Girls Schools

resources and information for girls schools

"What a Girl Needs"  -  Young Women's Leadership Network

Digital Divide:  The Special Case of Gender

This paper examines the evidence for the digital divide based on gender.  An overview of research published in the last 20 years draws to the conclusion that females are at a relative disadvantage to men when learning about computers or learning other material with the aid of computer-assisted software.  The evidence shows that the digital divide affects people of all ages and across international boundaries.  We suggest that the digital divide is fundamentally a problem of computer anxiety whose roots are deep in socialization patterns of boys and girls and that interact with the stereotype of computers as toys for boys.

Books on Girls and Girls Schools

Learning Like a Girl: Educating Our Daughters in Schools of Their Own
Diana Meehan

Meehan…is driven by her belief that girls deserve classrooms of their own with teachers mindful of their possibilities, who prize education, and encourage their multi-dimensional success. We agree. A girl-centered education is indeed a transformative experience.

All Girls: Single-Sex Education and Why it Matters
Karen Stabiner

Investigative journalist Karen Stabiner spent pivotal years with the young women of two very different girls' schools: Marlborough, an elite prep school in Los Angeles, and The Young Women's Leadership School in East Harlem, an experimental public school. On both coasts, her subjects are fascinating young women on the brink of adulthood, whose choices will affect their lives. Even-handed and thought-provoking, All Girls could change the way we educate all children in the future.

Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters
Joann Deak

Author JoAnn Deak draws from the latest brain research to illustrate the exciting new ways we can help our daughters learn and thrive. She celebrates girls with a keen understanding of their intellectual, physical and emotional lives. Cultivating competence, confidence and connections is the bottom line of this important work.

Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women
Freeman A. Hrabowski III, Kenneth I. Maton, Monica L. Greene, Geoffrey L. Greif, Geoffrey Greif

Drawing on interviews with students and parents, the authors answer the question, What does it take to succeed academically? Separate chapters allow mothers and fathers to voice their particular concerns about and approaches to raising black women, including how to exercise discipline, provide support, and keep students motivated. And the young women themselves speak about the challenges they face and how they keep themselves focused. (Source: American Library Association)

In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development
Carol Gilligan

The book that triggered an academic revolution, demonstrating that girls think, interact, display leadership and make decisions in ways unique both psychologically and developmentally. A classic in the field of single-sex education.

How Girls Thrive: An Essential Guide for Parents and Educators
JoAnn Deak

In her introduction to the book, Mary Pipher summarizes the book by saying: "She... offers us good original thinking on the much muddied concept of self-esteem. Her ideas are both theoretical and practical and are presented in ways that have implications for actions."

School Girls:  Young Women, Self-esteem, and the Confidence Gap
Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein approached the topic of girls and self esteem with her journalistic background. She uses a narrative approach to tell the story of adolescent self-esteem and the difference between how girls and boys are taught to think about themselves.

Reviving Ophelia
Mary Pipher

The classic book of girls and self-esteem in the 1990s. Mary Pipher poignantly paints the portrait of diminishing self-esteem of girls as they travel through the adolescent years.