What might an empowered generation of girls be like? Imagine girls confident in their own thoughts, spurred on by the knowledge that their ideas and opinions matter. Imagine a generation without the current epidemic of eating disorders; girls who aspire to be scientists instead of Wags or models; girls who don’t especially care about being beautiful and are happy to be themselves, who speak out about what matters to them and know they can make the world a better place.
You could say that now is one of the hardest times to be a girl. In countries around the world, girls are victims of genital mutilation, denied an education and married as child brides. But what about Britain, on the surface a “post-feminist” society where girls and boys are equal? Many experts say that here and now, girls lack empowerment.
Pornification, “slut-shaming” and celebrity culture are multiplying in power, thanks to social media. The low prosecution rate for rape and sexual assault is scandalous, as is the glass ceiling on female pay. The writer Chloe Combi, who has interviewed dozens of girls born between 1994 and 2001 for her book Generation Z, believes “this is one of the most problematic and, in some ways, regressed states for young women we’ve had for about twenty years.
“Women in the public eye are endlessly body-shamed, diminishing their accomplishments. Girls are painfully aware of this, and feel that nothing matters more than being beautiful – which isn’t surprising when you see the language aimed at high-profile women via Twitter. Girls are more passive than they used to be, irrespective of class.”
Tanith Carey, author of Girls Uninterrupted: Steps for Building Stronger Girls in a Challenging World, agrees. “One of the most insidious and least recognised effects of the pressure on girls to look a certain way is that our daughters are also losing their voices. One study found that one in six girls, aged ten to seventeen, avoid giving their opinion. The reason? They don’t want to draw attention to themselves because of the way they look.”
The disempowerment of girls today starts young. Back in the 1980s, a typical girl (as seen in one famous advertisement of the time, now a viral image online) was pictured in the media wearing jeans and playing with Lego. Today, girls’ toys and clothes are far more “girly”.
Yasmeen Ismail is the author of the picture book I am a Girl, which stars a little girl who’s happy to be her own person. Ismail was inspired by what she saw as an unsettling difference emerging in the ambitions of girls and boys; the idea coming to her after talking to her niece and nephew about what they wanted to be when they grew up.
“My nephew thinks the sky’s the limit when it comes to imagining his future. He’d like to be a scientist, an explorer or an engineer,” she says.
“My niece would like to be a princess. The worry that I have is that the only reason she wants to be a princess and in pink might be because that’s the main option presented to her.”
“When I walk around and see aspiring princesses everywhere, I start to wonder where it’s all come from. Boys’ books proffer achievable careers in construction, engineering, and medicine. But being a princess, you can only be born or marry into that. So what is the message? Marry well?”
Jane Kenyon, who runs the female mentoring scheme Girls Out Loud, speaks of the urgent need to give much more confidence.
“The teen girl crisis we find ourselves in is well documented, with self-harming, eating disorders, teen pregnancies, sexual exploitation – including an ever-more present rape culture – depression, low self-confidence and aspirations and mental illness all present daily in a school near you.
“Empowering girls is a must, and it’s not rocket science to get right. We all play a part in disempowering the next generation, however, the opposite is also true. When we step up, so will they.”
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