How Are The Girls?

Posted by Barbara on March 31, 2025 in Blog, feminism, Human rights, Women's equality issues | 2 comments

Everyone is talking about Adolescence, the powerful series about the young teenager so caught up in the dark manosphere that he murders a schoolmate. The airwaves are full of the difficulties faced by young men and boys as they navigate a path to adulthood fraught with seductive online messages about incels and status.

Yet in the middle of all this, how are the girls doing?*  A new report by Plan International, a global children’s charity, titled The state of girls’ rights in the UK, shifts the spotlight back to young women. This represents the largest ever exercise in listening to girls’ voices ever conducted by Plan International in the UK.

For the latest report they spoke to 3,000 girls and young women throughout the UK through surveys, interviews and workshops. Girls were encouraged to use art, videos, poems, zines and more to explore their feelings about the issues they face growing up a girl. 

It is unsurprising that the report finds that girls across the UK are angry and frustrated about the state of gender equality in the UK. Their happiness declines as the reality of the pressures, norms, and limitations they experience bears down on them.

Society has been telling girls for years that they can be anything, but they are still held back by outdated stereotypes and unfair expectations. These expectations and informal rules shape how they are expected to behave. Those who reject or do not conform to these expectations may face exclusion, criticism, discipline or violence for rejecting the ‘right’ way to act. Some key findings:

• Only 5% of girls and young women feel ‘completely safe’ in public spaces, such as on public transport or on the street.
• 56% felt that ‘education to change the attitudes and behaviour of boys and men towards women’ would help them feel safer and more protected.
• Nearly half of girls and young women agree that expectations about how girls and women should act and what they should be hold them back (47%).
• 54% of the girls and young women surveyed feel they have the same educational and employment opportunities as boys or men their age, but this declines from 58% of 12- to16-year-olds to 52% of 17- to 21-year-olds.
• Outcomes for girls still vary dramatically, depending on where they live. The research revealed that North East Lincolnshire is the toughest place to be a girl in the UK. There is a clear pattern that girls in communities with high levels of deprivation will encounter more barriers to getting ahead in life.

I doubt whether anyone will be surprised at these findings, but this is a plea: while we work out how best to draw boys and young men away from the influence of Andrew Tate and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, let’s not forget that there are thousands of girls who are not getting, and probably never had, the opportunities available to their male peers.

* The charity defines their survey audience as follows: ‘When we talk about and act for ‘girls’, we are including anyone whose gender identity is wholly, or in part, ‘girl’. This includes cis or cisgender girls (whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth), trans or transgender girls (whose gender identity does not correspond to their sex assigned at birth) and non-binary, gender fluid, and agender young people. We also recognise that work relevant to girls may also be relevant for trans boys, and gender questioning young people. The term ‘girl’ encompasses a wide diversity of experiences.’