Real choices, real lives: girls’ everyday resistance

This report explores how, around the world, girls are challenging gender norms in creative, courageous, and often unseen ways – but the risks are high.

Through this qualitative and longitudinal research study, Real Choices, Real Lives, Plan International has been following the lives of 142 girls across 9 countries - Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Philippines, Togo, Uganda, and Vietnam – from their births in 2006 through to age 18 in 2024.

By tracking girls’ views, and experiences over the years, this report offers a rare and powerful look into how ordinary girls, who don’t necessarily identify as activists, 'do politics' in their everyday lives. While attention often focuses on famous girl activists like Greta Thunberg, Girls’ Everyday Resistance reveals how the majority of the world’s girls engage politically in quieter but equally transformative ways.

The research broadens what we think of as “girls’ in politics”, showing that girls’ everyday forms of resistance – questioning unfair rules, forming friendships across gender lines, refusing chores, or choosing how to spend their money – can drive change in their communities. Girls’ ability to resist depends not only on their courage but also on adults’ willingness to create safer and fairer communities where girls can thrive.

Key findings

• Girls around the world want to change the status quo. Girls are questioning what they have been taught about gender roles, including expressing frustration at the distribution of chores or their limited freedoms compared to boys.
• Though girls have a strong desire to change the way things are, many girls do not feel able to challenge gender norms as openly as they would wish to, like voicing these opinions to their caregivers or outright disobeying them. 
• Most girls are forced to resist gender norms in secret, often under threat of violence. This includes earning money without their caregivers’ knowledge or being in romantic relationships that caregivers are unaware of. 
• Fewer than half of the girls can challenge gender norms openly. Examples include dressing or behaving in unexpected ways, standing up to bullying or violence, refusing to do chores, and taking control of their finances by saving money.