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Girlguiding Girls' Attitude Survey: More 7 to 10-year-olds want to be leaders

Malala YousafzaiImage source, PA

A new survey about girls' attitudes has shown that more young girls want to be leaders than they did two years ago.

Girlguiding's Girls' Attitude Survey found that half (53%) of seven to 10-year-olds who took part in the survey want to be a leader in the job they choose to do when they grow up - up from just over two in every five girls who said they felt like this in 2016.

680 girls in the seven to 10 year old category took part in the survey.

The survey is done every year to find out how girls feel about various issues that affect their lives, from social media and school, to how they feel about themselves and their futures.

It found that the number of girls over the age of 11 who took part and want to be a leader actually went down over the same time period.

Girls' lives would be better if we told girls that they can do anything

— A girl aged between 11 and 16 who took part in the survey.

The report suggested two reasons for this.

Firstly, that as some girls grow older, they do not want to face some of the challenges that they see female leaders facing today.

Another suggestion was that there are not enough positive female role models for girls to look up to and from whom they can take inspiration.

Image source, Getty Images
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The report showed that a lot of girls over the age of 11 were put off going into a job in politics (like the current Prime Minister Theresa May) because of how female politicians are treated

Feelings about wanting to be a leader isn't the only area where it appears young girls have more positive attitudes than girls slightly older than them.

After a lot of work over the last decade to encourage girls to enjoy school subjects that traditionally appeared to appeal more to boys, more young girls (41%) are enjoying science, maths and technology than they did before.

I think girls' lives would be better if girls felt more encouraged to do sports and 'male' subjects in school

— A girl aged between 11 and 16 who took part in the survey.

Back in 2009, fewer than one in five young girls enjoyed learning IT at school. Now, this figure has more than doubled, as technology plays a more and more important role in their lives.

Again, this increase was not the same for 11 to 16-year-olds, for whom fewer enjoy computer lessons.

What do you think about these results? Let us know in the comments below.