Unlocking Girls’ Leadership Starts with Asking the Right Questions

Sometimes asking a simple question — and truly listening to the answer — can be a powerful catalyst for change. Questions, and the information they unearth, can also nurture great leaders. Without them, we risk missing profound insights that can only come from those with lived experiences.

For example, in India, many girls leave school even though education is free and compulsory to age 14. Some will marry at a young age, despite national laws enacted to safeguard them. At a school in Rajasthan, girls were regularly dropping out, but it wasn’t clear why until we asked a 13-year-old girl.

She revealed that a nonfunctional door on the toilet made her and other girls feel uncomfortable and unsafe using the bathroom. Simply fixing the door could have kept dozens of girls in school. Only she could explain what was truly at stake.

As funders, it is not enough to declare support for youth programming and girls’ empowerment initiatives. We must invest in transformative change that starts with, and revolves around, young people's ideas, voices and demands. This means seeing young people as the experts in their own lives.

By tapping into young people’s expertise and investing in girls’ leadership, including basic skills such as communication, self-confidence, problem solving and teamwork, we can create programs that more accurately reflect and meet their needs. It is not about simply giving young people power, but rather helping them unleash their own power and develop the skills to change their circumstances.

For more than two decades, the foundation where I work, EMpower, has fine-tuned a participatory grantmaking model to create the conditions for change powered by young people. We began this journey with Adolescent Girls Learning Communities, safe spaces where girls collaborate to solve immediate problems in their communities. We then set up a Girls Advisory Council, bringing girls into EMpower’s governance structure, so that their voices and perspectives can help guide our programmatic strategy. Finally, we offered, and continue to offer, capacity-strengthening support to grantee partners, working closely with them to create girl-centered programs.

We were able to weave all three of these initiatives together in Rajasthan in 2022, where we supported 10 programs to improve educational outcomes and reduce the prevalence of child marriage.

It was through this work that we learned about the broken bathroom door and other important information about what matters most to girls, including the need for better access to menstrual products in schools. When we create space for girls to safely articulate their challenges and desires, the solutions will come into focus.

There are many reasons why child marriage remains prevalent in India despite being illegal. Indra, a youth participant in one of the programs in Rajasthan, shared that the first people who hear that their friends are getting married are other girls. With the right allies and support, the circle of friends can take action based on what they learn, convening youth parliaments to discuss the problem throughout the community, meeting with the village council, and gathering signatures to change local laws, among other activities.

On a recent site visit, I listened as a girl shared her experience reporting a child marriage for the first time. She went to the local police and tried to tell what she knew to the first officers she saw. They sent her away without listening and even harassed her about being out of school and unaccompanied. Undeterred, she came back the next time prepared with evidence and a formal complaint that was signed by others, including adults. She asked to speak with a higher-level official, demanded to be heard and presented her case. This time, she was offered a chair and taken seriously.

In this way, girls are not just identifying problems but are actively pursuing solutions to address the barriers they face. And they are the ones working to hold the people and institutions charged with their care accountable. This can be quite powerful because in too many places, when a girl looks at her own life, all the major decisions — including education, marriage, health practices and more — are made by somebody else. Even most well-meaning NGO programs are led by “experts” making decisions on her behalf.

That’s why it is vital for funders to be intentional about ensuring that girls’ concerns, voices and knowledge are central. This process can take time, and the path may not be linear. But as girls work to break down old ways of thinking, they begin to shift family and community dynamics in big and small ways.

Meaningful youth engagement and girl-led activism takes focused dedication and resources, but if we ask the right questions, listen to the answers and commit to acting upon the information we glean, we ensure our investments will truly transform girls’ lives and communities.

As one seemingly small question leads to the next, so does one seemingly simple answer also lead to the next. Before we know it, we have arrived at the big changes we all want to see.

Jayanthi A. Pushkaran is the senior programme officer for adolescent girls at EMpower–The Emerging Markets Foundation. She plays a critical role in building the girls’ portfolio in India, including leading and managing the expansion of The Adolescent Girls Learning Community Initiative and The Girls Advisory Council Framework.

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