Although the issues that women face are widespread and pervasive throughout every step of a woman’s career, programs exist that are currently helping to create the opportunities and awareness that women need to change the system rigged against them. These programs are one step in the right direction however, they cannot address every issue by themselves. By teaming up and reaching out, we can help these programs not only become better at what they do but offer more extensive learning and growing opportunities for women in the workplace. It starts with understanding which sector each of us can have a direct impact on, whether in policy by government, corporate leaders, or even as an individual.

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The Sacred Valley Project (SVP), based in Peru, is a multifaceted program partnering with She’s The First that aims to provide the missing links for young girls to gain the skills to become leaders as they grow in the workplace. With over 75% of Afro-Peruvian girls never graduating from secondary school, gaining an education is the first hurdle for girls to even consider a career in the long term (Márquez, 2018). SVP takes out the hassle for young girls living in rural Andean areas who would otherwise not be able to get to school, like Nadya Carbajal Condor an SVP student who wants to become a doctor, “I used to walk every day from my house to school. I would usually leave my house at 10 in the morning and arrive at noon. Leaving school, I would walk very far and arrive at home at 8 o’clock at night” (Ball, 2013).

 

By providing an education center and dormitory living, girls in SVP finally have the opportunity to focus on their studies in a nurturing environment without worrying about the costs of getting to school. The students are allowed to have the weekends off to spend time with their families, or for students whose communities are too far away to commute, full-time boarding is also available. 

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The way SVP have setup their curriculum and integrated the community is a wonderful example of how empowering leaders can lead to the enrichment of many lives around them. Specifically, they hire local Quechua teachers who help to create locally relevant curricula that provide a leapfrog effect where the students can not only pass secondary education but have the skills to increase their wealth over time. UNICEF reports that an extra year of secondary school has proven to boost girl’s eventual income an additional 15-25% (Senanayake, 2011). This shows how starting early with teaching girls workplace skills is imperative to their growth as they begin to see future possibilities widen for them. On top of improving the lives of the young girls who come as students, SPV’s work empowers community members which both provides jobs in the area and opens new doors for young girls to attain jobs after graduating the program. These girls would otherwise have a multitude of barriers preventing them from attaining education, blocking them from realizing their fullest potential and allowing the cycle of poverty to repeat itself. Instead, the Sacred Valley Project has created a butterfly effect, which sends ripples down the line by starting to create a positive cycle of education, one from which we can learn the benefits of how to empower one another.

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General education is just one aspect of girls becoming skilled members of the workforce, and in rural areas it often falls far behind the true capabilities that are required of paying jobs in this technology driven economy. With the distribution of resources and training tools, programs who partner with corporations can have a large effect on what girls choose to be interested in for their career. NiñaSTEM Pueden, based in Mexico, is a perfect example of enlightening the next generation with technology can break down gender stereotypes that girls face about what they could do with their career. This program focuses on networking and training events, directly working with corporations to showcase the newest technology and featuring professional women as guest speakers. Their mentoring network is built through partnerships with companies like Lego Education, Google for Education, Microsoft, IBM and the National Institute for Nuclear Research, with every event creating opportunities for girls to workshop with women mentors, learn about robotics, science experiments, programming and mechanics (OECD, 2020). Opening up girls’ minds as to what truly interests them and what is possible for them if they work hard towards their goal is a catalyst for girls’ inclusion in the digital economy. With record-breaking attendance, in early March 2020 over 700 students were able to listen to women mentors from the Mexican Space Agency talk about their experiences with NASA and as pilots. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down all events, NiñaSTEM Pueden have not been able to continue with their workshops since and need to pivot their program to continue to reach those who do not have access to technology.

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Change is powerful with boots on the ground, with corporations and universities actively affecting the growth of young girls, but it is not the only way to affect change when it is needed.

 

Governments can also enact policy that has the potential to create massive change for women who are on the brink of poverty due to closures of the school system or due to necessary quarantining. The United States is one of many to enact more considerations for paid sick leave during the pandemic, requiring fully-paid sick leave for employees who need to quarantine, and partial-paid leave for employees who are unable to work to care for someone in their family who is sick or due to school closures (Ranju et al. 2020). Creating provisions for employers to be able to care for their employees within this emergency setting is extremely important to alleviate the pressure on women so they do not need to show up to work sick or leave any child unattended from school closures. However, these policies leave out the workers in companies with over 500 employees as well as those who work for small businesses, with under 50 employees. This policy only provides a short-term solution as part of the issues that stem from women taking on more responsibility than men with unpaid family care work; it does not tackle the root assumptions and standards of women’s care work being devalued across multiple dimensions of society.