As the Commission on the Status of Women gets underway to look at accelerating gender equality, the recent survey undertaken by Ipsos, in collaboration with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, appears to show that despite the stereotype of Millennials and Gen Z being ‘woke’, younger generations are more conservative on the issue of gender equality. The survey finds that there is a 20% difference between Gen Z men (60%) and Gen Z women (40%) when it comes to thinking women’s equality discriminates against men.
Girls’ Brigade is proud to advocate for gender equality. We empower girls and young women so that they can achieve their God-given potential and live life to the full. We know from our experience of working with many thousands of girls across England and Wales that they’re concerned about aspects of our culture and attitudes that minimise the contribution that they make to their communities and society. Sexual harassment and online abuse is something that many of them face on a daily basis.
Jordan, 21, and Summer, 19, are both students. They’ve experienced sexual harassment and are concerned about young people having access through phones and other technology to the online world which can put them at risk of harm and abuse. They decided to do a project on sexual harassment on social media, at our recent Esther Generation Weekend, so that they can raise awareness about this so that girls are better equipped to challenge it safely.
Jordan talks about the importance of Girls’ Brigade being a safe, empowering, space where girls and young women can share their experiences and discuss tips and techniques for dealing with sexual harassment online which builds confidence and resilience. She hopes that the project that her and Summer are working on will help alert girls to potential dangers and show them how to tackle the issue.
Summer says ‘I think it’s becoming more relevant in society as girls are getting phones at a much younger age and are experiencing these sorts of things unfortunately.’ She goes on to say ‘I’m a big motorsport fan. I’m always advocating the positive representation of women in the sport, like Formula One, whether that’s through engineering or journalism’ and she’s been doing this on her own websites and Instagram.
Girls’ Brigade England and Wales are proud of Jordan and Summer. Their passion for helping other girls and young women to navigate through these tricky issues and entrenched attitudes is inspiring. Simply inspiring.