Leadership in Girl Scouting
Want your Daughter to be a Leader?
Promoting leadership is above all about fostering self-confidence and providing positive environments in which to acquire experience.
Exploring Girls' Leadership From the inception of Girl Scouting in the United States in 1912, founder Juliette Gordon Low recognized that developing girls’ leadership abilities was a critical factor for ensuring that they would be the change-makers of the future. One way for girls to create change for themselves and others is to assume leadership roles. The Girl Scout Research Institute has embarked on a body of work to explore how girls understand leadership and what it means to be a leader, and to further the mission of Girl Scouts of the USA: Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. Here are some quick tips on raising girls to be leaders. Read the full report here.
Change It Up
While the topic of gender and leadership has been widely explored by social scientists and management practitioners, little or no specific in-depth research has been done on how girls and youth view leadership itself. Girls explore leadership opportunities in school and college, on the sports field, in after-school programs, and in other social institutions and organizations, but little is known about how they understand their leadership experiences, their motivations for pursuing these opportunities, or the implications of their current behaviors and attitudes on their future lives. Will the leadership experiences of this generation of girls translate into their obtaining greater leadership roles as adults? What kind of leadership does this generation of girls aspire to and connect with? What do we need to know in order to support the next generation of girl and women leaders?
Change It Up! presents findings from a national study of girls and boys on a broad spectrum of issues related to leadership: how they define it; their experiences, failures, and successes with leadership experimentation; their aspirations, hopes, and fears; the effect of gender biases and stereotypes; and predictors of leadership aspiration. From the evidence of this report, girls are clearly saying that we need to “change it up” in how we define and think about leadership. Read the Change it Up Insights Summary or the entire Change It Up Document here.
Promoting leadership is above all about fostering self-confidence and providing positive environments in which to acquire experience.
Exploring Girls' Leadership From the inception of Girl Scouting in the United States in 1912, founder Juliette Gordon Low recognized that developing girls’ leadership abilities was a critical factor for ensuring that they would be the change-makers of the future. One way for girls to create change for themselves and others is to assume leadership roles. The Girl Scout Research Institute has embarked on a body of work to explore how girls understand leadership and what it means to be a leader, and to further the mission of Girl Scouts of the USA: Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. Here are some quick tips on raising girls to be leaders. Read the full report here.
Change It Up
While the topic of gender and leadership has been widely explored by social scientists and management practitioners, little or no specific in-depth research has been done on how girls and youth view leadership itself. Girls explore leadership opportunities in school and college, on the sports field, in after-school programs, and in other social institutions and organizations, but little is known about how they understand their leadership experiences, their motivations for pursuing these opportunities, or the implications of their current behaviors and attitudes on their future lives. Will the leadership experiences of this generation of girls translate into their obtaining greater leadership roles as adults? What kind of leadership does this generation of girls aspire to and connect with? What do we need to know in order to support the next generation of girl and women leaders?
Change It Up! presents findings from a national study of girls and boys on a broad spectrum of issues related to leadership: how they define it; their experiences, failures, and successes with leadership experimentation; their aspirations, hopes, and fears; the effect of gender biases and stereotypes; and predictors of leadership aspiration. From the evidence of this report, girls are clearly saying that we need to “change it up” in how we define and think about leadership. Read the Change it Up Insights Summary or the entire Change It Up Document here.