Women in the house
Teenage girls redesign democracy at NSW girledworld Future of Work Summit
In the age of #Trump and a world that sees increasing polarisation and schoolyard squabble politics designed to divide rather than unite, more voices and organisations are rising up on and offline in support of more inclusive, diverse and representative political systems to address the most complex issues of our times.
We decided to take matters into the hands of 100’s of teenage high school girls who joined us at the girledworld NSW World of Work Summit in partnership with the University of Sydney in 2019.
Students were set an all-day #DesignThinking challenge - How do we redesign Democracy for the Real World? - and worked in teams to design solutions and present to a panel of judges from SheEo, Telstra, Sydney startup accelerator muru-d, Fishburners - Australia's largest co-working community for #technology #startups at Jobs For NSWSydney Startup Hub and White Light Education.
Students from across NSW were immersed in the politics and gender debate, global and historical trends and deficits in democratic models, and the current systemic barriers and biases preventing women and girls from entering and participating in politics.
At the time, the announcement by Minister #KellyO’Dwyer - one of the most senior women in the Liberal Government - that she would not recontest the next election, #JulieBishop’s Cabinet resignation and the continuing lack of diverse representation in Australian politics provided plenty of real-world contextual material for students to work with on the day!
girledworld was excited to partner with Women For Election Australia (WFEA), a not-for-profit, non-partisan organisation encouraging and supporting more women to succeed in Australian politics, for this girledworld WOW Challenge, and to also feature keynote speakers including #Wentworth by-election candidate Licia Heath, CEO of WFEA, and Sonia Palmieri - UN Women policy specialist, PhD in Gender and Parliament, author, global parliamentary advisor and Adjunct Associate Professor with the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra.
Other #girledworldsummit 2019 #DesignThinking Challenge partners included Microsoft Australia (Closing the STEMder Gap presented by Rita Arrigo - Microsoft Chief Digital Advisor) and Virgin Australia (Air Time: Upping Diversity in the Aviation Industry presented by Libby Armstrong - Virgin Australia Public Affairs Manager).