Girlguiding: New statue of Georgina and The Dragon for IWD

Georgina and the dragonImage source, Girlguiding

You might have heard of George and the dragon, but what about Georgina?

Girlguiding, the largest youth organisation dedicated to girls, has unveiled a female version of the 'George and The Dragon' statue.

It's in honour of International Women's Day on 8 March.

The new statue is on display in the window of Girlguiding's London headquarters on Buckingham Palace Road.

This is next to St John's Wood where the original version of the statue can be seen.

The new statue shows a powerful young girl on a BMX bike as she slays the dragon, which is decorated in a collection of outdated beliefs and phrases that were picked by girls and young women.

In the scene Georgina uses a rucksack as a shield which is covered in Girlguiding badges designed to empower girls aged 4-18.

They include the 'Speaking Out', 'Inventing', 'Construction', 'Navigator', 'Entrepreneur' and the new 'Girls can do anything' badge.

What is the story of George and the Dragon?

Legend has it that St George - now the patron saint of England - once visited a city where there was a dragon.

The people of the city were feeding sheep to the dragon every day to stop it from attacking them - but they ran out of sheep! They then had to nominate people from the town to be sacrificed to the animal.

George is said to have fought with the dragon and captured it, putting a collar round its neck.

Later on the dragon was killed.

With the new statue the story has been the reimagined, as Georgina mimics the heroic pose of George, as she symbolically 'slays' the dragon of gender stereotypes.

The statue was created after new research carried out by Girlguiding found that half of all girls aged 14-17 said they believe that girls are more likely to experience negative gender stereotypes than boys.

More than a quarter (27%) of the 450 surveyed also said they believe a stereotype has directly stopped them from doing something they wanted to.