KPMG partnered with Children’s Books Ireland (CBI) to support their Bold Girls Initiative, creating innovative workshops based on women who changed history thus encouraging young girls to achieve their ambitions.
In 2011, a large study into children’s books was published. The study looked at more than 5,600 books published throughout the 20th century and found a huge gender imbalance. Male characters were central in 57% of children’s books, while only 31% had female central characters. Meanwhile males featured in the titles of 37% of books each year, but only 18% of titles referred to a female character.
In another similar study across children’s media, less than 20% showed women with a job, compared to more than 80% of male characters. Studies of other children’s media show similar patterns – male-dominated characters in cartoons, video games, films, even in colouring books.
To celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage in Ireland, Children’s Books Ireland (CBI) planned to print a reading guide, containing books about, written and illustrated by women.
At KPMG we recognised that this presented a unique opportunity to create a bespoke volunteering programme for our people based on the idea of these ‘BOLD GIRLS.’ We approached CBI with the idea of creating a skill-based volunteering programme to compliment the planned booklet.
The BOLD GIRLS workshops aim to break down societal barriers and to instil confidence in girls by showing them female characters in children’s books with passion, power and opinions. It addresses at a young age some of the issues that stand in the way of women achieving their ambitions, whether in leadership, politics or the arts. The BOLD GIRLS project celebrates strong, confident, intelligent, brave women and girls in children’s books, giving them much-needed visibility alongside their male counterparts.
