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The MsUnderstood Programme aims to improve local and national responses to young people’s experiences of gender inequality. Check out our website.

Our Version of Events: Engagement, empowerment, feminism and hula hooping!

By Liz Ackerley

In October this year, on International Day of the Girl, the MsUnderstood Partnership held our first annual conference - ‘Our Version of Events’ - at the City Hall in London. The idea behind the conference was to inspire and engage young women and girls by giving them a chance to discuss and develop ideas about the issues the MsUnderstood Partnership exists to explore and challenge: namely young people’s perceptions of gender inequality, sexism and racism across the media and wider society, and the demonisation of young people. Attended by more than 70 young women and girls, the day was hugely inspiring and a great affirmation of how young people can and should be the ones leading positive change. The day was created and lead by young women for young women, featuring presentations and workshops from the Girlguiding movement, the Birmingham Youth Empowerment Project, The Greater London Authority Peer Outreach Team and Imkaan’s Young Women’s Team. Tackling a variety of issues including Human Rights, influencing social policy, engaging girls and young women in politics and challenging discrimination in popular culture, one young women said the conference “Made me feel stronger. That my opinion does matter, that a difference can happen.” 

This notion of moving forward was highlighted in Jinan Younis’ keynote speech where she emphasised how “it’s clear that things need to change, but when the change that needs to happen is so big it seems hard to imagine how we could ever achieve this. But what I’ve realised through these years is that people listen.” She went on to say “We have the power and responsibility to make a change. My experiences are those of one young woman; if we collated all the experiences of the women in this room, it would be too many to ignore. We all have a voice, and we’re all capable of making a difference.” Listening to young women and girls and giving them the space and encouragement to speak out is what ‘Our Version of Events’ was all about and many girls and young women commented on the event saying they “Felt comfortable to speak out and say my views.” And that it was a “Positive and inspirational day. I learnt a lot - I’m now even more ready to make changes and create a difference.”

One young woman, Lisa Fontanelle, has decided to set up her own event in the new year inspired by the conference. In her own words she explains what the event is about: “I am in the process of setting up an event called WOW, which stands for ‘Women of Worth’. The idea is to celebrate influential women in the workplace and so far we’ve got some really inspiring and successful young women lined up to speak, be it an author, an MP or an engineer.  We’re planning to have activities, and there will be a wall of inspirational women throughout history depicted in comic strip form which my friend and I are currently working on.” Lisa said she found the day “a real eye opener” and the Q&A session with our panelists made a particular impact: “Before the conference I thought feminism was all about women who hate men. But listening to people speak at the conference I came to realise that actually it’s about women who want the same rights as men and want to be equal. Feminism should be about us as women empowering other women: we are too quick to bring each other down when we should be coming together.”

One of the main themes to come out of the conference was the word feminism and its meaning for different people. The media paints a confusing picture: some women who come out as feminists are greeted positively as a ‘fresh-face of feminism’, whereas others are slated for being ‘tokenistic’ and missing the point. And the voices of women who seek to advance a more inclusive and intersectional feminism are often very underrepresented and ignored in the mainstream media (See Reni Eddo-Lodge or Kimberle Crenshaw for a wider discussion of intersectional feminism). As it was for Lisa, a highlight for many of the young women and girls who attended the conference was the Q&A session between the young women and girls and the panel members, made up of Akima Thomas (Clinical Director of the Women and Girls Network), Dinah Cox, Baljit Ubhey, Alison Wheeler (Participation Officer for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner) and Carlene Firmin. Both the young women and girls and the panel members commented that they enjoyed the interesting and intergenerational discussion. One of the questions asked was ‘Would you describe yourself as a feminist and why?’ There were a variety of different responses, with the main message being that there is no prescribed model for being a feminist. Despite feminist often being seen as synonymous with man-hating ‘ugly’ women who wear comfy shoes and don’t care about their appearance, what the women on the panel showed us is that feminism can be for everyone. Some feminists shave, some feminists don’t; some feminists wear high heels and makeup, some feminists don’t; some feminists get involved in big campaigns and shouting at politicians, others challenge patriarchal stereotypes in a quieter individual way - there is no right or wrong. Despite the bad press that the word gets, if you believe in establishing and defending equal social, political and economic rights for women then there’s no reason you can’t identify with the word or the movement, it’s not an exclusive club after all!

In an interview following the conference, Dinah Cox describes her feminist roots: “When I was young I read lots of books and in the books the boys did really interesting things, and the girls had shit rubbish things to do so I thought I wanted to be a boy! But then I realised that it wasn’t being a girl that was the problem, it was society’s view of what a girl was supposed to be that was the problem. And so I started to see that other, older women had similar views and that there was this thing called feminism out there and so I read up more and more about this, and saw that by organising and joining with others and giving it a name you empower yourself and the other people around you and so I then I decided that I was a feminist.” Dinah added that for her a central tenet of feminism must be intersectionality: “There’s an important element about race and gender and where they overlap. As a black woman, I think it’s important to identify who you are yourself, and then organise and work with groups of people who share the oppression that you’re under to overcome it. To me it’s not just about being a woman, it’s about being a black woman, about how others identify us and use those things against us, when in fact they are amazing things and they are things we should celebrate and that makes me proud of being a black woman.”

Lisa found Dinah’s comments very inspiring, saying “what she said totally resonated with me. I liked the honesty with which everyone spoke about these issues.” Dinah herself said that on the day her inspiration came from the young women facilitating and attending the conference: “Asaybi (from Birmingham Empowerment Project) was  doing such great work in bringing on the men and boys and educating them as well as giving a voice to young women..The Girlguiding movement has changed since my day and seems much more forward thinking…Carlene (Firmin), I think she’s an amazing person and I find her very inspirational.” Carlene’s first boss was Dinah and she in turn learnt a lot from Dinah who really encouraged her to develop and grow her ideas. Asaybi, who was an intern at MsUnderstood said she found the whole day inspiring, “I loved hearing different views on the term ‘feminism’ and how each speaker explained how they are a feminist in their own right [with or without the label]. But what I loved most was hearing all the positive works women and girls have been doing in the UK.”

‘Our Version of Events’ was a celebration. It was a celebration that there is growing recognition and support of the need to address gender-based violence against girls and young women. It was a celebration of the girls and young women who campaign tirelessly for positive change and who are getting somewhere with their goals. It was a celebration of youth, identity and what being a girl or young woman in today’s society really means. And it was a celebration of what is to come - watch this space.

Lisa Fontanelle and friend at the conference.

Paris, a previous intern shows off her hula-hooping skills!

The Q&A session in the main chamber of the town hall