To mark International Women's Day on March 8, UNESCO brought together students from Lycée Notre-Dame des Sœurs Maronites de la Sainte Famille in Sahel Alma (Lebanon), Lycée Général de Moudros in Lemnos (Greece), ICS London (UK) and Lycée de Mbo-Yom in Bandjoun (Cameroon). Together, they explored the challenges of empowering girls and women today, and reflected on concrete actions to promote equality.
é徱Ա St Pern, Associate Communication Specialist at UNESCO's Section for Inclusive Education and Gender Equality, opened the discussion by emphasizing the fundamental role of education in empowering girls. Today, 122 million girls remain out of school, often due to insecure school environments, early marriage or economic disadvantages. The expert also highlighted the importance of including girls in strategic fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), sectors still largely dominated by men and gender stereotypes.
é徱Ա discussed with the students what actions are essential, particularly at school level: adapting textbooks, encouraging co-education in all disciplines (especially science) and clearly asserting the right of girls to study and choose their professional future. At national level, it is also essential to develop public policies that guarantee free education and safe school infrastructures for girls.
Finally, we need to encourage collective mobilization to promote equality, by fully involving boys and men in this cause.
Education is the key that opens all doors
While education is a major lever for girls' empowerment, young women's political involvement reinforces this drive, enabling them to influence decisions and work for change.
Maimouna Dioncounda Dembélé, in Mali, focused on the importance of young women's active participation in decision-making and their under-representation. According to her, this under-representation is evident at two levels: institutional and community. To ensure greater participation by young women, she stressed the need to abolish discriminatory laws and adopt legislation establishing quota-based participation to ensure more equitable representation.
In addition, community barriers hinder women's participation in public and political affairs. Although , it is essential to adapt these rules to local realities by working with communities to share a clear and understandable message about the importance of women's rights. One of the students asked, “Should the role of women be the same everywhere in the world?”. For Maimouna Dioncounda Dembélé, although realities vary from region to region, women's rights remain universal and inalienable.
Intergenerational mentoring is essential for helping young women connect, voice their ideas, and build confidence.
After addressing the political commitment of young women, the discussion turned to entrepreneurship and innovation. Sylvie Locatelli, , shared her expertise on how these fields can be used to promote equality.
“Entrepreneurship is a powerful lever for empowerment, enabling women to turn their ideas into reality and take their place in the economy,” she explains. However, for women entrepreneurs, gender bias and stereotypes limit their access to financing and investor networks. To counter this, innovation offers new learning and networking opportunities to facilitate the emergence of women-led projects. On the other hand, the existence and visibility of women role models in entrepreneurship is essential to inspire and encourage young girls and women to take the plunge.
Students questioned the link between school and entrepreneurship. Sylvie Locatelli explained that education plays an important role in preparing young people to become entrepreneurs. School provides the skills needed to innovate and create, while encouraging speaking up and creativity, qualities essential to entrepreneurial success. She believes that by integrating specific entrepreneurship training, young women can not only develop practical skills, but also adopt a leadership mentality, a powerful lever for their professional future.
The more women embark on entrepreneurship, the more the ecosystem will evolve to become inclusive.
This discussion with the students enabled UNESCO to reaffirm its commitment to reducing inequalities in and through education, empowering girls in science, technology and entrepreneurship, and promoting inclusion and women leadership. By taking an active part in the discussions, students enriched the debates and became aware of their key role in transforming society.
This event was made possible thanks to the support of and the collaboration of
