From 9:00 to 3:30 on Saturday, February 28, 150 Harriton and Lower Merion girls attended the Second Annual Girls’ Leadership Conference. The Girls’ Leadership Council, composed of 17 Harriton and Lower Merion girls, had been planning this event since the beginning of the school year in order to foster leadership and empowerment among female students.

Many girls do not believe Harriton has a problem with giving equal opportunities to young women and men, but the outside world is very different. The conference aimed to shed light on gender issues that do exist at Harriton and prepare young women for the working world beyond high school. With workshops, speakers, and interaction with new friends, the day was packed with new ideas and practical advice.

As registration kicked off the conference at 8:00, girls sacrificed their Saturday sleep to pour into the Harriton lobby. GLC members hosted activity tables where girls could write posters about why they believed in gender equality and create ”wish flags for women”. These wishes for women eventually included goals to gain equal treatment in the workplace, support one another rather than tearing down, and love their own bodies.

After Doug Young, district director of communications, Dr. Robin Vann Lynch, school board president, and Paula Singer, the conference’s advisor, each introduced the conference, most of the morning was spent watching the film Miss Representation. Breakout discussion groups afterwards, led by GLC members and women from the community, shared their reactions to the film’s documenting of media treatment of women and how they noticed sexism in the world and at Harriton specifically. These groups were randomly divided except for one specifically relating to the treatment of girls of color.

The discussion groups provoked conversation between girls of all grades from both schools, and these new acquaintances returned from the various classrooms in which they had been meeting to the auditorium, where finance experts and journalists Lauren Young and Farnoosh Torabi were ready to present “What Girls Need to Know About Money – Right Now!” Young and Torabi, both Harriton alumnae, spoke for an hour about choosing a college with finance in mind and strengthening negotiation skills.

After grabbing a quick slice of pizza for lunch in the lobby, the girls transitioned into three series of workshops. The first two workshop times dealt with general leadership and workplace readiness skills; these included ID Your Leadership Style, Brand You (using social media and paper resumes to one’s advantage), Money Matters, Dress for Success, Loud and Clear (improving public speaking), and Exploring Our Identities (discussing race, class, and other non-gender factors in identity). The third set of workshops was more physical – girls learned yoga, self-defense, and general fitness or how to cultivate mindfulness.

As the third set ended, girls were asked to fill out evaluation forms to give the Girls’ Leadership Council information on the successes and areas for improvement of the day. At the bottom, interested girls could opt to be included in the planning efforts for next year.

The present Council is scheduled to meet in late March to analyze both the evaluations and notes from the Miss Representation discussions. This information will aid them in deciding on further non-conference initiatives for this year and next year, and in shaping elements of the conference next year.

In response to the absence of boys from the conference on the 28^th, juniors Aaron Diamond-Reivich and Nate Rush are working to create a boys’ conference that would also address gender issues and how boys can respond to sexism against both women and men. Details are still to be announced. The Girls’ Leadership Council is likely to discuss this facet of the conference to some extent in their March meeting.

Looking back, Julia Udicious, a senior and the Harriton Co-Chair of the Girls’ Leadership Council, was very pleased with the outcome of the day. “It was great to see girls from Harriton and Lower Merion come together to discuss their experiences and learn how to become better leaders in their communities,” she said. Udicious and her fellow GLC members certainly have much to be proud of in their efforts on February 28. The Harriton community can only expect continued excellence in the Third Annual Girls’ Leadership Conference next year.