A child rights organisation is calling for gendered school uniforms to be banned following new research that finds Australian girls have a bleak view of gender equality.

Plan International surveyed more than 1,700 girls aged 10-17 for its "Dream Gap" report and found the vast majority didn't think they were treated equally to boys.

The survey — released on International Day Of The Girl — also found that girls' perceptions of equality consistently dropped as they reached their later teens.

"At 10, girls feel they can take on the world, but by the time they enter puberty and start to look like a woman, they start to be cat-called and harassed," Plan International Australia deputy chief executive officer Susanne Legena told News Breakfast.

"So you kind of see this gender inequality playing out and as girls get older, they actually lose confidence in their ability to take on the world and be all the things they want to be."

Source: Plan International 'Dream Gap' report.

Plan International makes three key recommendations in its report:

State and territory governments introduce legislation to remove gendered school uniforms and allow students to wear what they're comfortable in;

State and territory governments introduce legislation to remove gendered school uniforms and allow students to wear what they're comfortable in; The Federal Government introduce a ban on sexist advertising;

The Federal Government introduce a ban on sexist advertising; The Federal Government and companies take steps to address the workplace gender gap.

Keira Wright, 17, currently attends a Catholic high school in Victoria that doesn't allow girls to wear pants, and said while she felt comfortable wearing a skirt many of her peers wanted a choice.

"I think that by making girls wear that dress and dress that way it's telling them that their femininity and identity as a female has to coincide with what they wear," she said.

"So for girls [who] don't feel comfortable in wearing a skirt, it's forcing them into a box they don't want to be in."

'Get the boys on board'

The Dream Gap report also found a marked difference between the way boys and girls viewed women's leadership, the importance of looks, and who does the housework.

Source: Plan International 'Dream Gap' report.

Nawal Agan, 19, said it was hard to engage boys in the discussion.

"I've noticed a lot of young men don't want to talk about it. They want to ignore it," she said.

"Men need to have these conversations and young boys need to be taught these things from a young age, which I think they're not right now."

Kiera agreed, and added that while many boys thought it was not their place to talk about women's rights, they did have a role to play.

"Even if just [to have them] telling their other guy friends that, 'Hey, that's not OK,' and pulling them up on it," she said.

"It's not enough to say, 'I'm not sexist. I don't treat girls that way'.

"You need to actually be willing to step in when you see other people doing it."

'Ban sexist advertising'

The Dream Gap report calls for the Federal Government to follow the recent lead of the UK advertising watchdog and clamp down on sexist advertising.

"It was designed to prohibit sexist content that, for example, depicts women as solely responsible for cleaning or reinforces stereotypes that men are inept at parenting," the report reads.

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Ms Legena said the fight for gender equality had been going for hundreds of years, but was moving at a "glacial pace".

She said the recommendations outlined in the report were crucial to affecting change.

"We've got a generation here saying if you do not change these things we're going to lock out another generation of women," she said.

"I just think that's not good enough."

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