Girls' Attitudes Survey 2014

Girlguiding UK has published the Girls' Attitudes Survey 2014 which canvassed the opinion of 1,200 girls and young women aged seven to 21 on a wide range of issues.

Findings include that:

  • 59 percent of 13-21-year-olds have experienced sexual harassment at school, college or work in the last year;
  • 76 percent of girls aged 11 to 21 know girls their age who self-harm, 73 percent know girls their own age who suffer from depression and 66 percent know someone with an eating disorder;
  • 42 percent know girls their age who have experienced racist bullying, 40 percent homophobic bullying and 31 percent bullying about a disability;
  • 59 percent of those aged 13 to 21 have experienced sexual harassment at school, college or work in the last year. 61 percent of girls aged 11 to 16 years say teachers or staff sometimes or always dismiss sexual harassment as just a bit of banter;
  • 74 percent of girls and young women aged 11 to 21 think that all schools should have to teach about sex and relationships. They report that the Sex and Relationships Education they get at school is not good enough with only 39 percent of those aged 13 to 21 saying the provision they had was good;
  • 85 percent of those aged 11 to 21 say they experience sexism in some aspect of their life. Girls report that the main arenas for this are the media, social
  • media, schools and colleges, and public places;
  • Three quarters of those aged 11 to 21, and 48% of younger girls aged 7
  • to 10, think there are too many images of naked or nearly naked women in the media. 57 percent do not like the way women are disrespected in music videos (57%), and 58 percent are critical of victim-blaming in cases of sexual violence. Instead, they want to see a greater diversity of women represented, with 89 percent believing that both media organisations and 8 percent the government have a role to play in making sure that the media represents all women fairly;
  • 45 percent of 11 to 21 year olds sometimes feeling ashamed of the way they look, and 39 percent two do not take part in fun activities because they are self-conscious about their appearance; and
  • Only 21 percent of girls and young women are interested in politics but 57 percent of those aged 11 to 21 feel that politicians do not listen to the views of girls and young women enough and 67 percent of them agree that there are not enough female MPs and 63 percent believe that girls’ voices would be listened to more if there were more female MPs.

To download the full report visit https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/girlguiding/2014/documents/Girls%27AttitudesSurvey_2014_FINAL.PDF.