Wanted: role models for girls
Girls say they don't have enough female role
models
Girls think that there are not enough positive female role
models, especially in the worlds of business and politics.
That's according to a study by the Girl Guides that asked young
women aged between seven and 21 about who they look up to.
One girl described a role model as: "Someone to look up to,
someone you want to kind of help you."
While many younger girls said they admired their mums and
sisters, most of the other role models they named were film stars
or singers.
The girls involved in the study could only name a couple of
female sports stars and just one woman politician - Margaret
Thatcher.
A whopping 72% of girls asked in a survey last year said we
needed more women in business and in Parliament.
And 60% said they were put off a career in engineering because
of a lack of female role models.
Many said that they felt their own futures were being damaged by
the lack of women to look up to in these kinds of roles.
"How are you supposed to know what you want to be when you are
older?" one girl asked. "You don't know about business people. Alan
Sugar, and that is only because he had a TV programme."
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Wanted: role models for girls
Lack of women councillors elected leaves Scotland with
'male, pale and stale' local politics
Fewer than one in four councillors chosen by the public in this
month's local elections in Scotland was a woman.
Even the council with the highest proportion of women lagged way
behind the average in English boroughs.
The number of successful female candidates increased this year
from 263 to 301. But that still means that just 24.3% of the total
number of Scottish councillors are women.
The disappointing figures come just as a study of girls'
attitudes by the Guides found that most girls under the age of 21
felt there were not enough female role models, particularly in
politics.
South Lanarkshire tops the league table, with 25 female
councillors out of 67, the equivalent of 37.2%. Inverclyde
takes last place with just one female councillor.
In England, 40% of councillors elected in city councils are
women. Several achieved a gender balance, or even a majority of
women: 64% of Bury's councillors are female, while Gateshead has
55% and South Tyneside has 57%.
Experts at Edinburgh University have warned that the lack of
female representatives would mean that issues such as domestic
violence and childcare would not be given as much priority.
They said: "We're a long way from saying goodbye to the male,
pale and stale face of Scottish local politics."
Dr Fiona Mackay, senior lecturer in politics at Edinburgh
University, said:
"These figures should serve as a wake-up call to parties and
councils that something has to change in order to make local
politics more inclusive, and ensure local councils look like the
communities they represent … The time has come for tough action on
women's representation in Scotland."
Only five of Scotland's 32 local authority councils achieved
levels of women's representation of 30% or more including
Aberdeenshire, Glasgow, Moray, South Ayrshire and South
Lanarkshire.
East Lothian elected just two women councillors, as did Orkney,
while the Western Isles now has three.
Labour's Vaughan Jones became Inverclyde's first female to be
elected since 2007.
Other "laggards" include Dumfries and Galloway with 17% female
representation, East Renfrewshire with 20%, Falkirk with 18.8%,
Midlothian 16.7%, North Lanarkshire 20%, Scottish Borders 17.6% and
Shetland 13.6%.
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