When Gina Martin walked into Parliament in 2019 to see her upskirting campaign become law, she couldn’t have known she was lighting a spark in classrooms years later. But according to new research from the University of Roehampton, her story is now inspiring teenage girls across the UK to believe they, too, can change the world.
The G-EPIC programme – Girls’ Empowerment through Politics in Classrooms – has reached more than 884 Year 9 girls in schools facing high levels of deprivation. Its findings reveal something striking: when girls are shown political role models they can genuinely relate to, their confidence soars.
Teachers say that Martin’s campaign, which began as a response to her own experience at a festival, resonated especially deeply. “Students were particularly engaged in exploring how real change can happen through case studies such as Gina Martin’s upskirting campaign,” one teacher said. “It helped them see the power of individual action.”
That sense of possibility is central to G-EPIC’s mission. Girls starting the course often believed politics was something distant – something that happened in Westminster but not in their own lives. By the end, they were designing campaigns on issues like free sanitary products in schools, gender equality and period poverty.
Teachers consistently reported the same transformation: case studies grounded in young women’s real experiences helped students connect everyday injustices to political structures. “These case studies encouraged students to believe in their own capacity to make a difference,” several teachers noted. Role models weren’t abstract figures – they were people whose journeys felt reachable.
Alongside Martin, pupils learned from a diverse set of female and minority leaders: MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Kim Leadbeater, Janet Daby, Munira Wilson and Wendy Chamberlain; clean-air campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah; and Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, a leading voice for the global south at COP. Showing girls a spectrum of women pushing for change – locally, nationally and globally – proved vital.
One student said she “liked learning about all the different ways you can campaign for change… and by the end of five lessons I feel more confident in taking part in politics.” Another described how understanding period poverty shifted her entire worldview.
The programme arrives at a critical moment. Online misogyny – from influencers such as Andrew Tate – is infiltrating schools, with teachers reporting girls unknowingly adopting derogatory language about themselves. Many said they felt underprepared to counter the “manosphere” content saturating TikTok and Instagram. G-EPIC offered a constructive alternative: instead of simply warning students, it showed them how power works – and how they can use it.
Professor Bryony Hoskins, who led the project, says the findings should shape how Britain teaches democracy. “Political self-efficacy isn’t just about voting,” she said. “It’s about having the confidence to speak up when something feels wrong.”
As researchers begin working with MPs and policymakers to explore integrating the programme nationally, the message from classrooms is clear: when girls are given relatable role models, they don’t just understand politics – they step into it. And for many, that journey begins with the story of one woman who refused to accept the status quo, proving that political change can start anywhere, even with a single festival photo.