GDST Youth Statement
We are very excited to announce that we have officially finalised the GDST Youth Statement! This has now been contributed to the UK Youth Statement and we will let you know when we hear back from them.
A massive thank you to everyone who contributed - it was so fantastic to hear from so many young people from across the country and to come together to share our thoughts on such an important topic. Take a look below!
The Girls’ Day School Trust is the leading group of independent girls’ schools in the UK, with nearly 20,000 students between the ages of 3 and 18. We contacted each school in the GDST and asked them for their views on ‘women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work, the empowerment of indigenous women and the challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls’. We have collated their views into a short statement which we hope, could be contributed to this year’s Youth Statement.
We recognise the disparities in representation between men and women within certain important fields of work. These fields range from STEM careers, to jobs in the creative industry, such as music producers and film directors. We also recognise that women from ethnic minorities, as well as disabled women, are not equally represented in the workplace, particularly due to prevalent prejudices against women of childbearing age. It is shocking that only 14.4% of the STEM workforce are women in the UK.[1] (Apostolides, 2016). This contrasts with China - a culture with a strong emphasis on engineering, mathematics and science for both sexes - where 40% of the STEM workforce are women. (Wu and Kennedy, 2016)[2]
Evidently, this is a salient problem in many other developed countries - the current gender pay gap between men and women in STEM fields in Australia stands at 30.1 percent as of 2013. (Bradbury, 2015).[3] Per statistics from the Bureau of Labour, in senior positions in the Financial Sector, a female personal finance advisor earns just 59.4% of men’s median weekly pay. (Canal, 2016) [4]. This perhaps takes root in the preconception that men are better suited to STEM careers which affects the jobs which women choose, making them hesitant to pursue careers in these fields. A predominantly male workplace is suspected to be patriarchal, with high levels of gender based discrimination and harassment, as evidenced in the International Business Times, where gender inequality in the workplace is described as an ‘invisible and endemic problem.’, indeed in the Everyday Sexism Project, some women were even "Told to get an abortion or resign as two pregnant workers was unfair". Thus, women are reluctant to enter these environments as the notion that a woman can never excel as much as a male colleague based on their gender, dissuades women from working in these fields, preventing them from achieving their full potential.
A possible solution to this problem could be that co-educational schools should follow the trend of many single-sex schools, in which subject stereotypes are not prevalent. In terms of the gender pay gap, there needs to be social realignment that takes into consideration all cultures and races whilst Company Boards need to show a representative sample of multi-culturalism. There needs to be more transparency with pay so that men and women can see relative salaries. However, this may need to start with a redefinition of ‘feminine’; currently career-driven women are perceived as domineering, yet career-driven men are perceived as good leaders, as noted by MP Harriet Harmer in her book A Woman’s Work.
A particular focus on outreach to girls in schools (with programs which permit networking with women already in these career positions) would significantly improve the representation issue. As a result, the gender pay gap might also be positively impacted. More support for single mothers would aid their economic empowerment and the use of social media to share women’s stories in the hope that they go viral would raise awareness and change preconceptions concerning women in the workplace.
Many thanks to the students of Royal High School Bath, Northampton High School, Bromley High School, Nottingham Girls’ High School and the UK Youth Parliament for their contributions.
[1] Apostolides, Z. (2016) Want to close the gender pay gap? Start with more women in stem. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2016/nov/10/want-to-close-the-gender-pay-gap-start-with-more-women-in-stem-careers (Accessed: 6 February 2017).
[2] Wu, J. and Kennedy, J. (2016) Innovation fact of the week: Women represent 40% of STEM workforce in china, but only 24% in US. Available at: http://www.innovationfiles.org/innovation-fact-of-the-week-women-represent-40-of-stem-workforce-in-china-but-only-24-in-us/ (Accessed: 6 February 2017).
[3] Bradbury, P. (2015) ‘Women in STEM in Australia’, Professionals Australia: Gender and Diversity, .
[4] Canal, E. (2016) ‘The gender wage gap in 25 popular jobs’, Forbes,
