As a mother of girls and the head of a girls’ school, I am reminded daily that while International Women’s Day may have passed, the issues it highlights remain urgent. One of the most overlooked is the link between the Dream Gap and the Authority Gap, a continuum that shapes how girls see themselves and how women are perceived.

The Dream Gap begins shockingly early.

Research shows that by age five, many girls start to doubt their intelligence and abilities, not because of experience, but because of subtle cultural messages about who is “brilliant”, who leads, and whose ideas matter.

These cues show up in toys, books, media, compliments, and the roles children see modelled around them.

What begins with self‑doubt in early childhood doesn’t simply fade. It evolves into the Authority Gap, the persistent difference in how women’s competence, credibility, and leadership are judged. Women continue to be interrupted more often, assumed expert less often, and remain under‑represented in senior roles globally.

Even a quick online search for authority yields hundreds of images of men before a woman appears.

These are not two separate problems. They are the beginning and the end of the same story.

Education, particularly girls’ education, is one of the most powerful tools we have to rewrite that story. UNESCO research shows that gender norms still influence girls’ confidence in STEM and leadership in co‑educational settings. In girls’ schools, every voice belongs to a girl. Every leadership role is held by a girl.

Ambition is normalised.

Authority is expected.

At a time when 119 million girls worldwide remain out of school, these gaps are not abstract concepts, they are global challenges.

International Women’s Day may be one date in the calendar, but the work of closing the Dream Gap and the Authority Gap must continue every day that follows. And to every girl, now and in the future:

  • Do not shrink.
  • Do not wait to be invited.
  • You can be the expert.
  • You can be the leader.
  • You can be the authority.

If the world hands you a glass ceiling, don’t tap it politely. Shatter it,  so completely that the next generation never knows it existed.