Upper Sixth students Eva Carroll and Dona Josh feature in Plan International’s ‘The State of Girls’ Rights in the UK’ annual report.

Eva is an ambassador for Plan International UK which is a charity that aims to reinforce the rights of young people and equality for girls. The organisation teamed up with photographer Joyce Nicholls to chat with girls from across the UK. They spoke about topics such as public safety, body image, social media and feminism.

The findings from the survey are now available in the published report. The document summary states that many girls do not feel safe in public and harassment and gender stereotypes still exist in schools. It also highlights a rise in mental health issues amongst girls and states that 6 in 10 girls aged 14-21 think males are treated better than females in the UK.

When asked about taking part in the survey, Eva and Dona said…

“We were both excited by the opportunity to work on a national report. The interviews were in Liverpool in early October and we had a photoshoot in various locations around the city. A number of girls across the UK took part. This meant that there was representative account of the views of young women in 2020.

There were various questions about young people ranging from the lack of female role models in society to whether the voting age should be lowered to 16. Each question allowed us to give our unique perspectives about being a young person living in the North West. We discussed prominent issues concerning young women such as street harassment and period poverty as well as representation in STEM or politics.

It felt really empowering to work with a strong community of girls to talk about problems facing us today.”

Dona is hoping to study Biochemistry at Oxford and hopes to become a Researcher/Professor in the future. Eva’s career aspiration is to become a journalist. She is planning to study English at Cambridge.

Well done to Eva and Dona for taking part and putting your views across.

Click the links below to find out more:

What Young Women Think in 2020 – The Guardian

What young women think in 2020 about public safety, body image, social media and feminism – Metro