Girls, the difficulty of dreaming: stereotypes about the future of one out of two young girls, work is the place of gender-based violence and discrimination

MILAN – One in two girls feel limited, in their choices about the future, by sexist stereotypes and legacies and work is perceived as the place most at risk of discrimination. This is what emerges fromDefenseless Observatory realized by Terre des Hommes And OneDay Group, which this year involved more than 2,000 teenage girls aged 14 to 26. If the present is complex, young people are aware that, in the future, as adults, they will have to struggle even more. In fact, they believe that the place where the most discrimination or gender-based violence is witnessed is the workplace: it is in first place in their answers followed by the web and the mass media.

The difficulty of dreaming. Today’s girls find it hard to dream, but they don’t even plan their future “big”. More than half of the interviewees, 53.96%, believe that choices regarding future studies or careers, ambitions and passions are limited by male stereotypes and heritage. In second place is indicated the absence of a support network, in third place the lack of models to draw inspiration from. A lack also underlined by the fact that for 20% of them “there is no reference model” and for 30% the main model is their mother. Basically one out of 2 has no models outside the family to refer to “ideally” to plan their future.

A cultural change is urgently needed. “There is a lot to do for the future of young women in our country – declares Paolo Ferrara, general manager of Terre des Hommes – a cultural change is urgently needed that can only start from school. We need to work so that parents and teachers encourage girls to follow study paths that allow careers close to their real desires, net of external conditioning, which even comes from textbooks that still too often portray men as scientists and engineers and women as teachers and nurses. Every year, with our indifesa campaign, we undertake to disseminate data on violence and discrimination, but we also try to offer girls and boys paths that can increase their awareness of these issues and propose new models to truly be leaders of change for a fairer and more inclusive society

Absence of dreams and reference models. The lack of role models and stereotypes do not help so-called young people NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training – out of education, unemployed and without professional training), for which Italy holds the negative European record: 25% of Italian women between the ages of 15 and 29 who do not study and do not work. As told by the Defense dossier 2022 Of Terre des Hommes, the situation is determined on the one hand by conventions or actual social pressures which tend to give greater importance to the role of women within the family; on the other hand, by a labor market that favors the hiring of young men over young women, and makes it difficult to reconcile work with childcare.

Scientific and technological disciplines? I am a chimera. The gender gap in education does not end here, denounces the indifesa 2022 dossier. Although girls represent almost 60% of graduates in Italy – a stable share for ten years now – their presence within degree courses Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is decidedly smaller in favor of study paths in the linguistic, medical and humanistic fields. According to the Ministry of Public Education, in the academic year 2020 – 2021, female students enrolled in STEM degree courses are 21%, half of men. Yet, a degree in an ICT discipline, such as engineering or more generally in scientific subjects, allows for better employment opportunities and greater earning potential.

Financial education, “Knowledge makes you free”. Another gender gap it is related to what is defined as “financial education”: from managing a current account or calculating the interest rate on a loan to understanding a financial investment. The most recent Pisa – OECD tests show that, on average, the levels of financial literacy of 15-year-old males are two percentage points higher than those of their peers. The gap in Italy is even 15 points. “For this Terres des Hommes in his Defenseless Space Hub of Milan, has promoted the creation of financial education courses for women in vulnerable situations thanks to the collaboration with Global Thinking foundation. », adds the general manager of Terre des Hommes Italy.

Other data from the Observatory. If the future is in danger, the present is already compromised. Suffice it to say that 47.78% of the defenseless young women told the Observatory that they had witnessed physical violence. Things aren’t better with psychological violence: 7 out of 10 girls have witnessed episodes of this type. The reality is not reassuring for the new generations: young people perceive the risk of loneliness and social isolation (23.14%), the danger of psychological violence (19.72%), bullying (17.90%) and of sexual violence (17.39%). For 82.90% the web is not a healthy and safe environment. Among the risks they put cyberbullying first. The situation in offline life does not improve: 23.14% feel the danger of loneliness and social isolation, 19.72% that of psychological violence, 17.70% of bullying and 17.39% of sexual violence. For almost 34% of the interviewees, on the other hand, no progress is being made in gender equality.

The Defense Campaign. “Helplessness” is a great awareness campaign with which Terre des Hommes has placed the promotion of the rights of girls in the world at the center of its intervention, starting from interventions in the field aimed at giving concrete results to break the cycle of poverty and offer better life opportunities to thousands of girls and boys in the world. Within this framework, since 2014 Terre des Hommesin collaboration with OneDay And SchoolZoocarry on theDefenseless Observatory, with which to date it has involved more than 64,000 boys and girls from all over Italy, for a total of more than 10 million contacts. The Observatory is a tool for listening to the voice of Italian boys and girls on gender-based violence, discrimination, bullying, cyberbullying and sexting and is, to date, the only permanent observation point on these issues.

Engagement activities. The Observatory indifesa 2022-23 and the activities involving boys and girls were carried out thanks to the precious support of RAI for ESG Sustainability and of BIC® which supports Terre des Hommes through the Network indifesa project the first network of WebRadio and young ambassadors against discrimination, stereotypes and gender-based violence, bullying, cyber-bullying and sexting to promote the participation and protagonism of boys and girls through their active involvement in all phases of the project to create radio programs aimed at raising awareness and reflecting on violence, discrimination and gender stereotypes.

Gender equality education. Also, in 2020 Terre des Hommes together with Junior Achievement Italy he started #IoGiocoAllaPari – Gym of Rights and Skills, a path of generational strengthening and gender equality aimed at secondary school girls and boys. A project that combines awareness of rights with that of skills thanks to an innovative training course based on the role model, divided into 15 online workshops, held by as many “stimulators of dreams”, experts and professionals, voices are the reference in respective professional fields. Supporting the indifesa campaign: Benefit Cosmetics, BIC®, BIC Foundation, C&A, Douglas, Esserbella, the Esselunga Group perfume chain, Fondazione Milan, Zanetti Foundation, Tangoo, RAI for ESG Sustainability, Sorgenia, RGI Group, Valvorobica.

About Terre des Hommes. Since 1960 it has been on the front line to protect children around the world from violence, abuse and exploitation and to ensure school, informal education, medical care and food for every child. Terre des Hommes is currently present in 22 countries with 140 projects in favor of children. There Terre des Hommes Foundation Italy is part of Terre des Hommes International Federationworks in partnership with EU DG ECHO and is accredited by the European Union, the UN, USAID and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Italian Agency for International Cooperation (AICS).