October 19, 2011 | Politics and Leadership

Girl Power: Advice for the G20 Leaders from 21 Girl Leaders

By Anna Louie Sussman

In June 2010, a small group of chosen delegates representing the world’s most powerful economies arrived in Toronto, Canada. They were tasked with developing solutions to the international community’s most pressing problems, which they would present to their constituents in a carefully worded communiqué. But the communiqué contained a few surprises: Revisit the portrayal of women and girls in textbooks.  Recognize the double burden women face. Expand access to childcare.  

This is how the delegates of the G(irls)20 Summit proposed to change the world.

This week, a new crop of 21 delegates (one each from the G-20 countries plus one representing the African Union), all aged 18-20, is meeting in Paris ahead of the official G-20 summit in Cannes.  There, leaders of the 20 countries whose economies represent over 80% of the world’s economic output will try and brainstorm their way out of a persistent global morass.

Maybe it’s time they heed the fresh ideas of some of the world’s brightest, most ambitious young women, suggests Farah Mohamed, President of the Belinda Stronach Foundation and the founder of the G(irls)20 Summits.  A former aide to some of Canada’s most senior politicians, Mohamed came up with the idea for the summit while sitting at dinner with five influential, inspiring female friends: Toronto would be hosting the G-20, so why not take advantage of that to amplify girls’ voices?

Companies like Google, Veritas and Norton Rose quickly jumped on board, as did media sponsors like Canada’s leading newspaper, the Globe and Mail. She reached out to over 50 different international organizations working on female empowerment, enlisting their help in soliciting and evaluating applications from the G-20 countries.  


“You have to make sure you have as much diversity as the G-20, if not more,” said Mohamed, speaking by phone from Paris.  “We had everything from the daughter of a coal miner to the daughter of an ambassador. They brought different upbringings and different perspectives.”
After the summit, many delegates returned to their home countries and founded new initiatives.  They stayed in touch via a Google group, sharing ideas and feedback across borders.

This year, the U.S. delegate Tara Suri, a Harvard student from the upscale suburb of Westchester, arrived in Paris at the same time as Mariam Hamidaddin landed from Saudi Arabia.  Together, they navigated their way from Charles de Gaulle to their hotel in town, an interaction and a connection that Suri believes is the start of something big.

“This is about building an international community of women, and women coming together across social boundaries,” she said. “Things like the G(irls)20 Summit allow us to bring together so many perspectives and transcend any singular approach to female empowerment that we may like to espouse.”

Mariam Hamidaddin, for example, faces issues that Suri will likely never have to deal with, beginning with the fact that she can’t go anywhere on her own, due to the wakeel system of guardianship in Saudi Arabia.  Her family has supported her as she has pursued her many interests, from being part of the feminist group Ethmid to her volunteer work with abused children.  She is now studying psychology on a full scholarship to Effat University in Jeddah. 

But she knows she is lucky.

“A lot of women and a lot of families cannot afford to pay a driver,” she points out.

Given the diversity of the issues the delegates confront, how can they agree on a message?  Hamidaddin believes that recognizing this diversity is the first step to formulating a vision that can include all women.

“The first thing I would stress is that women are not all the same,” she said.  “But in the end, we should all have rights to do what we want, and access to things that we want.  Awareness is also key: there are women who don’t know that they lack their rights, who see no problem in not being empowered, and being overruled by a man.”

Suri sees the discussions that will unfold in the next few days and beyond as critical to workable, lasting change.

“When I was younger, I thought passion was enough to sustain me,” she said. “But I know now that conversation, collaboration and intellectual dialogue are how we will arrive at sustainable solutions.”

Those solutions are scheduled to be delivered to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose aide will receive the girls’ communiqué and has promised to put it in his hands.  Free from political constraints, these girls might actually hit on something that will take us forward, muses Mohamed.

“It’s impossible for me to believe they won’t come up with some really innovative ideas,” she said.  “They don’t have any parameters.  They are so ready to think outside the box, and they’re not beholden to anyone.”

Anna Louie Sussman is a writer and editor for the Women in the World Foundation website, and a frequent contributor to major U.S. magazines and newspapers.