background

Young Women's lives are different from young men's. Factors such as friendship groupings, education, childcare and domestic responsibilities affect young women's social behaviour, expectations and opportunities. Traditional values, limited employment opportunities and lack of identity as a specific grouping, also contribute to young women being socially excluded. Many young women suffer from low self-confidence and self-esteem and subsequently limited life choices.

The priority area of youth work for YouthAction Northern Ireland aims to encourage young women to value themselves, develop their abilities and potential and help them to understand and challenge the prejudice which they may encounter in their lives. The Gender Equality Unit works strategically to redress imbalances and inequalities facing young women. Development of training, networking, models of effective practice, research and influencing policy has been the focus of this work. Partnerships with statutory, voluntary and community organisations have been forged in the development of young women's work. Training for those working with young women has been pioneered and developed by the Unit. The increasing focus of the Gender Equality Unit has been on providing infrastructural support to communities and to develop processes which promote the inclusion of young women (aged fourteen to twenty-five years)

The Gender Equality Unit works with those young women who are most excluded from resources and society e.g. young mothers, rural young women, young lesbians, young travellers, young women with disabilities, minority ethnic young women and those from areas of economic and social deprivation.

Development of work with young women

Over many years, one of the key concerns of YouthAction Northern Ireland has been to improve the equality of participation of girls and young women in the Northern Ireland Youth Sector. The need was identified in 1979 for support and training to improve participation of young women. Between 1979 and 1984 this work became integral to the Agency. Conferences for girls and young women were held annually and training, support, resources and publications such as "Waiting Our Turn" were also offered to those working with young women. In 1984, funding was received from the Department of Education for Northern Ireland for the first training post to develop work with girls and young women. A major review of the Youth Sector was undertaken in 1986 amid concerns about the lack of participation among young women in society in general and the Youth Sector in particular. It became increasingly evident that young women were not using the service to the same extent as young men and when they did attend, they were often on the periphery of the activity.

"It is difficult to capture the mood of the moment" says Kate Campbell in describing the early development of the work during the late 1970's and early 1980's, "though it is important to acknowledge that this was a time when awareness of gender issues and equality was very limited and seen by most as a radical view. Female youth workers raising these issues were perceived as extreme. Single sex programmes e.g. girls and young women's weekends and health programmes were viewed with a lot of suspicion. A conscious decision was made by the Agency to use the term "young women" for those aged fifteen years and over, at a time when it was common that all females, including women workers, were referred to as girls. YouthAction Northern Ireland was the leading organisation pioneering this work and supporting other organisations to develop their practice. The Agency was the first to raise the issue of equality for girls and young women and to fight for the recognition for this vital work, convincing the Department of Education for Northern Ireland to provide resources. Funding for the full-time training post in 1984 and the research that followed in 1988 demonstrate how innovative YouthAction Northern Ireland was in pioneering this work."

YouthAction Northern Ireland continued to set aims and targets to affect change in awareness, attitudes, resources and youth work practice. Links were developed with the University of Ulster's youth work training and the Education and Library Board's training for youth workers. Accredited course were developed for women such as "Women in Management" and the "Towards Equality" course was designed for both female and male workers towards anti-sexist youth work practice. Furthermore, funding was secured for research into the "Equality of Opportunity for Girls and Young Women in the Full-Time Sector of the Northern Ireland Youth Service" which was presented in 1990. The findings from this confirmed the scale of a male orientated and male dominated Youth Service and found that girls began to leave provision as early as thirteen years old. A series of recommendations for policy, practice and training provided a strategy not only for YouthAction Northern Ireland but also for the statutory and voluntary Youth Sector.

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