Christine Thomas: Can-Do Girls

[Socialism Today, No 26, March 1998, p. 31]

The Can-Do Girls – A Barometer of Change, by Adrianne Katz. The Body Shop, 1997, £5-00. Reviewed by Christine Thomas

‚Can-Do‘ Girls speak out about their aspirations and ambitions. Optimistic, selfmotivated, assertive, positive, ambitious, directed and focused are just some of the adjectives used to describe a generation of young women with high expectations of the future.

In 1996 a questionnaire was placed in the Express on Sunday and sent out to voluntary organisations, schools and youth clubs. The Can-Do Girls – a report funded by the Body Shop – is based on 3,000 responses from 13-19 year olds. The report admits „there is a slight social class bias. Readership (of the Express on Sunday) concentrates in social class groupings A, B, C1 and C2, and is under-represented in social classes D and E (nationally these groupings represent 28% of the population whereas in the Express on Sunday’s readership it is estimated they represent 16%)”. Even so, many of the report’s findings have been echoed in other surveys carried out recently. One (Market Assessment) found that while 77% of all women think they are as likely to succeed as men, nine out of ten women under 24 are certain they will have the same opportunities.

‚Can-Do‘ girls expressed tremendous optimism and confidence about their own futures as women: 87% agreed with the statement, ‚there are opportunities for me‘, while a similar percentage agreed that ‚things are changing for girls‘. Above all, ‚Can-Do‘ girls wanted financial independence and ‚to be in control of our own lives‘. ‚It’s getting better being a girl than before. We can do what we like, choose our own path, you don’t have to be a housewife and you’re not in the shadow of a man‘, said one 13-year old.

Equality is viewed as a natural right which most young women take for granted. Does this mean that women have accepted ‚post-feminist‘ ideas about women having made it at last?

Equality is viewed as a natural right which most young women take for granted. Does this mean that young women have accepted ‚post-feminist‘ ideas about women having made it at last? Not totally. In part, their optimism is based on real economic and social processes. Most can see that they are doing just as well if not better than boys at school. While knowing very little about the women’s movement in the 1970s, they are well aware that more women are in the workforce and that social attitudes have changed significantly.

At the same time, they have few illusions about the obstacles and problems that many women still face: 64% of ‚Can-Do‘ girls disagree that equal pay exists; 55% disagree that there are more job opportunities for women (although they expect to have more opportunities for themselves as individuals) and 72% do not agree that women are getting the top jobs. While most see the women’s movement as dated, they recognise the need to struggle for equality and prevent ‚backsliding‘ of hard-won gains.

Most are aware of the double burden that women still face ‚doing two jobs‘. ‚Watching women around me it must be so difficult to balance work and kids, both are always in your mind. You can’t tell the children to go away, and work is becoming a total goal … It’s easy to understand, why women don’t have kids‘. Easy to understand, but 73% said optimistically, „I want a job and family and I will cope‘.

The report highlights a minority of what it calls ‚Low Can-Do‘ girls (241 in 3,000) who are less confident and more pessimistic about women’s status in society and the future. While 89% of „Can-Do‘ girls think things are fairer nowadays, only 58% of ‚Low Can-Do‘ girls think so. Discussion revealed that these girls‘ attitudes were mostly shaped by their own mothers‘ experiences in and outside the home.

As many as 81% of ‚Can-Do‘ girls agreed that the struggle for equality has brought conflict with men. ‚It’s a big change for men to be in control and suddenly women have power and control, they’re just not used to it. said one 13-year old. ‚A lot of men do feel un-needed when some women don’t want men to do everything for them‘. The report does not explore any further the question of gender conflict, but previous surveys, such as Gender, Feminism and the Future, by the think tank, Demos, showed that most younger women want to work with, rather than against, men to achieve change.

The Can-Do Girls poses the question, „with education scores above the boys, with aspirations as high as the sky, these young women are assertive, self-motivated, and optimistic. Will they stir things up or become frustrated and disillusioned by the inertia of the system?“ More to the point, can socialists channel that energy into fighting for a new one?