Every day seems to be a “Day Of”. Yesterday was World Mental Health Day, and tomorrow is World Sight Day – observed annually on the second Thursday of October to draw attention to eye health, blindness, and vision impairment. Add in National Dessert Day (October 14, if you’re asking) and World Pasta Day (October 25) and suddenly, you haven’t got a day off from all the Days Of. I also bring you the sad news that you have missed Name Your Car Day, which was on October 2. Maybe pop it on your calendar for next year.
So yes – these Days Of can sometimes feel tiresome, random, and occasionally irrelevant. But in these febrile times, it’s worth pausing today to reflect on the world that young girls are growing up in.
A recent UN Women report says that nearly a quarter of governments globally reported a “backlash” on women’s and girls’ rights in 2024. Across multiple, often war-torn countries, girls’ rights are compromised by instability – schools destroyed, displacement, lack of safety, child marriage, limited access to health care and protection. In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, girls over the age of 12 are banned from secondary and higher education, and if the ban stays until 2030, that number is projected to rise to more than 4 million.
Girls in the UK in 2025 are the most digitally connected, educated, and outspoken generation in history – but they are also among the most anxious and scrutinised. They grow up with unprecedented access to information, yet face online hostility and algorithm-driven ideals of perfection that can chip away at self-esteem – before they’ve even reached their 18th birthday.
The latest Girlguiding Girls’ Attitudes Survey, which spoke to 2,500 British girls and young women aged 7-21, paints a deeply worrying picture. In the past year alone, 68 per cent of girls changed their everyday behaviour to avoid harassment. 86 per cent have avoided going out at night; almost half say they always do. One in 10 girls aged 11-16 have missed or avoided school altogether because of sexual harassment. And more than one in three girls aged 11-21 say they feel sad most days or every day – and far more report sadness and loneliness than a decade ago.
When it comes to how they feel about the workplace, the latest findings are equally depressing. The latest survey shows that 47 per cent of girls aged 7-10 believe women are judged more on appearance than ability. By age 16, 43 per cent think it will be hard to progress in male-dominated industries – and by age 21, that number rises to 66 per cent.
Girls in the UK have many advantages, but they are policing their own freedom. They are cautious about what they wear, say, and do. The need to stay safe has become normalised – and it’s shrinking their confidence, their mental health, and their potential.
Sometimes you really do have to look at your watch to check that it is 2025.
I chair a charity called Inspiring Girls International, which works in more than 30 countries with a simple mission: to show girls their world of possibilities. Where we can, we operate at a grassroots level, going into schools where the need is greatest, taking female role models into classrooms to talk about their careers – and the often winding, imperfect roads they took to get there.
Founded by Miriam González Durántez in 2016, Inspiring Girls began with the optimistic view that the Western world was ready to promote the idea of opportunity for all. Almost 10 years on, showing girls that they have the power to shape their future on their own terms is getting harder.
As Miriam has recently explained, organising a women’s networking event in the US has now become an act of defiance. Companies with equality-driven agendas now risk losing government contracts if they’re seen as promoting diversity. Initiatives supporting girls and women – even healthcare research – are under threat. And in that atmosphere, some firms are quietly backtracking on previous commitments.
Already, charities that focus specifically on women and girls receive just 1.8 per cent of all donations in the UK. And many organisations are being asked to “broaden their remit” to include men and boys – so that companies with links to the US can continue supporting them without fear of political reprisal.
Of course, boys need positive male role models, too. There’s no question about that. But there are already organisations dedicated to that cause. Our work is different. Inspiring Girls exists to help redress a deep imbalance – one that still tells girls, implicitly and explicitly, that their voices, stories, and ambitions are somehow lesser.
The cultural climate is shifting backwards in the most advanced societies. Books by authors such as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Judy Blume and Margaret Atwood were among the 4,200 titles banned from US schools last year. Even classrooms in the UK are failing their girls: A recent Freedom of Information request on secondary-school history lessons found that 59 per cent of Key Stage 3 classes didn’t mention women at all, while only 12 per cent focused on women directly.
When girls don’t see women in their books, their classrooms, boardrooms, or public life, they can start to believe they don’t belong there.
This is exactly why Inspiring Girls exists: to connect girls everywhere with women in every sector, from STEM to sport to the arts. Because visibility shapes possibility – and right now, that visibility is under threat.
Trying to do something simple has become a radical act: we want to remind girls that they can take up space, that their future is theirs to design, that they have allies cheering them on. Yet the space for this work is shrinking. That’s why International Day of the Girl matters this year. It’s about something bigger than a fun hashtag: it’s wanting girls to feel safe and heard. It’s about championing a girl's potential and for her to see whoever she might want to be.
So, while World Pasta Day has its place (and I’ll happily raise a fork to it), today is about something that lasts a bit longer. It’s about the next generation of great women – and shaping a world that is ready to receive them and their ideas.
We’d love your support. Because if you can’t see it, you might never know you can be it.
Victoria Harper is chair of Inspiring Girls UK. To find out more about how you can support us on International Day of the Girl and beyond, go to https://www.inspiring-girls-uk.com/
‘I’ll holiday elsewhere’: Readers lament EU’s new post-Brexit border checks
I thought nice men were undateable – I was wrong
What it’s really like being a female journalist covering the Taliban
Labour must prove it can be trusted on the economy
So how did Trump succeed in getting a deal where Biden failed?
Caring fathers aren’t ‘soft’ – they’re showing us a new kind of strength
