Teenage girls from across the UK have shared their experiences, ambitions and concerns in a new BBC Radio 4 series, About the Girls, presented by broadcaster and podcaster Catherine Carr. The series features contributions from Wimbledon High students and other schools within the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST).
The programme, airing currently on Radio 4, brings together conversations with girls from different backgrounds to explore their education, their hopes for the future and the challenges they face growing up today.
Head Fionnuala Kennedy “It is such a privilege for our brilliant girls to have been included in this timely and fascinating series. Yes, there is work to be done, and yes, there is as great a need as ever for girls-only spaces and education. But there is also much to celebrate about this generation of articulate, energetic and compassionate girls and women.”
In the episode focused on education, broadcast on Wednesday 15 April, Catherine Carr speaks with teenage girls about life at school and how girls are encouraged to find their voices. At Wimbledon High School, she sits in on a mandatory “civil discourse” lesson examining how women in politics are treated, using the 2024 US presidential race as a case study. Led by Headteacher Fionnuala Kennedy, the lesson invites students from Years 9, 11 and 12 to debate public attitudes towards female leadership, drawing comparisons between male and female politicians and the expectations placed upon them.
Catherine calls the discussion that ensues ‘impressive’, with students reflecting on both gender stereotypes and their real-world consequences. One student observes that boys are often encouraged to be “brave” or “strong”, expectations she believes influence how female leaders are perceived.
“We’re seeing the revival of the idea that women should stay at home,” another student says, Others describe their frustration at the persistence of attitudes that seek to exclude women from positions of power while claiming to act “in women’s best interests”.
For Fionnuala Kennedy, the conversations capture both the challenges girls continue to face and their growing confidence in addressing them.
“It is absolutely still the case that if you are a clever girl, you had better be quiet about it – and that’s unacceptable. We want our girls to go and use those phenomenal brains and enjoy the room, sit back and relax because they know they are articulate, they have got this, they back themselves, not in a cocky way, not in a ‘I own the world’ way, just in a ‘I’m enjoying the room’ way. It’s so important.”
Our unique Civil Discourse programme is just one of the ways that girls at Wimbledon High are encouraged to reflect on their place in the world and given opportunities for frank, often challenging debate.
“At Wimbledon High, we have always promoted a culture of acceptance, tolerance and respect. We believe that we must be candid and able to express and listen to difficult or uncomfortable opinions in order to make progress. An undivided community is a community which allows its members to speak up, and which learns to hear the experiences and feelings of others with empathy and understanding. We do not want to be the same as each other – we are unique individuals – but we do want to be united in our sense of mutual respect. It also couldn’t be more important in an academic setting for ideas to be aired and challenged. ”
Catherine Carr is also the creator of the podcasts Relatively and Where Are You Going? and the author of Who’s the Favourite?, a book on sibling relationships due for publication in 2026.
- Listen here About the girls, Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tzpy/episodes/guide
- Read Fionnuala’s blog https://www.wimbledonhigh.gdst.net/blog/beyond-the-manosphere/