Economics: not just for boys!

Chance to be Chancellor logo - shows a cartoon suitcase full of pound symbols.gifThis is a guest post by Robert Bickers. Robert currently works for the Citizenship Foundation working on the charity’s “Chance to be Chancellor” Project. He believes that the project will help to engage young people with politics and economics.

The Citizenship Foundation is a charity which focuses on developing young people’s citizenship skills and their knowledge and understanding of the law, democracy and public life. Our new project, “Chance to be Chancellor”, gives young people the opportunity to get to grips with, and share your views on, the nation’s budget. Open to all 14-18 year olds, “Chance to be Chancellor” gathers the opinions of all those of all who take part to publishes them in the ‘Youth Budget ‘ to provide a platform for what young people think about Budget 2013.

In particular, we want to challenge the false perception of economics as a ‘male subject’ by encouraging more young women to take part. As many F Word posts have discussed (see here, here and here), female underrepresentation within the Treasury has an impact on government policy. For example, just this week, the Commons voted to raise the rate of maternity pay and child tax credits below the rate of inflation. I believe that the male-dominated economics world tends to skew policy against prioritising women’s issues.

We want young people who are passionate about economics and politics to have their views heard, regardless of gender. The UK has never had a female Chancellor or a Governor of the Bank of England and we want to change this by inspiring the next generation.

As well as taking part in our online challenge, you can also enter our national competition by shooting a short video (max 90 secs) arguing your views and uploading it onto the website with the chance to win an iPad and get an exclusive invite to the Youth Budget 2013 launch event.

Click here for the “Chance to be a Chancellor” website