GiGL: Girls in Government and Leadership

Alanna Newmanby Alanna Newman, Founder and President

Take a moment to think about the top politicians in Canada.  There’s Stephen Harper, Bob Rae, and Thomas Mulcair.  But something is missing.  Despite the fact that half of all Canadians are women, only a quarter of elected representatives in Canada are women.  Taking a moment to look at the Premiers across Canada, all but four are women.  This is not an issue of any particular party, and indeed, individuals from across the political spectrum need to be a part of the solution. 

Girls in Government and Leadership, or GiGL for short, was founded to combat this problem from a grassroots level.  We know that elected politicians are leaders in our community.  We know that women are capable leaders.  And we know that there are issues facing girls that prevent them from becoming the strong leaders that they can be.  GiGL aims to instill a love of politics, an interest in government, and a passion for leadership within girls in high school.  We have planned a diverse series of workshops that deal with topics including the political spectrum, public speaking, debate, political involvement, government structure, leadership, and self-empowerment.

GiGL is set apart from many other groups that encourage young women to be leaders because we have a strong commitment to the political sphere.  We have planned six informative workshops, each of which deals with a different issue related to political involvement.  We place a strong emphasis of presenting each political party in an unbiased fashion, and giving the girls we will work with the tools needed to make an objective decision about the party or political ideology that is the best fit for them.  We also place a strong emphasis on public speaking, which is why our workshops will all include a discussion element.  We know that an important factor of leadership is clear communication skills, including an ability to articulate opinions and ideas.  GiGL places a central focus on encouraging discussion and collaboration- as opposed to arguments. We’ll include public speaking, self-esteem, policy, and the role of government, advocacy, and media in our workshops.  We know that there is more to politics than elected office, and intend to show that through our programming.  To bring it all together we are planning a conference, inviting girls from across South-Western Ontario to participate.  Not to leave behind young women in university, we plan to host a speaking event each month on campus that will aim to bring together young women from across the political spectrum to discuss contemporary issues.

GiGL has some big plans for this year. I encourage you to follow us on Twitter @GiGL_Tweets, “Like” us on Facebook, check out our website http://gigl.sa.utoronto.ca/about/ .  If you are interested in supporting GiGL financially, please contact us at gigl.uoft@gmail.com.  Help us to inspire girls to be all they can be!