There's obviously not a one-size-fits-all or only-one-time approach, but I think what we need to look at is what girls need at relevant developmental stages. Our research shows that between nine and thirteen, you just see this significant dip in confidence, in taking on leadership roles, in a lot of the things that you would recognize are necessary for successful academic and career attainment.
I should add that our programming really targets marginalized girls in particular, so girls who face other barriers, and these challenges are further amplified for them. A specific example is supporting programming that really connects marginalized girls with strong adult female mentors. One of our programs works up in a first nations community near Fort McMurray. There are all kinds of community challenges there.
In one of the girls groups, they asked girls at the beginning of the group to give the characteristics of a leader. When they were asked, “What's a leader?”, they said a leader was male, and probably old, and white—a very narrow view. By the end of the group, what had really shifted for them was recognizing that they could be a leader in their community, that the leaders were their aunties, and their elders, and their moms.
So shifting that view of what's possible for girls at that age has really significant implications for them as they move into high school and beyond. They need to at least see those paths that are available to them.