International Women’s Day serves as a reminder to keep addressing equal opportunities, with the UN’s theme for 2024 last week being #InvestInWomen. Never more, in my opinion, is the need to start early and invest in the mental health and wellbeing of girls.

Dr Nihara Krause MBE, stem4 Founder and CEO

Some ways to do this include:

1. Empowering them to reach their full potential. This means thinking about the needs of girls constantly and consistently, not just on special days.
2. Breaking cycles of disadvantage to bridge the divide. Providing more education, healthcare, and economical opportunities should always be at the forefront of policy and planning.
3. Stopping abuse towards girls and women. Whilst domestic abuse makes up just under one fifth recorded crimes in England and Wales, girls and women are also more exposed to coercive and controlling behaviour.
4. Providing extra protection from online harms by promoting media literacy. Let’s help girls thrive into healthy and happy women. Girls and women are disproportionally affected by online harms including cyberflashing and intimate image abuse.
5. Promote gender sensitive mental health support. This includes enhancing gender sensitivity among professionals and in services overall; being aware that the needs of girls and women are sensitive to intersectional factors and the social determinants of both health and mental health; and that there may be different accessibility issues.
6. Most importantly, there needs to be a life-long approach to understanding how gender needs vary across the life span, from birth to adolescence, midlife and menopause and older adulthood.