Taking the Lead
Research across 19 countries, involving close to 10,000 girls and young women, has taught us a lot about girls’ aspirations to lead: about what holds them back, what encourages them and what needs to be in place for their aspirations to become reality. We know that many girls want to be leaders, they want, too, to be a particular type of leader – compassionate, dedicated to their community, to upholding girls’ rights and listening to the needs of others – but they are not encouraged in their ambitions. They are held back by society’s limited expectations of what is “appropriate” for them as young women and by a leadership model of authority and hierarchy that they cannot identify with: denied the places and spaces, and the role models, that would enable them to realise their dreams.