Girls Can Change the World

International Girls Day is on November 14th. This is a day set aside to recognize the potential that all women and girls have to impact their families, communities and the world.  This year's slogan, "She Can Do Anything" sums up the message that is being used to instill confidence in all girls.

If you belong to a girls'/women's group, plan an activity to celebrate the potential in each of your members.  For event ideas and a planning kit click here.

An amazing 16 year old from Pakistani has been in the media over the last year since she survived a deadly gunshot to the head by the Taliban fighter who jumped on her school bus and shouted, "Who is Malala?' The Taliban are against the education of girls and Malala had been speaking out about her God-given right to attend school.  Malala Yousafzai miraculously survived and has become an advocate for girls' education. This week in a conversation with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, she said "I am proud to be a girl, and I know that girls can change the world."  She recently released a book "I Am Malala"  which describes this life-threatening experience and was a top candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Girls Can Change the World"

Consider this information from ASCD.... Medically speaking: What's In Her Head?
 

A girl's corpus callosum (the connecting bundle of tissues between hemispheres) is, on average, larger than a boy's—up to 25 percent larger by adolescence. This enables more “cross talk” between hemispheres in the female brain.

Girls have, in general, stronger neural connectors in their temporal lobes than boys have. These connectors lead to more sensually detailed memory storage, better listening skills, and better discrimination among the various tones of voice. This leads, among other things, to greater use of detail in writing assignments.

The hippocampus (another memory storage area in the brain) is larger in girls than in boys, increasing girls' learning advantage, especially in the language arts.

Girls' prefrontal cortex is generally more active than boys' and develops at earlier ages. For this reason, girls tend to make fewer impulsive decisions than boys do. Further, girls have more serotonin in the bloodstream and the brain, which makes them biochemically less impulsive.

Girls generally use more cortical areas of their brains for verbal and emotive functioning. Boys tend to use more cortical areas of the brain for spatial and mechanical functioning (Moir & Jessel, 1989; Rich, 2000).

Emotionally speaking: What's On Her Mind?

74% of girls say they are under pressure to please everyone.

31% of girls ages 13-17 admit to starving themselves or refusing to eat as a strategy to lose weight.

Roughly a third of high school girls report being sexually active.

60% of teen girls say they compare their bodies to those of fashion models.

Three-quarters of middle high school principals say that bullying is a serious problem at their school.

Girls who have significant symptoms of depression as teens are 86% more likely than their peers to become victims of abuse from a boyfriend or husband as young women.

23.5% of high school females engaged in episodic heavy drinking.

3 out of 4 girls say they feel pressure to be “super girls.”

Clearly, data supports that females are smart and possess the potential to change the world but they must be nurtured, uplifted,valued and loved by their families, friends, schools and communities.

Stay Connected!
Dr. Dee Carter

Additional Resources:
Care Organization
Confidence Coalition
Day of the Girl