Today, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) visited University of Toronto working with the Girls Achieve summer camp for the second time this summer. Although it got off to a soggy start, it was a really amazing group of young women to work with and they were very engaged and talkative for the entire 2 hours. FSWC Educator Elena taught the Women's Rights are Human Rights workshop to about 15 girls, all between the ages of 10 and 12. Elena wasn't sure how many of them would be familiar with topics like body image and women's access to education but there were a few stand-out campers who got the rest of their classmates talking very quickly.  They loved the first activity of the workshop, where we have kids look at two word maps, the first is of words associated with "men" and the second with "women." They were all laughing when they saw words like glitter, shopping and puppies but one girl gave a thoughtful interpretation saying that she loved all of the things listed on the word map and that some girls like these things, but the problem is when ALL girls get lumped in together as if they are all the same. It's not fair to say that these things represent girls as a category, even though they might fit with some individuals.

Elena went over the definition of words including feminism, gender, sex and patriarchy. Patriarchy was a word most of them had never heard before but they made the instant connection between the concept and the world they live in noticing that people in Canada typically take their father's last name not their mother's. Elena also talked about how this is changing in some families and a couple students brought up their own hyphenated last names from both parents or had their mother's maiden name as a middle name. One student said she thought it was "crazy" that kids take after the dad since moms are the ones that spend the most time with the kids. Another student observed that religion has always been passed down from mother to child in Judaism! Elena also spent quite a bit of time on the subject of how women are represented in the media and how this negatively impacts self-esteem. Elena showed them a brief clip of the documentary "Killing Us Softly" and they looked at a number of different advertisements and the messages contained within. Elena wrapped up the workshop with reflections on bullying and emphasizing the importance of supporting one another rather than putting others down/making them feel insecure.