In Washington D.C. yesterday, Girl Scouts of the USA Chief Executive Officer Anna
Maria Chávez and GSUSA Chief Research Executive Judy Schoenberg, participated
in the first-ever White House Research Conference on Girls.
The
White House Research Conference on Girls will bring together leading experts on
issues uniquely affecting girls. At this conference, a group of individuals and
organizations that conduct high-quality research on girls announced the
formation of the first-ever National Girls’ Research Coalition, an effort to
make research on girls more accessible and available to individuals in all
sectors In the coming months, the
coalition plans to launch an online portal to serve as a clearinghouse for
research on girls, with the goal of making such research available to service
providers, educators, academics, advocates and members of the media and others whose
work directly impacts girls’ lives.
During
the White House Research Conference, Ms. Chávez spoke on a panel where she
shared findings from The State of Girls: Unfinished Business, a groundbreaking
report by the Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI) emphasizing the economic,
physical, and emotional health needs of American girls. Schoenberg discussed the
new leadership landscape of girls and young women, presenting findings from GSRI’s
Change It Up! What Girls Say about Redefining Leadership.
“Throughout
the world, girls confront challenges that can affect everything from their
cognitive development to their understanding of their role in their
communities,” said Ms. Chavez. “As the leading
expert on girls, Girl Scouts is uniquely situated to understand the
difficulties girls face, and to help the girl-serving community of
organizations and nonprofits channel their research energy to maximize their
impact for girls.”
More
than half of American girls say they don't aspire to be leaders, turned off by
the conventional conception of leadership as command and control, according to ChangeIt Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership.
"It's
clear from the research that girls today don't embrace the conventional style
of leadership," Schoenberg. "It's simply not how they want to lead.
Girls today appear to be redefining leadership in terms of being more inclusive
and serving a larger purpose." Girl Scouts is proud to be collaborating
with experts focused on helping girls reach their fullest potential through the
establishment of the National Girls’ Research Coalition.