Young Creations: a paper on how young women reach leadership positions in civil society organisations

How can young feminist leaderships be created? What is the role of young men and women in civil society organisations? And where are the non-governmental institutions in creating a young leadership? These questions were answered in a research paper discussed during a radio episode within the programme “Youth Creations” on the local Zaman radio, within the project “Research writings in gender and feminism”, implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies with funding from the Government of Canada.

At the beginning of her intervention, the researcher and media figure Hedaya Shamoun affirmed civil society's role during the past decades in development work. She said the division and the political tugs-of-war weakened the work of the non-governmental institutions, and there resulted from that a scarcity of the opportunities available to youth in all fields.

Shamoun pointed out that the men working in civil society institutions are more numerous than the women, who face difficulties that do not exist for the other sex.

She concluded by saying: “The concept of political participation must be deep-rooted in young men and women. And there are many of them who exploited simple opportunities and built themselves.”

For her part, the researcher Heba Sabri said the paper's title is “Mechanisms of strengthening young women's access to leadership positions in civil society institutions”, and it aims to shed light on the reality of young women in non-governmental organisations and to strengthen their obtaining of leadership skills that strengthen their effective participation in leadership positions.

She added: “Although the proportion of young men and women in Palestinian society aged 18–29 years is some 22%, there is a noticeable absence of young women in leadership positions and their assumption of the senior posts at the political, social, economic, and cultural level — as the proportion of young men and women working generally in decision-making centres in civil society institutions does not exceed 1%.”

Sabri reviewed the opinions of many young women in her paper.

But how can young feminist leaderships be created? The researcher answers that the responsibility lies in the first degree with the educational institution, because its curriculum is not flexible and does not include the instruments and methods necessary to hone personal skills; then with the young women themselves, as many fear facing society and this affects their image of themselves as undeserving; then with the institutions concerned with youth and their requirements.

Sabri continued: “It is held against civil society institutions that they do not provide sufficient activities to develop the youth's leadership capacities, and do not give a greater space for youth to take part in their leadership. And we find that there are great, standing challenges before

civil society institutions, such as the political division.”

She made clear that the absence of the creation of young feminist leaderships in the non-governmental organisations goes back to:
the scarcity of educational leadership programmes directed toward young women, the failure to grant young feminist leaderships true opportunities,

and the weakness of the democratic structure in civil society institutions and the submission of some of them to the funder's conditions.

Therefore civil society institutions must adopt mechanisms to strengthen young women's access to leadership positions in Palestinian society, such as: increasing the educational leadership programmes that target young women and empower them in leadership; the necessity of networking and coordination among civil society institutions in an effective manner; their economic and social empowerment through supporting young ideas and projects; and their participation in preparing the programmes and trainings.

The researcher arrived at a conclusion to the effect that there is a plain marginalisation in young women's participation in leadership positions in civil society institutions, which face a totality of challenges and impediments that restrict their principal engagement with youth generally.

The researcher likewise concluded her talk with recommendations, most importantly the necessity of ending the Palestinian division and increasing the effectiveness of leadership programmes and social skills to strengthen the role of young men and women.

The designations used and the presentation of materials in this programme entail no expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Government of Canada

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