Inspiring Change - How One Woman is Empowering Girls with the support of other women

The theme for this year's International Women’s Day is ‘Invest in Women and accelerate progress” and one Manchester-based woman is doing just that all with the support of other women. Sophie Koumides who lives in Manchester is the founder of See Her Potential, a theatre company. The organisation visits schools and delivers workshops for girls aged between 12 and 14 and through a series of activities and a play educates them about women in history, self-confidence, body image, and sexism to help them recognise their potential and empower them.

A 2023 study from Girlguiding UK found that girls in the UK have had a decline in confidence over the past 15 years and have much lower levels of confidence than their male peers, according to new research.

Sophie said: “The work we are doing has never been more needed, especially as the study shows that there is virtually no difference in girls’ confidence to boys at the age of ten but when they reach the age of 12, girls are 17 percent less likely to report high confidence in comparison to boys. We’ve seen this in action. If you ask young girls of primary school age to list positive things about themselves they will often be able to reel off lots of things whereas when we ask the same of teen girls sometimes not one hand will go up.”

The study also revealed that things are showing no signs of improving with girls' happiness levels having significantly declined over the past 15 years, with only 17% of girls aged 7-21 stating they feel very happy, compared to 40% in 2009.

Sophie continued “What we are aiming to do through See Her Potential is to show girls exactly what they can achieve. As part of the workshop, we perform a play that features eight great women from history including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson the first female doctor, Lee-Tai Young Korea’s first female lawyer, and pirate Grace O’Malley. We truly believe that for girls to grow in confidence they have to see examples of other fabulous women. As they say, if you can see it you can be it.”

Sophie admits that whilst she and her team love supporting the young girls she has also benefited from the support of other women in the form of a support group for women in business, Good Business UK.  

Sophie says: “ I love what I do but it does help greatly to have the support of other businesswomen to hold me accountable, share ideas with, and offer me support when things get tough. It is truly the embodiment of this year's International Women’s Day theme. Working with them confirms to me just what women can achieve when they pull together and I want to pass on the learning to the girls we meet in the schools.”

Sophie and her team perform in schools across the North West and the West Midlands. To find out more visit www.seeherpotential.co.uk to find out more about Good Business UK visit https://goodbusinessuk.co.uk/

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