It’s absolutely crucial! Like many people in my age group, my first real segue into feminism was through
the social media accounts of the brilliant Caitlin Moran, and I haven’t looked back.
Social media is such a leveller and allows small groups of people, with small budgets, the space to build a
community and send a message. So many great battles have been fought and won on social media over
the past few years – from getting a woman on the new £10 note to raising huge awareness of the 200
girls kidnapped by Boko Harem in Nigeria.
Now, I’m really excited that a new wave of ‘social feminism’ seems to be building among girls and young
women themselves – and Instagram is really the home of that. These are amazingly cool, vibrant places
where intersectional feminism is celebrated and patriarchal expectations and norms taken apart. With
the Trump Whitehouse, and ongoing sexual harassment scandals emerging, these feel like really positive
places to celebrate feminism and spread awareness.
I do think the next step is to make sure those social platforms are really accessible for men and other
allies though. It can sometimes feel like an echo chamber of amazing women, so we need the boys to
follow these accounts and get angry / inspired with us!
5.
Do you think that is important for girls to learn about feminism from a young age and why?
100%. At Girlguiding, Brownies (aged 7-10) can earn badges in mental resilience and body confidence,
and even Rainbows (aged 5-7) are able to start exploring these kinds of themes.
The damaging elements of our patriarchal society are unfortunately still really engrained, and girls are on
the internet, absorbing beauty adverts and unrealistic body images at younger and younger ages. Social
media can be an incredibly powerful ally, but it can also be feminism’s worst enemy – from a stream of
highly filtered faces, bodies and lives; to vitriolic trolls – and girls need to have the toolkit to understand
their worth and how to tackle these things.
6.
Could you comment on the success of the “This Girl Can” campaign from Sport England?
This Girl Can was one of those real watershed moments for me. At work, and in my personal life, feminism
was already part of the norm – but this ad campaign really seemed to cut through to the wider society.
When I was waiting for a tube and saw the giant ad with a real-sized, red faced woman getting sweaty –
and loving it – I could have punched the air!
7.
How important is it for girls to get involved in STEM (Science, technology, Engineering and Mathe-
matic) subjects?
It’s so important. This is the area that most young people today will need to understand to excel in to-
morrow’s jobs market – and of course, women have so much to add to the subjects.
At Girlguiding, lots of their new programme (what girls do in guiding) is around STEM based skills and
they’re building great partnerships with giants like Microsoft to ensure girls are getting the best start in
these areas.
8.
The power of hashtags has spread the feminist movement. Do you agree with the comment and
why?
Definitely. The past few weeks have been really difficult for all women as countless stories of sexual har-
assment against women in the public eye have come to light. For almost everyone I know, this has trig-
gered – on an almost daily basis – some of the more traumatic moments in their lives.
But out of this bleakness, the #metoo campaign (started many years ago, but really booming now) has
given women something to latch on to, to come together over and it’s been really powerful. And more
than giving women a source of solace, it’s really brought home to our male friends, family and colleagues