EARLIER in the year, I got a chance to fulfil a missed childhood experience and become an honorary Girl Guide for an evening. The Guides were working on the new “Citizen Girl” pack, which was designed to encourage girls to engage in politics and address some of the long-standing issues around under-representation and girls having their voices heard.
It was a fantastic experience and the gallus wee girls I had the pleasure to meet left me with a real sense of optimism for the future. Girlguiding Scotland have recently undergone the biggest ever overhaul in the charity’s history: creating badges and activities to help equip modern girls with the skills and confidence they will need for the future. Alongside Inventing, Navigator, Animation and Human Rights badges, there is also a “Self-Care” badge.
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It’s a concept that attracts derision from the kind of commentator that bashes out op-pieces lamenting “generation snowflake” – but it’s something that I expect many adults wish they’d had the opportunity to explore in their younger years. Some of us are only getting to grips with it now. We live high-pressure lives: in work and in seeing unattainable perfection everywhere we look.
Many people struggle with that critical inner voice that raises unhelpful doubts about whether they are good enough or successful enough. Mental health is just as important as physical health and if the next generation are equipping themselves with the tools to manage stress, build self-esteem and love themselves unconditionally: then that can only be a good thing.
Because there can be no denying, life can be tough for young people. Girls especially, who must navigate the minefield of the digital age all while battling against the stereotypes and expectations that adults have built for them. There’s a tendency to underestimate girls and their ambitions: to homogenise their interests and speak for, rather than listen to, them.
When you spend time with young people, their energy and ideas are infectious. It makes you wonder at what point in adulthood your own youthful spark dimmed; and how we can make society a more inclusive space where that light burns for much longer.
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As part of Girlguiding Scotland’s revamp, they have created an Entrepreneur badge. During their research, they surveyed 540 girls and found that 54% of girls said they would like to own their own business one day. This is a heartening, encouraging statistic until you read that 32% of girls said they thought doing that would be harder because they are a girl.
Similarly, while 62% of girls said they would like to be a leader in their chosen field, 45% said they thought that would be harder because they are a girl.
The problems of today affect the girls of the future. Is it any wonder that girls think setting up a business or being a leader might be harder for them, when we read daily news stories of sexual harassment, discrimination and see a media fit to bursting with gendered stereotypes?
When we speak about equal representation: in politics, in boardrooms and in public life, it’s not for the sake of it. It’s partly because when girls see an over-representation of men in certain types of roles, many will discount that as something that is open to them in the future. When such disparity is dismissively explained away with the “merit” argument, it reinforces the falsehood that men are just better at that kind of thing.
The only way to debunk that myth once and for all in to create pathways for girls to enter jobs and industries that are viewed as “for men” and then to stand back and watch them excel.
So, good on the Girl Guides. With over 50,000 members in Scotland, they are well-placed to encourage the ambitions and aspirations of the next generation of young women. The benefits to the economy and wider society of supporting young women to achieve their potential is unquantifiable.
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And while I am kicking myself that I didn’t stick it out past my first Brownies meeting when I was little, I am looking forward to the day when my daughter is old enough and I can sign her up. What we want and expect for our own daughters: confidence, self-belief, new experiences and happiness is something we should want for all girls.
As the saying goes: “You can’t be what you can’t see.” So I applaud Girlguiding Scotland for their innovation and leadership, and helping girls believe that they can – and should – be able to be whatever they want to be.
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