The Tribune

By NOELLE NICOLLS Tribune Features Editor THE power of the feminine was on display last week as young girls at Doris Johnson Senior High School shared "seeds of empowerment" with their peers at the first "Chat Room for Girls". This model initiative of guidance counsellor Phyllis Woodside brings students together during lunch break to fill their spirits with mind food, and their bodies with Pizza and other lunch treats. The girls-only talk on Friday was the first gendered session in the Chat Room series, which is fitting for a school whose patron was the young and vibrant leader of the Women's Suffrage Movement, in its second wave. On the heels of International Women's Day, where students from Doris Johnson participated in a forum for girls, Ms Woodside charged the students with the responsibility of creating presentations to spread the message of women's empowerment with their fellow students. The students took up the charge with great enthusiasm. It was a refreshing treat to witness the young women take the platform and deliver presentations worthy of the name they represent. In the year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage, the time is ripe to galvanise young women in the Bahamas to carry forth the mantle, and to establish the inter-generational relationships that will ground and propel the women's movement into the future. With so much to occupy our attention, it is easy for women to be seduced by the false thinking that we have arrived, or as Beyonce claims, in her popular song, that we run the world. There are still too many indicators that show the work of women is far from done. The need for leaders and foot soldiers advocating for the empowerment and advancement of their mothers, sisters and daughters is still very much alive and the calling should be real and relevant to every woman. Ms Woodside challenged the young women to return three days later if they wanted more; if they were so moved by the coming together of their sisters that they wanted to imagine just how far the concept could be extended. Those who wanted to be the leaders were called to action. "If you feel that we need something here at Doris Johnson where women can come together to be encouraged, to be empowered, to network, to shape and change the world, be there on Friday, breaktime in the group-room, so that you can put the foundation together and we can see where we can take this," said Ms Woodside. I salute the five girls who answered the called. One day, their sisters across the Bahamas will be indebted to them, for walking the walk like their elders before. For comments email nnicolls@tribunemedia.net