The auditorium at Montreal’s Royal West Academy was full of girls feeling ready to tackle important and complicated problems being faced by women around the world today.
Royal West hosted the launch of the latest edition of the voices of Olympia Canada School Competition. The competition involves female high school students using a human rights approach to reflect on the central theme of gender inequality and its impact on the empowerment of girls and women.
“This is a competition only open to female students to participate in. Their goal is to find a solution to a problem that they see in their community,” explained Marika Bateman, a teacher at Royal West Academy who helped spearhead the initiative at the school.
Teams from nine different schools both public and private decided to delve into an issue women face worldwide. Participants are from schools in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and more. Their mission is to do in-depth research on their chosen subject and come up with solutions. The overarching theme this year is the feminization of poverty.
“We found that a problem that we identified that hasn’t been touched upon is the lack of digital literacy among women, and we want to touch on and find solutions to help,” explained Anaya Ray, a secondary 5 student from Royal West.
The team from Vincent Massey Collegiate is looking into the lack of opportunities for women.
“Compared to men, women usually get less opportunities in education and health, and that leads to the cycle of poverty and a bunch of other issues that need to be addressed,” said Vincent Massey Collegiate student Himali Patel.
Many of those in attendance wore white ribbons because the launch was on the anniversary of the Polytechnique massacre, an anti-feminist attack that specifically targeted female students.
“Just by being here, we’re fighting against that idea that women can’t be in the positions that we are in today,” said Patel.
Their teacher wishes that she would’ve been able to take part in something similar as a school student.
“I was really proud of my students taking the initiative to really spearhead this project on their own,” said Vincent Massey Collegiate English teacher Marisa Demasi.
It’s a year-long project. The teams will make their final presentations in May, and the four best will win bursaries.