two girls ... and two Very different worlds

The worst place in Britain to be a girl is Middlesbrough — and the best is in Surrey, a study’s revealed. So what does that mean in raw human terms?

on E faces daily sexual harassment, worries about her personal safety and can’t wait to escape the town where she grew up. The other lives in a £400,000 house with her parents, dreams of being a police officer and loves her local community.

These two young woman could come from different worlds — but, in fact, they live only a couple of hundred miles apart.

A landmark study, released on Monday, has revealed huge discrepancies in the quality of life for girls based on where they live.

Out of 346 local authorities in England and Wales, Middlesbrough emerged as the worst place for young women to grow up, while Waverley, in Surrey, was the best.

So just what is it about these two regions that makes girls’ experiences so very different? We visited both to find out.

MIDDLESBROUGH

A Sunny afternoon on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough’s main shopping drag, and the pavements bustle with groups of young women, their arms weighed down with bags.

Some are students, dashing between lectures at nearby Teesside university; others have ducked out from work during their lunchbreak to pop into the shops.

Most sport crop-tops and summery dresses, their heavily made-up faces buried in the latest smartphones.

They laugh, one throwing her head back raucously as she passes a group of builders, who respond with a cacophony of wolf-whistles.

It’s hardly the picture of a town so riven by deprivation that its young women are struggling to succeed. And yet this wolf-whistle reveals more about the lives of girls growing up here than one might think.

For sexual harassment has become a part of everyday life in Middlesbrough, operating both in the street and in perceived ‘safe’ places such as schools and the workplace.

Every year, around 175 sexual offences are reported in the area, almost double the amount in similar- sized towns elsewhere.

Laura Gooderham, 18, says she wouldn’t feel safe walking through the town on her own.

‘Me and my friends just got cat-called by a group of blokes on Linthorpe Road,’ she admits, when stopped outside the university. ‘ They were shouting “Oi!” and tapping on their phones asking for our numbers. That kind of thing happens a lot.’

Teesside university student Antonia Heatherington, 18, also hates walking around alone.

‘That’s just how it is for girls,’ she says. ‘ Growing up in Middlesbrough, you get used to getting yelled at in the street.’

The abuse continues online, too, with girls here more likely to suffer cyber- bullying on social media sites such as Facebook than elsewhere in the country.

THE selfie culture is thriving — the north- East has consistently been voted the ‘ selfie capital’ of the UK — which is apparent even on a quick glance around the High Street.

A pair of statuesque blondes in tight jeans and T-shirts stop outside Topshop to pose for a picture on their phones, while a brunette sitting on a bench nearby is checking her make-up using her iPhone’s camera. But the darker side of the internet is very much present in these young women’s lives, too.

Regional statistics reveal a shocking self-harm epidemic — 542 hospital admissions for every 100,000 ten to 19-yearolds — and experts say online bullying, sexting and an obsession with body image are creating a ‘toxic climate’ for girls in the area.

Middlesbrough has always been an industrial town, drawing income from a thriving chemical industry and port. (Experts say the dominance of such traditionally ‘male’ professions creates a ‘lad’ culture that can be damaging for young women.) Today, however, it leaves career-minded young women with pitifully few opportunities.

‘I wouldn’t even know where to start to look for opportunities for girls here,’ says Bethan Danks, 19, an English student who works at a pharmacy in the town.

‘Everything at school is about the steel industry and that’s more aimed at boys,’ she adds. ‘We’re not really encouraged to get involved; and if we are, it’s just for the office jobs.’

Antonia Heatherington, who works as a barmaid in the town, agrees. ‘For us, it’s more often shop work. When we’re at school we’re not pushed

towards industry jobs in this area in the same way that boys are.’

The statistics support their concerns. More than 7,000 women a year in the area claim Jobseeker’s allowance, while an astonishing 29.9 per cent of girls have no qualifications at all.

Those who do work are more likely to be in the lowerpaid health and social work sectors (27.5 per cent) and retail (17.5 per cent).

Back on the street, another problem is clear to see. Fast-food outlets dominate the town’s main streets and at lunchtime the queue inside McDonald’s is 50-strong.

Obesity levels in the borough are far higher than the national average (a quarter of Middlesbrough residents are obese) and, as a result of poor lifestyle choices and widespread ill-health, life expectancy for women is low — with an average of just over 79.

As in any young person’s upbringing, home life has a major role to play in girls’ health and happiness.

Just over 30 per cent of children here grow up in single-parent households, a factor which has been consistently linked to low achieve- ment and low self- esteem. What’s more, Middlesbrough has one of the worst teenage pregnancy rates in the country, with 103 under-18s giving birth per 1,000 women in the age group every year — more than 10 per cent.

Carrie Supple, director of Journey for Justice, a charity that supports equality and social justice, says it’s no wonder young women in the area are at a disadvantage, whether from poor families or not.

‘ Poverty is always the catalyst for women doing badly in life,’ she adds. ‘ It leads to teenage pregnancies, obesity, lack of opportunities, lack of role models and domestic violence.

‘Even if they’re not poor themselves, this sort of attitude can be catching — young women feel they might as well give up.’

WAVERLEY

THE leafy borough of Waverley, Surrey, is a world away from industrial Middlesbrough, with its built-up, redbrick suburbs.

Girls here were judged to have the best opportunities in the country in the study — and on the quiet, residential streets of Godalming, a historic market town, it’s not hard to see why.

Schoolgirls in smart bottlegreen uniforms, swinging leather satchels, cross the road towards waiting parents in 4x4s. runners pound the riverside path that snakes through the town centre, while young mothers with prams chat in cafes.

Affluence is everywhere: 41 per cent of families here live in large detached houses, crime rates are low (just 181 violent incidents, 209 burglaries and 45 sexual offences in a year) and life expectancy is high: women can expect to live until 85.

‘It’s a very safe, friendly place to live, especially for women’ says 20-year- old Shannon Jones, who grew up in Godalming and works in retail. ‘I’d like to stay here as I grow up, because it’s such a nice area.’

Girls in Waverley tend to come from dual-income families — just 18.9 per cent of households are single parents — and only 630 people currently receive housing benefit, meaning many others are able to pay for their daughters to attend private schools.

Department of Health figures show that the borough also has the lowest rate of child obesity in England (one in ten), which experts put down to a good variety of physical activity sites for youngsters, such as sports grounds and leisure centres.

Educational methods, too, differ here, with a particular focus on empowering young women and building up their confidence before they enter the world of work.

Tracy Kirnig, head of Prior’s Field, an independent girls’ boarding and day school in the area, says her teachers adopt an ‘empathetic and proactive approach’ to mental health.

‘There is no need to drive the girls with relentless pressure,’ she explains. ‘Girls benefit from an annual “resilience week”, in which they are rewarded for demonstrating perseverance and determination in learning and life. They also practise mindfulness.’

The result of such an approach is a generation of young women who are driven and ambitious.

The borough’s proximity to London also opens doors for careers in the capital.

Ellie Scull, 22, from Shackleford near Godalming, worked in Pr in London for a year before returning to her hometown to run a gift shop.

Twenty- year- old Jojo raynes, from nearby Haslemere, has just started her own business as a make-up artist. ‘Career-wise it’s pretty equal between boys and girls here,’ She says.

Street harassment is almost non-existent in Godalming’s quaint, cobbled roads — and the cliche of the ‘Southern softie’ is very much alive, with young women more likely to encounter a shy type than any sort of aggressive behaviour from the opposite sex.

Ellie says she never worries about walking around town on her own, even at night.

‘ We had lots of builders here recently and they were rather friendly,’ she admits. ‘I’ve never had any issues with street harassment in Godalming.’

LOCALS say this is down to the mixed range of ages in the area — 20.6 per cent of Waverley residents are aged 45 to 59, and just 9.3 per cent 16 to 24 (compared to 18.4 per cent 30 to 44-year- olds in Middlesbrough and 14.4 per cent in the 16 to 24 category) — as well as the lack of nightclubs and pubs.

‘There’s a lot of elderly people here and everyone respects each other,’ says Shannon.

With more to do offline, young women in the area tend to spend less time online, so anxieties surrounding cyberbullying, sexting and body image weigh less heavily on their mental health.

Georgie Fordham, 19, says she notices a difference between her internet usage and the number of hours her friends in the north- East (where she lived until she was 15) spend online.

‘They’re always taking selfies and retouching them to make themselves look amazing,’ she says. ‘It puts pressure on you, making you feel like you’re not pretty enough in real life. I hated it.’

It’s not all rosy for girls down South, however. Poor mental health is a continuing problem in the area, with 13.5 per cent of Waverley residents suffering from depression, many of them female.

Carrie Supple, of Journey to Justice, says it’s important not to conflate affluence with happiness.

‘It’s often the middle classes who are worst affected by anxiety and mental health,’ she explains. ‘ They might appear to have everything, but that’s not always the case.’