Youth Transforming the Unjust Structures of Society for Women and Girls

For two weeks each year around International Women’s Day on March 8th, thousands of delegates from governments and civil society gather at the United Nations in New York City for the annual Commission on the Status of Women. As part of civil society, faith based organizations such as the Anglican Church send delegates to participate in the Commission. This year, the International Anglican Women’s Network in Canada will be represented by Evie Byrne, a member of St Mary’s Kerrisdale, in the Diocese of New Westminster, at the 58^th Commission on the Status of Women. Evie will be one of three teenagers who will join the thirteen person delegation from IAWN Canada.

Canadian youth delegates with Katharine Jefferts Schori and their chaparone.

This represents a significant increase in the number of young people as a part of the Canadian Anglican group at UNCSW. Beth Adamson, the Anglican Consultative Council’s representative on the UN Working Group on Girls, points out why this is particularly crucial this year: “We are reviewing the Millennium Development Goals this year – and one of the underlying purposes is to be positioned more effectively for the Post-2015 (Development) Agenda.  And that is the agenda that girls today will inherit tomorrow.” The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight priorities for international development that were established following the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. The Anglican Consultative Council in 2005 recognized the implications of the Millennium Development Goals for gender equality in the Church when it passed motion 13-31 stating that it “acknowledges the Millennium Development Goal for equal representation of women in decision making at all levels, and so requests … all member churches to work towards the realization of this goal in their own structures of governance.” The priority theme of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, as alluded to above, is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.” In addition to the three young Canadians, this year’s Anglican group will also include eight teenagers from the Episcopal Church in Virginia and one from the Anglican Church in Papua New Guinea.

Youth leading prayer in the Opening Eucharist

While at UNCSW, these young delegates will attend orientation and events put on by the Working Group on Girls as well as other organizations, according to their individual interests. Through the orientation day, the Working Group on Girls hopes to prepare these young delegates for what is always a busy week of events, and empower them to share their own experiences and opinions with the Commission. One of the first events following orientation is the drafting session for the Girls’ Statement to UNCSW 58 – in addition to the encouragement to speak their mind, this process is also helped along by one of the other fundamental values of the Working Group on Girls, which is to work as collaboratively as possible. The youth delegates, a smaller group within UNCSW, are together not just for training and work, but also for several fun community building events throughout the first week of the Commission.

Praying for the women of the world with Ecumenical Women

Community building and collaboration are also priorities amongst the Anglican group. The girls attending this year have connected with one another and with chaperones ahead of time on Facebook. They were also be asked to collaborate on preparing and leading intercessions for the Opening Eucharist of the Anglican Communion delegation. During CSW, the Anglican group works with Ecumenical Women, a coalition of progressive, Christian, faith-based organizations; we also gather every morning in the Chapel of the Church Center at the UN for worship, led each day by one of the member groups. For the members of Ecumenical Women, our activism and passion for gender justice finds its source in our faith. Morning worship allows us time to reconnect with God and one another and provides us with the strength and energy for the important and often difficult work of the Commission. It is also an opportunity for celebration of the achievements we have made together towards the goals of gender justice.

But the work of the delegates is not limited to the two weeks of the Commission. There is a great deal of preparation before anyone even arrives in New York. They must prepare reports on what contributions they hope to make to the Commission and how the priority theme connects to their own life and experience. In her letter to IAWN Canada, Evie spoke about how gender inequality in her school has affected her: “I play rugby as a school sport and with a community team in the summer…men and women play with the same rules and regulations.  Rugby empowers women as it proves men and women can achieve the same goals and participate in the same activities…The Vancouver School Board does not yet promote or support rugby as a sport for girls.  It is taught in gym class for boys,…but it is not taught in gym class for girls.  Even at a community sport level, women’s rugby teams who play internationally have to pay their expenses, with little support from the Rugby Union of Canada, or sponsors…” Evie cited this as one of several examples of how the school environment treats people unfairly according to their gender identity or expression.

In addition to these reports, prior to their trip, delegates from Canada, must find ways to cover the cost of their trip to UNCSW which for someone traveling from Vancouver can reach $2500 for just one week in New York. This can be especially challenging since in Canada, there is no national source of funding to support delegates participating in UNCSW and in most Dioceses there is no money earmarked for this purpose and so funding is dependent on what is available in discretionary funds. Since being able to find one’s own funding is actually a condition of being chosen as a delegate, this places participation in UNCSW outside of the financial reach of many people, for example youth and young adults.

Evie and other youth set up for her fundraising lunch.

The situation is not without hope, however, as parishes and individuals have stepped up to provide funding for delegates. This year, St Mary’s Kerrisdale has been the base of operations for fundraising to cover the costs of Evie’s trip. With the help of the combined youth group from St Philip’s Dunbar and St Mary’s, Evie hosted a fundraising lunch on Sunday, February 2^nd at St Mary’s. She also made and sold cookies after Church on Sundays, which then inspired more generous bakers from the parish to make and donate baked goods for her to sell each week. These different kinds of support offered to Evie by many generous people are all ways in which we are living out the Marks of Mission. Through these efforts, we are seeking to transform the unjust structures of society which have prevented the voices of many women and girls from being heard and valued.

Evie, along with Caitlin Reilley Beck, Youth and Family Worker at St Philip’s, Dunbar in Vancouver, and this year’s official Primate’s delegate to UNCSW, will share their experiences from New York at an event supported by their Diocesan chapter of the International Anglican Women’s Network, presently coordinated by the Ven. Ellen Clark-King sometime later in the spring.