Over 20 women surround the committee table at Parliament. It is not often that this sentence can be said as anything more than a dream, but I had the joy of witnessing it happen as a part of Young Women Lead 2024.

The Young Women Lead programme aims to increase young women and people of marginalised genders’ participation in politics. Being a member of this programme was absolutely life-changing. At a time when I felt incredibly disenfranchised and isolated, the Young Women Lead programme showed me the potential we have, as women, trans and nonbinary people, to speak up for ourselves and change the world.

The 2024 iteration of this programme focused on democratic wellbeing, which is our ability to have a say in the decisions which affect our daily lives. These decisions have an immense impact on how we feel, even if we don’t always recognise it. Feeling that we can influence and change our lives gives us hope for a better future. Our group met regularly, coming together to have conversations (and many rants, too) about our relationship with ‘democratic wellbeing’, focusing on three main topics:

• How much trust we have in our society to make decisions which benefit and do not discriminate against us;
• How we, as young women and those of marginalised genders, participate in democracy;
• Our safety in online spaces, and the behaviours which we see online.

From our first meeting, it was clear how diverse the experience we had in the room was. From refugees, those in rural communities, people of colour, nonbinary people and many more, so many communities were there to have their say. Because of that, it was incredibly important for us to be intersectional in our approach.

Intersectionality is the theory that the overlap of various social identities (such as gender, sexuality, race or class) contributes to the oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual.

Through our discussions and creative workshops, such as repurposing old zines to create collages of the issues which are important to us, we honed in on the things which we deeply cared about as young women and nonbinary people in Scotland. From that, the Young Women’s Movement team worked with us to create a list of recommendations for government bodies, community groups and those with authority to make change for young women in Scotland.

There were so many areas of discussion for us, it was difficult to know where to begin. We shared our experiences of education, healthcare, justice and politics, talked about our access to democratic participation, as well as the difficulties we face in online spaces and how we can protect our wellbeing. In a society which is changing as fast as ours and with living conditions decreasing so dramatically, we need to demand systematic change for our communities now more than ever.

Around the world, people are feeling a growing sense of hopelessness in the face of many converging crises. This is particularly devastating for women and other marginalised people, who have historically had their voices stripped from them and have been made to feel powerless. We wanted to make sure that diversity and inclusion were at the heart of our recommendations. We cannot move forward unless we accept our differences and create a world where all communities feel safe, accepted and welcome; where our voices are listened to and taken seriously.

‘When we create a space for young women from all backgrounds to share, we gain deeper insights into solutions that benefit a wider community. As women, we care for our communities, not just ourselves.’ – Natalia Uribe

Being on this programme has given me hope in a world which can feel extremely hopeless. It has shown me how many incredible people are out there, fighting for the rights of marginalised communities. Every one of you who reads this has the chance to change our world. Whether you talk to your local politicians or community groups and lobby them to implement our recommendations, get involved with activist groups fighting for our rights or simply learn more about the systems which hold us back, you have the power to create a world full of kindness, of love and of equality.