Young women shadow Trudeau, ministers to close ‘dream gap’

By Katie Jacobs

Plan International Canada, an organization that fights for children’s rights and equalityfor women – recently helped a group of young girls experience their dream jobs to celebrate International Day of the Girl.

Between Sept. 21 and Oct. 11, 18 girls from across Canada challenged heads of organizations over Twitter to share their office for a day, using the slogan #GirlsBelongHere. The campaign was to “bridge the dream gap” and break down gender stereotyping and discrimination women face in the workforce.

Four women, Breanne Lavallée-Heckert, 23, Ainsley Jeffery, 15, Munaza Saleem, 22, and Amy Bing, 19, spent their placements with cabinet ministers on Parliament Hill, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Lavallée-Heckert, a Métis law student from Winnipeg, said she stared at her computer when Trudeau sent a tweet accepting her challenge. She was so overwhelmed, she said, she couldn’t concentratein class that day.

On Oct. 5, she shadowed Trudeau and discussed her chief concerns with him, such as missing and murdered Indigenous women. A vigil commemorating victims and raising awareness had taken place on Parliament Hill a day before.

Lavallée-Heckert said she was always interested in politics and leadership positions. However, the lack of seeing women in positions of power and not having a female prime minister growing up has stalled her dream

“It was things like, could I be prime minister and also have a personal life …be a mom if I choose to be?” said Lavallée-Heckert. “I think that the dream gap starts from the time we’re little and we’re trying to find women in our dream roles and we don’t always see them.”

In an emailed statement from Eleanore Catenaro, press secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, she said: “The Prime Minister is committed to women’s empowerment … and was excited to participate in the #GirlsBelongHere initiative.”

Lavallée-Heckert said she will continue focusing on finishing law school and her position on Plan International’s youth council. Council members are visiting the New York-based UN Commission for the Status of Women in March.

Ainsley Jeffery, 15, said she was ecstatic to participate and discuss girls and science with Navdeep Bains, federal Minister of Industry, Science and Technology, on Sept. 21.

“I think that women are underrepresented in that right now… I think that there should be no limitations for what a girl can choose as her career path,” said the London, Ont. resident. “It was great talking to the minister about these things so that he can keep that in his mind, as well.”

Jeffery said she is not sure what she will study after she graduates, but will be looking into social or political science and international development.

“Sometimes you don’t find your passion right away, but if you just continue pursuing what you’re passionate about, then you’ll find it eventually,” said Jeffery.

Munaza Saleem, 22, founder of Defeat Denial, an addiction centre and mental health awareness group, and YouthScope.org, an online database for Canadian scholarships and programs, spent her placement with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, on Oct. 4. She said she also spoke with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and other “accomplished and experienced women.”

“They were really encouraging of my career … of not letting any gender barriers get in your way,” said Saleem, a University of Waterloo student from Kincardine, Ont. “Just me being placed in such a role that’s viewed as male dominant …is inspiring …Gender should not be a decoding factor if that’s the career you want to pursue.”

Saleem is in a co-op program in the surgery section at Grand River Hospital. She said that she hopes to combine her passion for government and pharmacy in the future.

Caroline Riseboro, president and CEO of Plan International Canada, said in an email message that the organization is “so proud and inspired by the confidence and ambition with which all of the girls shared these high offices … Girls have immense power and potential and it is imperative that we come together as advocates with and for girls, to ensure discrimination, stereotypes, and inequalities don’t prevent them from achieving their dreams.”