I was lucky enough to spend my Saturday getting inspired by the wonderful women and girls at Y-WE’s Career Day. For those who weren’t lucky enough to attend (or those who’d like to relive it) I’ve created a social media recap of the day. Enjoy!
My take on the news from the Girl Justice movement (locally, nationally, and internationally).
Local
The Trayvon Martin Foundation selected You Grow Girl as one of their local partners to expand education opportunities for inner-city youth. They’ll kick off their partnership on May 19 at the Justice and Peace Mixer in Columbia City. Congrats to You Grow Girl, and THANKS for all the hard work on behalf of girls!
Season 3 of the PBS series SciGirls dropped on April 15. The series features real girls doing real cool science. To learn how to use SciGirls in your STEM program, check out the Pacific Northwest Girls’ Collaborative Project’s Professional Development Day on April 25.
Awesome piece at the Gates Foundations Blog by Melaya Medrano, a Chief Sealth High School student, debunking the myths about youth volunteering and recounting her journey to volunteerism.
Read up on how Girls on the Run of Puget Sound helps girls develop healthy habits. Then sign up to be a running buddy! It’s one of the most impactful, easiest, and rewarding short-term volunteer opportunities around!
WA Senator Patty Murray chats with female scientists at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center about “boosting women in STEM.” That’s a pretty powerful combination!
National
Kent State developed a new app to help African American girls, manage stress. The Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders among African-Americans created the app in response to research with African American women, who reported wishing they’d learned emotional management skills earlier in their lives.
Jon Greenberg at Everyday Feminism analyzes what public schools can do, and often fail to do, to combat institutional racism.
Loved this Planet Money episode about how Maddie Messer, age 12, researched the lack of female video game characters, made a case for why that’s whack, and convinced game companies to change their ways. You rock Maddie!
Teen Feminist shares a list of her favorite companies owned by women and girls, who produce products for women and girls.
To kick off financial literacy month, the Girl Scouts released “5 Money-Saving Tips for Teens.” The tips apply equally well to adults!
International
Looking for an opportunity to analyze the “invest in girls” rhetoric? Here are two great ones!
TED put together a “playlist” of talks about the importance of educating girls.
The Directors of RISING at the Population Council write about how investing in girls can change the world.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been grappling with some tough questions. I believe to my core that girls need and deserve more resources to overcome the challenges they face. It would be easy to say that investing in girls is a win for everyone, and sweep my concerns under the rug. Easy, but ultimately counter-productive.
Dr. Kathryn Moeller, a professor of Education Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison, has written eloquently and critically about the push to “invest in girls.” Her articles challenge the push for girls’ empowerment and education, forcing readers to consider how we approach girl justice more thoughtfully and humbly. While Moeller’s work focuses on girls internationally, many of her arguments apply equally well to efforts to “empower” girls from oppressed communities locally.
Read on for my takeaways, and the questions I’m still grappling with. To read Moeller’s work, see the works cited at the end of this post.
1. Focusing on investments leads to prioritizing economic outcomes, rather than supporting programs that promote girls’ rights for their own sake. Moeller writes “Girls’ education should be promoted because girls matter in and of themselves, rather than because of their potential value as instruments of development change.” (1)
How does reframing social justice as an investment opportunity change the work we do, or others’ understanding of it?
2. Collecting data and conducting analysis leads to unintended consequences. Investments should “pay off,” so girl advocates must prove that programs lead to measurable outcomes. According to Moeller, “efforts to count and track adolescent girls may seek to make the population category more visible” but they have created a new identity category “the trope of ‘Third World girl.’’
Expert researchers use data to create an image of the adolescent girl. This “statistical girl” is not real: she’s made of numbers. But she’s easier to understand than the complex, flesh and blood individuals in the real world. However, if we base our interventions on the model, we run the risk of adopting policies that address the mathematical girl’s issues, and fail to resonate with real live girls and their real live communities. (2)
What does being categorized as a “Third World Girl” mean (in both a positive and negative sense) for each individual girl? How does turning girls into statistics impact individuals girls and how we understand them?
3. Corporations advocate for girl empowerment, while continuing business practices that hurt girls and young women. Moeller adeptly observed that Nike began focusing on girls after they caught flack for horrific treatment of their predominately young, female, workforce. While The Girl Effect promotes individual girls as the solution, it shifts our attention away from the structural causes of poverty.
What is the role for corporations in girl justice? Can we harness their power without getting duped into promoting their PR agenda?
Much of Dr. Moeller’s work is published in academic journals, but it’s worth a trip to a university library to read her articles in their entirety. I will be waiting with baited breath for the release of her book in 2017. Keep up the great work Dr. Moeller!
(1) “Rethinking Why We Prioritize Girls’ Education” Huffington Post, March 2015
(2) “Proving ‘’The Girl Effect’’: Corporate knowledge production and educational intervention,” International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 33, Issue 6, 2013
(3) “Searching for Adolescent Girls in Brazil: Corporate Development and the Transnational Politics of Poverty in the Girl Effect.” Feminist Studies, Issue 40.3, 2014.
My take on the news from the Girl Justice movement (locally, nationally, and internationally).
Local
The Washington State Budget and Policy Center and Annie E Casey Foundation released an incredible new tool: The Racial Equity Policy Tool. This tool builds on tools developed by King County, the City of Seattle, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Race Forward to focus on how policies impact children and youth of color.
Lake Washington Girls’ Middle School and Google for Entrepreneurs are teaming up to host a startup weekend for girls May 15-17. They are looking for sponsors and mentors. More details on the schedule at the startup weekend page.
If you’re looking for a great job, Powerful Voices is hiring an Employment Coordinator.
Rain City Rock Camp applications are available for summer 2015! Check it out.
The Seattle Foundation created a roundup of 15 non-profits serving women and girls in King County. 8 of the 15 are girl-serving organizations!
The Women’s Funding Alliance released not one but TWO requests for proposals, one for programs that promote girls in STEM, and the other for women’s community leadership, which includes program working to equip women from underrepresented groups for leadership roles.
National
If you’re wondering why we need to fund programs that promote girls in STEM, check out this article about a study by the Institution of Engineering and Technology that reveals how outdated stereotypes prevents girls from pursuing STEM opportunities.
Great piece by Marissa Rangonese at the Spark blog about a recent intervention/study that looked at “how low-income 12-14-year-old Black girls deal with sexualization, ethnic stereotypes and violence in their communities.”
Another article in the Washington Post highlighted the importance of exactly this kind of research. Khadijah Costley White, a professor of journalism at Rutgers, writes about the disproportionate school discipline and racism that black girls face, and argues that black girls need as much attention as black boys and men.
These brilliant inventors (who happen to be Girl Scout Daisies) contributed an automatic page turner to the White House science fair. It’s just a prototype, but they are on to something!
International
Ignite: Women Fueling Science and Technology (a project of the geniuses at the Global Fund for Women) created Geeks: an amazing website where “we meet girls who are on the cutting edge of science and technology — sitting in the drivers’ seats as inventors, explorers, designers, and innovators.” I just love this so much.
A study by the Government Equalities office in the UK finds that 20% of girls in primary school have been on a diet, and 87% of adolescent girls think women are evaluated more on their looks than their ability.
Stephanie Psaki of the Population Council questions the assumption that pregnancy causes girls to drop out of school, urging us to really interrogate the causes of drop outs so that we can design more effective interventions.
GirlUp released new advocacy resources, including a tool kit and guide for taking action on the Girls Count Act, and effort to ensure all girls have birth certificates.
My take on the local, national, and international girl justice news.
Local
Who Are We: Tweens and Teens Identity Development, Seattle Girls’ School
Rosetta Lee presents this FREE training for the community on Monday, March 24 from 6:30-8:00 at Seattle Girls’ School.
Making Powerful Choices, Powerful Voices
Ever wish you could be a girl again and participate in these incredible programs? Read this piece to get a feel for the Powerful Choices program, and learn how Powerful Voices collaborates with community partners.
Y-WE Ignite Video, Young Women Empowered (Y-WE)
Take a few minutes to watch this inspiring video about Young Women Empowered. It’s worth it!
Powerful New Ad Shows Why Girls Avoid Science and Tech–And How We Can Change That,
Policy Mic
DigiGirls, a Microsoft program to get more girls involved in STEM, released a new video: Girls Do Science. The video shows girls talking about their experiences in STEM activities, and highlights the importance of community and support.
Amazing Job Opportunities
Techbridge is looking for an Executive Director
Solid Ground seeks an Anti-Racism Initiatives Manager
The YWCA is hiring a Girl First Program Coordinator
National
Women on the Map, Spark Movement
The amazing young women activists at the Spark Movement are researching women’s history, and they want to share their learning! When you download their app, your phone will buzz when you pass a place that women made history. Seriously, greatest group of gals ever!
Rethinking Why to Prioritize Girls’ Education, Huffington Post
UW Madison Professor Kristen Moeller is taking a new look at girls’ education. Should we prioritize girls because doing so can spur greater economic growth, or because it’s the right thing to do? Mueller researches the impact of corporate activism on girls.
Children, Chores, and the Gender Pay Gap at Home, Sociological Images
When does the gender wage gap begin? Around age 8. Girls do more chores and get paid less, even for stereotypically feminine tasks like babysitting. “Girls do 35 percent more work than boys, but bring home only $0.73 cents on boys’ dollar.” Ugh.
Want to Get More Girls into STEM? Give Them Real Work to Do, Mind/Shift
A High School in Massachusetts takes an innovative approach to getting more girls into STEM: training them to work at the school’s student-run help desk.
Let Girls Learn
The White House launches a new initiative to support girls’ education. Read more from Ms. Magazine, and The Peace Corps.
International
Meet the 15-Year Old from Rural Guatemala Who Addressed the UN, NPR
A profile of Emelin, the amazing young activist fighting child marriage in her community.
How Girl Activists Helped End Child Marriage in Malawi, The Guardian
After being inspired by Emelin, read about how girls and girl-serving organizations joined forces to end child marriage in Malawi.
Teenage Pregnancy and What to Do About It, Girls Globe
Post by Joseph Ssennyange, a Peer Health educator in Uganda, on stopping teen pregnancy. Ssenyange writes “The boys have one big question to answer, ‘If I am not ready to be a father, why should I make her a mother?'” YUP!
Let’s Talk About Adolescent Health, Girls Globe
An update on efforts to promote adolescent health worldwide in preparation for launching the renewed Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health in September 2015.
NEWSLFASH: Gyms Open to Saudi Girls, Ms. Magazine
Girls in Saudi Arabia will now be able to go to gym class! The policy change comes in response to increasing obesity rates among women and girls. Big step forward? Purely symbolic change? Read and form your opinion.
My take on the local, national, and international girl justice news.
I’m switching back to the old roundup format. It’s good to try new things, but sometimes the old things work best. Let me know if you miss paper.li, and I’ll take it under advisement. For now, back to the classic format.
Local
Girls on the Run Snohomish County partners with the Snohomish Women’s Run and Everett Marathon: The marathon will donate $5 to Girls on the Run every time a registrant uses the code GOTR (and the runner gets a $1). For the Women’s Run, you can make a donation directly from the registration page. Go GOTR Snohomish County!
9-Year-Old Seattle Girl Designs a Scarf that Doubles as a Seattle Weather Chart (Komo News): A great argument for combining STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) with the Arts to create STEAM. Unleash the creativity!
Ladies First Thanks Stewart Middle School: Check out photographs of their hard work this year. Always amazed by these women!
National
These Middle School Girls Had an Idea that Could Help Alzheimer’s Patients Remember Loved Ones (Huffington Post): The girls developed an app that uses facial recognition software to help Alzheimer’s patients recognize their loved ones. Way to create tech that makes a difference!
#blackgirlsmatter: When Girls are Policed Out of School (Ms. Magazine): Ms. examines the differential discipline that girls of color face. Black girls are suspended six times as often as white girls. Thanks to Anita Little at Ms. for highlighting this important new research, and the need for more advocacy and action in support of girls of color.
Police Shoot and Kill Two Teenage Girls in Two Weeks (Centre for Research on Globalization): The article recounts the tragic deaths of two 17-year-old girls, one in Denver and one in Texas. A horrible reminder of the pressing need to address policing.
Girl Scouts Profiles Powerful African American Women for Black History Month (Girl Scouts of the USA): Check out the profiles on Admiral Michelle J Howard, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Gloria R Scott, the Girl Scouts’ first ever black national president. Love reading about powerful women, past and present! And a big congratulations to Girl Scouts of the USA for being named one of the world’s most innovative non-profits by Fast Company!!
Head over to Smart Girls at the Party for a Black History Month Reading List and Galentines Day cards to share with the women and girls who light up your life. Happy Galentine’s Day and Black History Month!
The Best and Worse States for Young Women (Glamour): Glamour gives us an advanced look at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR)‘s report on the best and worst states for young women. The study looks at economic, physical and mental health, happiness, and employment indicators. The full report comes out this spring, and you can sign up to be the first to hear about it!
International
The Girl Effect talk to Zuriel Oduwole (The Girl Effect): The 12-year-old founder of Dream Up, Speak Up, who has already met 14 world leaders, shares what she would like the world to know about what a girl can do. I want her to be my best friend!
Save the Date for Girl(s) 20 Turkey (Girl(s) 20): Mark your calendar for October 5 and 6. The fifth Girl(s) 20 conference will address issues of labor force participation, economic growth, entrepreneurship, and youth unemployment. In 2015, the conference heads to Istanbul. Women aged 18-23 can apply to participate as delegates.
Girls Globe interviews author and Girl Advocate Nadia Hashimi (Girls Globe): Check out the interview, then curl up with a good book over the long weekend. Enjoy!
Child, Bride, Mother (NY Times): The Times ran an exclusive on child marriage in Guatemala. The story features words and photographs of girls as young as 14 who married and had children. The author, Stephanie Sinclair, is the founder of Too Young to Wed.
My take on the local, national, and international girl justice news. Click here to check it out on paper.li, or scroll down and click the links to access articles directly. Enjoy!
Local
“Charity Miles: Where Fitness and Philanthropy Collide”
Powerful Voices Blog: “A Deeper Look Into King County’s $210 Million Youth Detention Project”
Ladies First, BeautyIs…
School’s Out Washington, “Legislative Session Big for Education and Could Be Big for Expanded Learning”
Techbridge, “Want to Change the Face of Technology? Look to Our Girls”
Girl Scouts of Western Washington, “Lessons in Leadership: Girl Scouts See Themselves in Politics”
Young Women Empowered, “New Year, New Partnership – THINK”
National
Everyday Feminism, “10 Learned Behaviors of a Black Girl — Everyday Feminism”
Girl Scouts, “Financial skills come with cookies”
Ad Week, “Ad of the Day: Dove’s Latest Film Encourages Girls to Love Their Curls”
The Representation Project, “Director’s Note on the Premiere of “Mask You Live In” at Sundance”
Smart Girls at the Part, “Getting My Hair Wet | Smart Girls at the Party”
Youth Today, “Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Pathways into Geoscience”
International
The Girl Effect, “Girl Effect’s best moments for girls in 2014”
“‘Malala of Bangla’ blazes the trail”
“Millions of retweets, celebrity backing but no happy ending: #BringBackOurGirls’ six-month timeline”
“A ‘Lost Boy’ Helps The Girls Of South Sudan Find An Education”
“Girls take to research, boys professional courses”
My take on the local, national, and international girl justice news. Read on for a list of articles, or click here for the pretty paper.li version.
Local
Ladies First, “You’re Invited: ‘Empowerment Project’ Special Screening”
Ladies First, “‘Annie’ Dinner and a Movie Event”
National
“Katniss and Hermione top poll of girls’ role models | Latest news from the licensing industry”
“Puberty Is Beginning Earlier in Girls, So What Can Parents Do?”
“Research Blog: Hallelujah! Feminist activism sets me free”
“White House Computer Science Education Kickoff”
“How we can best help stressed adolescent schoolgirls”
“SciGirls training with Project Scientist!”
“In Solidarity | SPARK Movement”
International
Girls’ Globe, “Using Storytelling to Create Social Change”
Girl Up, “December In My Village”
Population Council, “Ethiopian Projects Build Girls’ Assets to Help Them Avoid HIV, Other Risks“
Today is the day you can feel good about spending money! The predecessor of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is our opportunity to make a big splash spending money for social good. But why should you give for girls? Because there’s a measurable girl effect when you do, making all communities better!
Where should you give to make a difference for girls? There are LOTS of good options, but here are a few of the organizations I like to support:
Local
Young Women Empowered: Y-WE is an innovative leadership organization for teen girls. It serves over 400 girls a year from all over Western Washington.
My favorite thing: They intentionally bring girls together from different social classes, and connect girls to adult mentors. Feel excited about Y-WE? GIVE NOW!
Girls on the Run: Girls on the Run combines running with self-esteem and social/emotional health for girls grades 3-5. They serve over 1000 girls across King County.
My favorite thing: Elementary school-aged girls can leaders too! GIVE NOW! And right now you can help them get started in Snohomish County! GIVE NOW!
Powerful Voices: The grandaddy of girl justice, Powerful Voices helps girls build leadership skills and create change.
My favorite thing: They also work hard to strengthen the community by sharing their incredibly Girl Justice Training. GIVE NOW!
National
Girls Outdoor Leadership School (GOLD): I’m so proud to put this org in the national column! GOLD grew out of a merger between the Metrocenter YMCA and Passages Northwest, and now provides outdoor experiences for 400 girls across the state, AND is expanding to YMCA’s across the country!
My favorite thing: Local organization makes big on the national stage! GIVE NOW!
International
Let Girls Lead: These guys use storytelling, advocacy, and economic empowerment to improve the lives of girls across the globe.
My favorite thing: They work to support and amplify the work of local advocates. GIVE NOW!
My take on the news from the Girl Justice movement (locally, nationally, and internationally).
Local
Ann Muno, Director of Advocacy at Girls Scouts of Western Washington, contributed an Op-Ed to Youth Today about girls’ career aspirations. Through a series of focus groups, Muno found that girls express interest in the helping careers, rather than higher paying fields of STEM, trades, and entrepreneurship.
One week left to buy your tickets for the Rain City Rock Camp for Girls gala! Get your tickets to this awesome girl power party by November 7.
Girl Scouts of Western Washington needs volunteers to help move 2,600 girls off of wait lists and into troops. Think you need to be a mom to volunteer? Think again! Read the story of two women who started a troop in their twenties.
A Junior at the University of Washington reached a $120,000 settlement with Seattle Girls School for bullying she experienced as a student from 2006-2009.
Girls on the Run kicks off a new program for men who want to support girls with a kick boxing class at Cappy’s Gym.
National
CNN did a beautiful iReport where they asked readers to submit photographs of girls in STEM around the world.
“High heels: Low grades: Internalized Sexualization and Academic Orientation Among Adolescent Girls”, a paper published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, shares the results of two experiments that support the hypothesis that internal sexualization reduces academic success in girls aged 10-15. For a journalistic treatment of the study, check out the Christian Science Monitor.
In light of Mo’ne Davis’s Chevrolet add and the dismissal of PGA President Ted Bishop, Barbara Barker asks “Isn’t it time we stopped using the word ‘girl’ in a derogatory manner?”
Recent Girl Scouts Research Institute released a study that shows that while most girls are interested in making a difference in their communities, only a third report interest in running to office.
Anna Thériault at Ms. Magazine takes apart the cussing princess viral video for a business model she describes as “take something that people care deeply about, commodify it, and then make money.” She continues “using little girls as shock-value props in their t-shirt commercial is not feminist in any sense of the word. No little kid should have to wonder aloud whether or not they’ll be raped one day, and especially not just so some grownup can make money.”
International
A report from the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) calls out major brands for abuse of teenage girl employees in their factories.
If you missed the Girl(s) 20 Summit in London last August, you can read all about it and watch their recap video.
Update from Girl Hub on Ethiopia’s commitment to end child marriage by 2025.
Data Girl Consulting 