Knowledge is Power-Start Early

What great ideas!

My take on empowering women is to start early and concentrate efforts on improving a girl's self image.

A healthy, positive self image is the basis of developing a healthy attitude where a girl will empower herself by making principle-based decisions on her beliefs and values and she will also have the confidence to dream big.

One way of doing this is to introduce leadership building workshops into all school curriculums across the globe. Knowledge is power, and if we empower young women with leadership training within existing school systems, it will result in a paradigm mentality shift.

This leadership training should involve some of the following components to ensure a well-balanced curriculum:
- Exploring and prioritizing one’s own values/beliefs/interests so that young women can be encouraged to use them as a compass when making decisions.
- Providing a safe, comfortable environment where young women are encouraged to share their concerns and possible solutions with one another. This peer-on-peer connection will foster dialogue about tough issues and empower young women to help one another.
- Educate young women about existing mentorship programs, women empowerment organizations and help agencies.
- Allow guest speakers who have overcome great odds or have something of value to contribute to speak to the young women on a regular basis. This will help young women relate to positive role models.
- Dare young girls to think big. Encourage creativity and teach goal-setting techniques such as S.M.A.R.T goals(specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely).

Overall I think every young woman would benefit greatly as a result of regular leadership training embedded into existing school systems. Starting early, during a girl's primary education years, will definitely help her build a positive self-image, a healthy attitude and after that the sky’s the limit!

Can you imagine what the world would look like 25 years from now, if all of today's young schoolgirls had undergone at least 5 years of leadership/empowerment training?