Ariana Seferiades Prece
Ariana worked with Fora: Network for Change, an organization dedicated to gender equity and youth empowerment. Young women were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic making up 59% of the total jobs lost. Her research and Fora’s continued advocacy seek to place young women and gender marginalized people at the centreof decision-making spaces.
Community Engagement Initiative: Ariana’s participatory approach to research guided her in-depth interviews with young women and gender marginalized people. She spent the summer conducting 18 interviews and connected with young people at the Fora: Network for Change 2022 Leadership Forum. How do youth envision a feminist economic recovery? Find out in her Community Engagement Initiative report: Young Feminist Recovery
Report
The report invites the reader to immerse themselves into the worlds of young women and gender diverse youth to understand the unique impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives and livelihoods. By means of qualitative research, the report engages with their perspectives and lived experiences with an intersectional lens. The report explores some of the large barriers that young people experienced to participate in political and professional decision-making spaces in Canada, and argues that youth underrepresentation is an issue that must be at the centre of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon feminist economics approaches, the authors call for the advancement of a feminist economic recovery that places youth at the centre. The findings of this study are conceptualized through the lens of intersectionality, decolonial feminism, and the feminist politics of care. The study brings forward the interconnectedness of the COVID-19 crisis with other systemic issues, showing the importance of understanding young peoples’ experiences in an intersectional manner. The study also advances the centrality of care, in its multiple capacities – ranging from individual to collective care and care for the environment – as relationships were transformed and re-configured due to the pandemic.
Read Ariana’s Blog: Moving Towards a Feminist Economic Recovery
Bio
Ariana Seferiades Prece (she/her) is passionate about gender equality and social justice. As a social anthropologist, she seeks to generate meaningful research and tell stories that build community towards having a positive social impact. Prior to becoming a Fellow, as a longtime feminist activist she collaborated with women’s organizations in every country she has lived in: Argentina (her home country), Mexico and Canada. In parallel, she worked at Google for almost five years, until she decided to go back to graduate school to further her education and pursue a career in research.
Keywords
Young women, gender diverse people, underrepresented youth, feminist economic recovery, decision-making spaces, barriers to participation, intersectionality, politics of care, mental health, sustainable economy, Canada