Girls

Progress without Equity: The Provision of High School Athletic Opportunity in the United States, by Gender 1993-94 through 2005-06

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 11/17/2011 - 11:04am

This first-of-its-kind report on gender and high school sports participation, “Progress Without Equity: The Provision of High School Athletic Opportunity in the United States, by Gender 1993-94 through 2005-06,” flows from an analysis of high schools that is unprecedented in its national and historical scope. It uses merged data from the Civil Rights Data Collection and the Common Core of Data, which is collected by the National Center for Education Statistics.

URL:

http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/home/research/articles-and-reports/school-and-colleges/the-provision-of-hs-athletic-opportunity-in-the-us-by-gender-1993-94-through-2005-06

Member Organization:

Women's Sports Foundation

High School Girls Prove Worthy Fund Managers

Teaser:

The ING-Girls Inc. Investment Challenge brings Wall Street to local classrooms.

Editorial:

From the article:

Financial literacy education for school kids typically focuses on the very basics -- saving money, opening a bank account, paying bills. The ING-Girls Inc. Investment Challenge takes a much different approach, bringing Wall Street to local classrooms.

Teams of high school girls start off by learning all those fundamentals of managing money. Then the real challenge begins: Learning about stocks and mutual funds, the girls begin investing with $20,000 virtual portfolios (supplemented monthly over the course of the year until each team has received a total $50,000).

With their portfolios, they learn about core investing principles such as asset allocation, diversification, portfolio turnover and valuation. The girls invest in mutual funds for the first six months of the challenge, then move on to individual securities.

After three years, 75% of any gains in the portfolio will be paid by the ING Foundation to the girls in the form of Girls Inc. scholarships for post-secondary education; 25% of the gains will be given to the local Girls Inc. affiliate to support local programming. The original $50,000 principal is re-assigned to an incoming team.

The partnership with the ING Foundation and nonprofit Girls Inc., launched in 2009, runs in New York City, Denver, Los Angeles, Holyoke, Mass., Atlanta and Alameda County in California. The program is to expand soon to Houston and Washington, D.C.

The girls often proved expectations wrong, says Laurin Cathey, head of multicultural affairs forING Americas(ING _), who oversees the program.

To start with, they quickly outgrew the trading platform provided for them and wanted a better, up-to-the-minute system.

"Something that was more real-time and more accurate was a lot more attractive to them than something that was a delayed-response platform," he says.

ING also learned the girls, despite their age, were not overly aggressive or impulsive.

"We all thought they were just going to walk in and start spending money because it wasn't theirs and they didn't have a long history of knowledge relative to investing," Cathey says. "We all thought they would be very aggressive early on. But immediately they really started to weigh investment decisions -- so much so that early on a few of our teams were hesitant to get going because they were having very robust discussions about what were the right stocks to choose and right decisions to make."

...

Source:

The Street

URL:

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11306281/1/high-school-girls-prove-worthy-fund-managers.html

Date:

November 15, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Smart Cookies: Girl Scouts Learn Financial Literacy

Teaser:

A new overhaul of the Girl Scout merit badge program includes learning some decidedly 21st-century survival skills: budgeting, comparison shopping and good credit.

Editorial:

From the article:

Think the Girl Scouts are all about making s’mores and campground sit-upons? Think again. A new overhaul of the organization’s merit badge program includes learning some decidedly 21st-century survival skills: budgeting, comparison shopping and good credit. “Many people, not just girls, need some basic financial literacy skills,” says Suzanne Harper, director of program resources for Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

Harper says the average school curriculum today teaches kids little, if anything, about budgeting, banking and credit. Girl Scout leaders worked on the financial literacy program in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which helped highlight both the need for more education about financial topics as well as where the knowledge gaps are greatest. “There’s a lot of fear among young people,” Harper says. When kids saw that even adults could have their financial stability taken away, she says it made them ask, “How can I keep from having that happen?”

The Girl Scout program starts with kindergarten-age girls and teaches them the basics about money — how much different coins and bills are worth — along with the differences between needs and wants. Harper says the curriculum is progressive, so each girl builds on what she’s already learned in each successive year. In a Scout’s final years of high school, she learns about real-world topics, like how to create a budget for living on her own after college.

They can also earn a badge called “Good Credit.” “I think it’s even harder for teenagers these days because they start getting all these credit card offers in the mail,” Harper says. “It can really hurt them.”

For this badge, girls learn what a credit score is and what factors make it go up or down. Badge-earners also learn how credit cards and bank loans work, and go to family and community members to talk about real-life borrowing situations. “We encourage them to talk to financial experts,” Harper says.

To develop the financial literacy curriculum, Girl Scout educators convened an advisory panel made up of professionals from the banking sector, from nonprofits that focus on financial literacy and from government agencies like the FDIC and Small Business Administration.

Source:

Time

URL:

http://moneyland.time.com/2011/11/14/smart-cookies-girl-scouts-teach-financial-literacy/

Date:

November 15, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Shifting Boundaries: Final Report on an Experimental Evaluation of a Youth Dating Violence Prevention Program in New York City Middle Schools

Submitted by asklar on Sat, 11/12/2011 - 4:57pm

The purpose of this multi-level experiment was to provide high-quality scientific evidence concerning the effectiveness of targeting a young, universal primary prevention audience with classroom-based curricula and school-level interventions.

URL:

https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=258169

Karamatuna: An Investigation into the Sex Trafficking of Iraqi Women and Girls

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 4:22pm

This programme works to combat the sex-trafficking of women and children in the Middle East, whilst protecting them from gender based violence.

URL:

http://www.sce-me.org/component/content/article/211

Girl Up Highlights the Importance of Counting Girls as World Population Grows to 7 Billion

Teaser:

Girl Up is drawing attention to the need to count, advocate for and invest in girls worldwide. Investing in a girl today means in the future she will have the tools to reinvest back into her family and community, which helps build a better world for all of us.

Editorial:

From the press release:

With the seventh billion child expected to be born this month, Girl Up is drawing attention to the need to count, advocate for and invest in girls worldwide. Investing in a girl today means in the future she will have the tools to reinvest back into her family and community, which helps build a better world for all of us.

Today's youth generation is the largest in history with more than 1.2 billion adolescents ages 10 to 19, half of whom are girls. As such a sizeable segment of the population, adolescent girls represent the world's greatest source of untapped potential. Research shows that less than two cents of every development dollar goes toward adolescent girls, and according to the Population Council, in some cases 80-90% of youth program participants are boys.

“With a growing population of adolescent girls among the world's 7 billion people, it is more important than ever that we ensure all girls are provided with the tools, information and resources they need to bring about change,” said Gina Reiss-Wilchins, Director of Girl Up. “Counting girls in order to properly steer national and development resources can help prevent child marriage, afford girls access to education, provide them with health services and prepare them to be the next generation of future leaders.”

Adolescent girls have tremendous potential, and we know the keys to unlocking that potential are access to quality education, health information and services, social and economic skills training, and violence prevention and protection services. Yet, because research rarely measures adolescent girls as a segment, they become invisible and our ability to meet their needs is jeopardized.

...

Source:

Benzinga

URL:

http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/11/10/p2019255/girl-up-highlights-the-importance-of-counting-girls-as-world-population

Date:

November 9, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Nearly Half of Students Experienced Sexual Harassment at School Last Year

Teaser:

Sexual harassment pervades the lives of students in grades 7–12, according to a report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School, the most comprehensive, nationally representative research conducted in the past 10 years on sexual harassment in middle and high schools.

Editorial:

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) today released Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School, the most comprehensive, nationally representative research conducted in the past 10 years on sexual harassment in middle and high schools.

Sexual harassment pervades the lives of students in grades 7–12. Nearly half of those surveyed reported that they had been harassed in the 2010–11 school year. Of that number, a majority (87 percent) said that being harassed had a negative effect on them. Among the responses, one-third said they did not want to go to school as a result of the harassment. Another third said they felt sick to their stomachs.

The prevalence of sexual harassment in middle and high school comes as a surprise to many, in part because it is rarely reported. Only about 9 percent of harassed students told a teacher, guidance counselor, or other adult at school about being sexually harassed.

"The AAUW report Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School is a call to action to students, parents, teachers, and all of us who are concerned about the next generation," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. "Many students feel sexual harassment is normal behavior, and often victims of sexual harassment in turn victimize other children. It's a vicious cycle that exacts an enduring emotional toll on students."

Included in the report are promising practices for how teachers, parents, and community groups in particular can help change the school climate.

"The good news is that the more we know about sexual harassment at school, the better we can combat it," said AAUW Director of Research and co-author Catherine Hill. "This report is nationally representative and provides fresh insight into this problem."

Creating, publicizing, and enforcing sexual harassment policies and adhering to the requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 are other ways schools can bring attention to the issue and chip away at the problem.

"Our report clearly shows that, in many instances, we are failing to provide the safe environment necessary for our children to succeed," said Lisa Maatz, AAUW director of public policy and government relations. "Children and their families are too often left to fend for themselves when kids are harassed. Congress needs to strengthen federal protection for all students, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, perceived gender identity, or religion."

On Tuesday, November 15, AAUW will host an event at the National Press Club on the topic featuring Rosalind Wiseman, an AAUW fellowship recipient, youth expert, and author of Queen Bees and Wannabes, the book that inspired the film Mean Girls; Kedrick Griffin, senior director of programs at Men Can Stop Rape; and Ileana Jiménez, educator at the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York.

Source:

American Association of University Women

URL:

http://www.aauw.org/media/pressreleases/crossingtheline_110711.cfm

Date:

November 7, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Crossing the Line (2011)

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 11/07/2011 - 11:21am

Based on findings from a nationally representative survey conducted in May and June, 2011, this report presents the most comprehensive research to date on sexual harassment in grades 7-12 and reveals some sobering statistics about the prevalence of sexual harassment and the negative impact it has on students' education.

The report concludes with concrete recommendations and promising practices for preventing sexual harassment directed at school administrators, educators, parents, students and community members.

URL:

http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/crossingtheline.cfm

Member Organization:

American Association of University Women

Child Marriage

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 11/02/2011 - 10:17am

Child marriage most often occurs in poor, rural communities. In many regions, parents arrange their daughter’s marriage unbeknownst to the girl. That can mean that one day, she may be at home playing with her siblings, and the next, she’s married off and sent to live in another village with her husband and his family – strangers, essentially. She is pulled out of school. She is separated from her peers. And once married, she is more likely to be a victim of domestic violence and suffer health complications associated with early sexual activity and childbearing.

ICRW’s early research provided a deeper understanding of the scope, causes and consequences of child marriage. Now, our experts are focused on how to prevent – and ultimately end – the practice.

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/what-we-do/adolescents/child-marriage

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2011 - So, what about boys?

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 10/31/2011 - 10:20am

'Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2011 - So, what about boys?’ is the fifth in a series of annual reports published by Plan examining the rights of girls throughout their childhood, adolescence and as young women.

The report shows that far from being an issue just for women and girls, gender is also about boys and men, and that this needs to be better understood if we are going to have a positive impact on societies and economies.

Drawing on research and case studies, the report argues that working for equality must involve men and boys both as holders of power and as a group that is also suffering the consequences of negative gender stereotypes.

It also makes recommendations for action, showing policy makers and planners what can make a real difference to girls’ lives all over the world.

URL:

http://plan-international.org/about-plan/resources/publications/campaigns/because-i-am-a-girl-so-what-about-boys

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What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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