Study: To Get Her There: When Girls Succeed, So Does Society (Girl Scouts)
Finding: The potential of young women and what they can contribute to the world is not being recognized and nurtured in their formative years.
Note about The Woman Effect Research Index: This study was performed by researchers not affiliated with InPower Women. Our Research Index includes all relevant research to the subject of women, business and power. We do not influence how the research was conducted or reported by the researchers. In our abstracts, we focus on pulling out the most actionable advice for individual women. To suggest additional research we should index, or discuss our choice of abstract focus, please contact us
InPower Insight: If society pays more attention to the lack of opportunities for young girls, more young girls will have the opportunity to succeed.
Summary:
Women’s status in society has grown, and will continue to grow; that’s the good news. Are our young women and young girls growing in parallel? Are the opportunities and potential of the future generation being recognized and nurtured?
This study by The Girl Scouts of America found that the statistics about girls today can be predictive of their future success. The most notable findings regarding young girls were the following: only one in five girls believes she qualifies as a good leader and 61% of young girls are ambivalent about leadership. The research further shows that those who do have leadership qualities, lack the necessary confidence to successfully become leaders.
Career Coaching Tip: This disturbing finding puts a new focus on mentoring – not just of professional women but by professional women. It also tells us that this acculturation that we fight against to define ourselves as powerful and capable starts early. We can go easy on ourselves as we claim our power, knowing that social images of women as powerful still aren’t here to guide us. However, this should not stop us from claiming our power. Role models or not, our power is our power. No one can claim it but us.
Keywords: young girls
