Where young voices lead us: activism through conversation circles
As we enter the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, I am reminded that some of the most transformative acts of resistance do not happen on stages or in the streets. They occur in small rooms, around tables and in community spaces where young women and girls gather to name their realities and reclaim their voices.
One of our partners, the Mary Ward Centre, has been cultivating grassroots gender-justice activism through its youth-led Conversation Circles: a powerful methodology that informed their recent report, Breaking Barriers: The Urgent Need to Accelerate Gender Equality for Young Women and Girls.
This report, released in 2025, draws directly from the experiences shared in these Circles’ stories of courage, frustration, resilience and hope. The Conversation Circles invite girls and young women to share their lived realities of gender inequality, workplace discrimination, harassment, racism, ableism and family or cultural pressures. Because they are designed to be led by youth, for youth, these Circles create a rare environment where young people, many of whom have been ignored, dismissed or underestimated, can speak openly about the forces shaping their lives.
What emerges from these Circles is activism in its purest form. Girls shared experiences of being told “we don’t hire girls for this position,” of customers refusing their help because they assumed they lacked knowledge, and of being sexualized or dismissed in workplaces where male colleagues were protected. Young Black and racialized women spoke about employers who held them to harsher standards or made them feel they needed “tough skin” to survive. Others described being pushed toward marriage rather than education or discouraged from pursuing careers in STEM or trades simply because they were girls.
These stories are more than a testimony; they are acts of resistance. Every time a young woman shares her story, she is disrupting the culture of silence that gender-based violence and discrimination rely on. Every Conversation Circle becomes a collective act of truth-saying that exposes the systems young women are forced to navigate and, in doing so, invites all of us to imagine something different.
But activism does not end with naming harm. The young women involved in the Mary Ward Centre also articulated clear, powerful calls to action that appear throughout the Breaking Barriers report. They called for mentorship opportunities in STEM, sports and trades; workplace protections grounded in intersectionality; menstrual health education; expanded scholarships; and stronger DEI frameworks that address systemic inequity. Their recommendations demonstrate that activism is not only about resisting injustice, it is also about building new possibilities.
The Mary Ward Centre’s work offers an important lesson for this year’s 16 Days: activism grows when communities create spaces where people – especially youth – can speak freely, be believed and see their experiences reflected in research, policy and public conversation. These Conversation Circles echo the global movements we accompany: Indigenous land defenders, migrant rights activists and care-workers, women peacebuilders, climate justice activists and gender-diverse leaders who speak out despite risk and who shape new futures through the collective power of their voices.
By lifting the stories that emerged from Breaking Barriers, we honour the everyday activism of young women and girls who are rewriting narratives, reclaiming their agency and reminding us of that transformation often begins with the simple but radical act of telling the truth. Their voices invite us deeper into the work of gender justice – and into the world they are already helping to build.
By Leah Shifferaw, Team Lead, Migrant Justice Program
