Panel Debate: Encouraging Leadership in Girls

Join this panel discussion exploring the challenges young girls face in developing leadership skills. Gain insights from leading research and contribute to strategies for bridging the gender divide.

The evidence is mounting that our girls and young women are feeling the pressures of the modern world and that the challenges they face are becoming more complex, with girls in the UK approaching adolescence with consistently lower confidence than boys. And yet, a significant number of the public believe women’s equality has gone too far.

The Nursery has undertaken several pieces of research in the past year focusing on younger audiences, from understanding what it feels like to turn both 12 and 18 today to exploring the experiences and conversations around periods, and how these impact girls’ views of their bodies. The agency has also had the opportunity to work with organisations such as Girlguiding and agencies like Impero, who are focused on supporting and developing the confidence and leadership skills of girls.

The presentation will cover:

• The great gender divide among boys and girls aged 12:18 in terms of their social views and how these views have been created (The Nursery’s research on Turning 18 in 2023 revealed a significant gender divide on a wide range of issues regarding role models and attitudes to feminism and LGBTQ+ acceptance)
• Experiences of menstruation and how this frames girls’ views of their bodies, gender rights and confidence (drawing on The Nursery’s research on menstrual health through the teen years and beyond)
• Girls attitudes to confidence and future leadership (drawing on Girlguiding’s 2024 Attitude Survey highlighting the damaging impact gender stereotypes have, with over half of girls reporting that they have been told they can’t do something because they’re a girl).
• Influences on girls’ roles attitudes and behaviours (drawing on Impero’s research with Gen Alpha which uncovered younger girls are influenced not by media role models but older girls and the eye-opening impact this has).

Our panel includes speakers with different perspectives on what this means for the future in terms of business leadership, political leadership, gender relationships and brand communications. The panel will be hosted by Tilly Flannery, Account Director at The Nursery who has led research with Girlguiding across many topics from branding to fundraising as well as setting up The Nursery’s generational studies.

What you’ll learn:

• The gender divide in adolescent leadership attitudes
• Supporting confidence and leadership in girls
• Overcoming stereotypes to promote equality

The panel will include:  Areenay Hatamian, Insight Manager for Girlguiding - Charlotte Willcocks, Head of Strategy at Impero - Tasleem Rehmatullah, The Nursery’s Health Account Director Tilly Flannery-Ashworth is a Research Director at The Nursery specialising in brand and communication research. Tilly started her career in Media Insights before moving to The Nursery in 2018. She has set up and run research with a number of youth audiences for clients including Girlguiding, 2K and Department of Education.