This International Women’s Day (8 March) Abbee McLatchie, Deputy CEO of NYA, explains how youth work is essential to improve the experiences and outcomes of girls and young women in England. This year’s theme Give to Gain explores how when we invest in women and girls, through time, knowledge, resources, advocacy, or simply showing up, the returns ripple far beyond the individual.
Abbee has spent 28 years in youth and community work. She holds a Master’s degree in Gender, Policy and Inequalities from London School of Economics, and frontline roles supporting women and girls affected by exploitation, experiencing young parenthood, or involved in the justice system.
It’s 115 years since the first International Women’s Day.
Though in England it appears that much has changed with laws to enshrine equality, culturally young women and girls are still navigating misogyny, fear and feel they have to shrink in space. What I observe is a generation of girls growing up with unprecedented opportunities, yet facing challenges that are increasingly complex, interconnected and relentless.
Abbee McLatchie
Deputy CEO, NYA
Girls don’t feel safe at school, online, or in public
Many girls live with a constant lowlevel sense of fear.
Research by Girlguiding in 2025 revealed that only 56% of girls and young women aged 11-21 feel safe on public transport on their own and only 1 in 3 (34%) of the same group say they feel safe outside on their own. ‘Girls of colour’ are much less likely to go out at night or when it’s dark, with 56% saying they always avoid going out at night. One in 10 girls aged 11 to 16 said they do not feel safe at school - a figure that rises to more than two in 10 for LGBTQ+ girls and three in 10 for disabled girls. Street harassment, unwanted touching, misogynistic comments, coercion to share nude images is persistent.
Online spaces add another layer: harassment, imagebased abuse, pressure to conform, impossible standards, endless comparison. And 86% of young women report they don’t feel completely safe when out alone. For many girls, there is no “off switch”.
An Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report recommends that the new Young Futures Hubs must explicitly prioritise young women and girls, otherwise their needs risk being invisible. For example, lots of young women might not be able to access mixed gender spaces for cultural reasons. This is a cultural barrier the law doesn’t reach that is rarely acknowledged in policy.
Misogyny feels “ambient” to girls
Research shows that girls describe misogyny as something that simply hangs in the air around them. It’s in jokes, comments, expectations, the way strangers look at them, the way boys talk about girls at school. It’s subtle and constant.
From September 2026, an updated PSHE curriculum comes into force with new statutory requirements, including stronger prevention, links between online and offline harm, and guidance on consent, misogyny, AI and exploitation. While these changes are positive, teachers are being asked to deliver highly sensitive content - such as trauma, coercion and porndriven norms - often without the training or confidence to do so safely.
Many young people do not have trusted relationships with teachers for these discussions. Girls may feel unable to speak openly in front of boys, while boys may avoid vulnerability around peers. Through creating a space for open and honest conversations, youth workers create a learning environment where misogynistic behaviour and perceptions of women can be challenged.
Safety isn’t the only gender disparity that youth workers are seeing. The ONS data shows that between April – June 2025 12.4% of young women (16–24) were NEET, around 450,000 young women. For young men, the figure was 13.1%. While the rates are similar, the reasons differ. Young women are more likely to be caring for children or relatives, managing poor mental or physical health, transitioning into and through insecure and low-paid work, and lacking support, confidence or mentoring to navigate early employment. Even when they do enter work, many young women report discrimination, insecure contracts and workplaces that still feel male-dominated or unsafe. Even though the headline figures are higher for young men, the barriers that drive young women into being labelled as NEET are gendered, long-term and culturally specific.
‘Give to Gain’ through youth work
Youth work cuts across these challenges girls and young women face by offering what other systems can’t: trusted, voluntary, appropriate relationships with adults who listen and can intervene.
Youth workers hear the truth early, long before it reaches formal systems, and create environments where girls can speak openly, be believed, and feel safe. They help girls recognise harmful behaviours, build confidence, set boundaries and make safer choices, while also working with boys to unlearn misogyny and reshape peer culture.
Because youth work is flexible, relational and culturally responsive, it meets girls where they are, in their communities, online, or in girlsonly spaces and supports those who are often unseen in mainstream provision. It gives them room to take up space rather than shrink, to explore their identities, feel valued, and lead. And for young women navigating work, caring responsibilities or low confidence, youth workers provide the guidance, advocacy and skills that open futures which otherwise feel out of reach.
When girls no longer carry burdens, society gains a generation of young women who can step into their futures with confidence, shaping workplaces, communities and culture in ways that lift us all. Youth work is essential if this is to be achieved. Youth work is the epitome of giving to gain.
