Looking at girls' academic achievement, you'd be forgiven that girls have got it made and are flying in education. They outperform boys on most academic measures, with 70% of girls reaching the expected standard at KS2 in 2019 compared with 60% of boys, a gap that only widens.
At GCSE, three quarters of girls achieve grade 4 or above, with 5.4% of girls' grades at the top grade 9, while those figures are two thirds and 3.9% for boys. Even in traditionally 'male' subjects, girls are pulling ahead, with girls' entries to Science A-Levels overtaking boys for the first time last summer.
But after school, the picture becomes quite different and the attainment gap swiftly seems to reverse. Looking around the public landscape, women aren't what would seem to be their rightful share of economic or political power. Just six FTSE 100 CEOs are female, and 34% of the House of Commons – although that is higher than ever, nearly half of them are childless compared with a third of their male counterparts.
More than that, there's still a polarised social backdrop of gender expectation that tells girls to be quiet, sit down, and put themselves last. At the youngest end of the spectrum, it’s the overwhelming message from children's clothing. Boys' clothes have explorers, adventurers, and the slogans proudly declare them "Future Inventor", "One to Watch" or "Wild One!"
‘Be Kind’
Girls' shirts proclaim "Be kind" on a backdrop of unicorns and sparkles. There's nothing wrong with unicorns or sparkles in themselves, but when they're a girls' only choice they do seem to be symptomatic of the infantilising of women and a particularly childlike brand of femininity.
That "Be Kind" message is also interesting in light of recent events –#bekind sprang to popularity after Caroline Flack's death and social media everywhere has latched onto it. And we should be kind, no doubt! But those traditionally feminine qualities of kindness, nurture, and collaboration have generally been held less valuable, replaced by more traditionally masculine ones of ambition, individuality, and competition.