in a language they care about. They care about the economy and growth, so we focus on tangible, scalable solutions they can use to achieve their growth targets, but in ways that include women,” says Ah-Kiow, 19, a second-year UTM student.

Improving circumstances for women became an important priority for Ah-Kiow a few years ago, after she read the book Half The Sky. It argues that the fight to end the oppression of women and girls is the central moral challenge of our time.

At 16, she began volunteering for Strength Within Girls Group, or Swigg, a non-profit organization focused on building self-esteem and leadership abilities in teenage girls. The organization holds a mix of special events, such as financial literacy workshops and zumba classes, and runs SwiggTalk.com, an online community.

Ah-Kiow also blogs for the Girls Action Foundation, is a member of Plan Canada’s Because I am a Girl speakers bureau, and writes profiles of female entrepreneurs and executives for the online magazine The Next Women.

Ah-Kiow is studying political science (with a focus on international relations) and French literature at UTM, and is working towards becoming a human rights lawyer. She says her education has been helpful to her women’s rights endeavours.

“I’ve been able to learn more about the issues I’m so passionate about, which makes me better able to do the work I’m doing right now,” she says.

At the G(irls) 20 Summit, Ah-Kiow and her fellow delegates participated in workshops on skills such as leadership, communication and business planning; listened to panel discussions featuring CEOs of major companies on the value of promoting more women to executive positions; and networked with leading business, government and non-profit leaders.

The conference is the culmination of a year-long program aimed at cultivating young female leaders that includes mentorship and access to a global network of influential women. The program’s main objective is to provide participants with knowledge and tools to develop social enterprises geared towards enhancing prospects for women that they can implement in their home communities.

In the past, G(irls) 20 participants have gone on to lead, or be involved in, initiatives focused on areas such as teaching technology skills, promoting better access to education and improving HIV interventions. Ah-Kiow’s own ambition is to create a mentorship program for at-risk girls in Mississauga.

“I think it’s common sense that any country’s economy can’t achieve its full potential if it doesn’t engage half of its human resources,” she says. “It’s a complex issue, but when I think about what so many women are doing to change the life of millions, it keeps me going.”