Empowering Women to Take Up Meaningful Roles in Industry

According to the International Labour Organization, young women between the ages of 15 and 29 are three times more likely than young men to be neither employed nor in school. And once they are out of the labour force, they tend to stay out of it.

Almost 70 per cent of these young women say they want to work in the future. However, those that do find work often find themselves in the most marginalized segments of the informal economy, no earning enough to be economically empowered or support their families.

On this year’s International Day of the Girl, on October 11, the global community should rethink how we prepare girls for a successful transition into the world of work. The world’s 600 million adolescent girls each have the potential, strength, creativity and energy to meet global industry demands.

Supporting a Skilled GirlForce

• Governments should invest in improving the quality, relevance, and gender-responsiveness of teaching and learning – that includes building transferable skills just as problem-solving, confidence, communication and digital literacy.

• Schools and the private sector should work together to prepare girls for the workforce through mentoring, job shadowing, and apprenticeships that give girls hand-on learning and role models.

• Parents, teachers as well as girls and boys themselves should challenge harmful norms and beliefs that prevent girls from having the same opportunities as boys.

• Last but not least, girls should keep pursuing their dreams and calling out injustice whenever they encounter it.