Shaping the Future: Empowering Girls for Change and Redefining Leadership by Rebecca Brown

Introduction

The Girls’ Day School Trust, the family of schools to which we belong, was part of the historic nineteenth century movement in girls’ education. Our first schools were established by 4 suffragists in 1872: Mrs Maria Grey, Miss Emily Shirreff, Lady Stanley of Alderley and Miss Mary Gurney. Rebellious, brave women, with a radical vision and a steely determination.   Today, 151 years later, the GDST is a family of 25 schools, 4,000 staff, 20,000 girls and over 70,000 alumnae; all driven by the purpose of our foremothers, to use education to make the world a better place for all.  Like them, we know that forward-thinking, inspiring education that prepares girls to go out into the world as changemakers, instrumental designers of our future, is vital.

And so, to mark 150 years of leadership in girls’ education, the GDST commissioned the Girls’ Futures Report.  Research began at the beginning of 2022, with a series of discussions with equality and education experts. Working with the research organisation, YouthSight, we conducted a multi-stage research journey to provide a comprehensive view of girls’ own outlooks on their lives now and into the future. This drew from an online survey of girls across England and Wales; girls from different social, economic and educational backgrounds, girls in both independent and state schools and girls in both co-ed and single sex contexts. For comparative purposes, we also surveyed a small control sample of boys, conducted qualitative interviews with students and drew on experts in the fields  of leadership, entrepreneurship, academia and psychology.

The research investigates the mindset and perspectives of young women when they are thinking about their future. It explores their aspirations, the challenges they face and the barriers entrenched in society that they fear will impact their future; their confidence eroders and what they need to be equipped with to be better prepared.  Through the report, we hope to advocate for the conditions that girls need to put them in charge of creating their own futures, because as educators, we must prepare young people to build a better world and we must talk frankly about what kind of education we, and the girls we work with, believe will achieve that goal.

Girl power? Issues and impact.

Girls do understand the role of their generation in making a positive impact. Three out of four believe it is their generation’s responsibility to make the world a better place.

They care deeply about mental health, environmental issues, racism, women’s rights and poverty.  In fact, 35% say that they do their best to take responsibility for social issues.  However, 36% want to make a difference but do not feel that they can.  The responsibility that sits on the shoulders of our young people is heavy BUT some of them don’t know what to do with it.   The first key take away from the research must be that it is our responsibility to show girls that they can have an impact on the world around them.  Whether through wider community service or responsibility positions within school, they need to know that what they do makes a difference. Planting a wildflower meadow for residents in the local area?  Environmental impact.  Working with older members of the community to support their digital education?  Social impact.  Taking part in a local police ward panel or council meeting?  Political impact.   Leading their school Feminist Society? Impact on women’s rights.

And we have to signpost these moments of impact, reminding our students of the change that they make every day and celebrating impact actions.

Born to lead? Reward and role models

Other questions focussed on the way that girls want to work when they envision their futures:

It was incredibly encouraging and perhaps not surprising to hear that two thirds of the girls surveyed want to make a difference to society through their careers.   83% of girls in senior school want to do a job that they enjoy and they were twice as likely to say they want to do a job they enjoy rather than to be rich- purpose and fulfillment win out over material gain. 

While nearly half do want a single career, 35% want to try lots of different jobs and 29% even envision working in many professions simultaneously. 3 in 4 girls want to work flexibly,  9 in 10 want to work in an environment that best suits them and fewer than one in five want to work in an office.  It is clear, then, that our girls want to reshape the workplace so that it fits them, their preferences and their aspirations and they place a great deal of value on their wellbeing. 

But if we look at this rank order of priorities for a future role, one stark fact emerges… leadership is not at or even near the top of the list.  In fact, girls were nearly three times as likely to prioritise being healthy and safe than being a leader and were twice as likely to prioritise being respected than being a leader.  

To really understand what girls were telling us, I think we need to consider what leadership can look like to them. The girls we spoke to told us that they aspire to a type of leadership where measures of success are multidimensional and not necessarily reliant on traditional measures such as salary, prestige or power. 

Interviewees told us that they do not necessarily see those currently in positions of power as role models, citing values including honesty, integrity and resilience as qualities they believe leaders should possess, implicitly questioning whether those in possession of political, social, cultural or economic power currently DO hold these values.

Girls hold strong ambitions and passions for what they want to achieve, but they don’t necessarily want to lead in a traditional ‘from the front’ way.  They want to bring more collaborative and open traits to leadership, they want to succeed without compromising their own well-being for career success and they see leadership around them: in their families, in their friendship groups, in our classrooms.

This is a real opportunity for schools to approach the notion of leadership in a different way. Girls and indeed wider society would benefit from being empowered to challenge and redefine current models of leadership. It certainly means we need to augment those opportunities for student leadership in schools and to ensure our sports captains, prefects, eco leaders and peer counsellors are able to lead their teams in the ways that suit their skills and personalities. And we can’t just pick our extroverts, our most obvious ‘natural’ leaders for these roles, we need to tap into leadership talent in all its diverse forms. 

Prepared to change the world? Finance and fake news 

How do the girls in the survey think schools are currently doing in terms of preparing them for the world beyond Sixth Form? 

Two thirds of girls nationally aged 11-18 do think that school prepares them for some aspects of adult life, but just 23% say school helps them to understand society and the wider world and 8% feel that secondary education fully prepares them for what lies beyond.

Soft skills such as communication and teamwork are acknowledged as being cultivated and are seen as useful and necessary, but they are not the skills that girls feel are the most immediately helpful as they make their way in the world. 

So, what DO girls want from their education?

Just over 1 in 10 girls aged 11-18 said they felt their school had provided adequate guidance around financial education and the same number said they felt their education had provided adequate information on different ways to earn money.  There is a resounding call from young people to help them to navigate their personal finances and the wider economic context.  

Our research also revealed that girls want support in navigating the wider world of current affairs.  They are most likely to receive their news from social media but only 40% of girls aged 11-18 said they know what to do when they see fake news online.  Indeed, can they even identify it and critically evaluate the information that they see so that they can reach reasoned judgements?  We need to develop in girls a greater confidence in analysing what they see on social media and in pinpointing fake news, so that they can have an impact on the issues they care about as identified at the start of this article, such as mental health, the environment, diversity, equality and inclusion. 

Conclusion

At Northwood College, we are already acting on the results of the Girls’ Futures Report; reviewing our curriculum, augmenting our impact and leadership opportunities and building our girls’ confidence in navigating their future careers.  If we want our girls to effect change, we must give them the knowledge and the tools to do so with confidence and we need to listen to what THEY want and need.

All data in this article has been taken from the GDST Girls’ Futures Report: https://www.gdst.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GDST_The-Girls-Futures-Report-2022.pdf