What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership

Change It Up!

http://www.girlscouts.org/research/publications/girlleadership/change_it_up.asp

By Judy Schoenberg, Ed.M., Senior Researcher; Kimberlee Salmond, M.P.P., Senior Researcher; Paula Fleshman, M.S., Research and Evaluation Analyst. (New York, N.Y.: Girl Scouts of the USA, 2008). (Executive Summary, 52 pp.)

Girls aspire to be leaders that are change agents and help others. However, their vision of leadership is frequently overshadowed by the dominant command-and-control style. To encourage girls to be leaders, the definition of leadership needs to be reconsidered and programs need to address the specific obstacles that girls face on their journey to success. 

1. Girls need to feel empowered to make a difference in the world. 

2.     Even at a young age, girls have definite ideas about what it means and takes to be a leader.
It was discovered that while girls, and boys, define leadership by its authoritative and controlling characteristics, they find this definition of leadership the least appealing and inspiring. They prefer to define leaders by their ethical behavior, personal principles, and ability to effect social change. Many girls emphasize what leadership should be used for, rather than focus on specific roles or positions. This way 

3.     of thinking leads girls to value leaders who stand up for their beliefs and can get things done. 

The disconnect between the traditional definition of leadership and the type
of leader girls want to be causes girls to reject the definition and become ambivalent to leadership as a goal. 
Though youth don’t consider being a leader one of their top priorities, the majority of girls would not mind being a leader. With fewer than 9%
of girls rejecting leadership completely and 39% of girls wanting to be leaders, reimagining leadership is essential to the development 
of future women leaders. 

Leadership is highly idealized, with youth expecting leaders not only to be confident, assertive, and persuasive, but honest, caring, nice, and creative too.
39% of girls want to be leaders. A comparison between girls’ self-assessment and the qualities considered paramount for leadership, including being organized, being good at dealing with conflict, taking charge, being a strong decision-maker, and having motivation, reveals that girls are not yet confident about having the essential skills and competencies they think of as most important for a leader. 
The factor that most strongly influences girls’ desire to pursue leadership is confidence. Recognizing the strong tie between confidence and leadership aspirations is essential to breaking down barriers and building up girls. 
Girls not interested in leading identify a litany of barriers, the most significant being: 

·       lack of confidence in skills and competence 

·       stress

·       talking in front of others 

·       potential embarrassment 

·       appearing bossy 

·       negative peer pressure 

Fully one-third of girls who do not want to be leaders attribute their lack of motivation
to fear of being laughed at, making people mad at them, coming across as bossy, or not being liked by people. 

When analyzing the effects of age, a striking trend appears: as girls get older, they are less likely to engage in some forms of leadership, 
Thirty-nine percent of girls report having been discouraged or put down, usually by peers and classmates, when they were trying to lead. 

Youth know that gender stereotypes are resilient to change. Fifty-six percent of youth believe that “in our society, it is more difficult for a woman to become a leader than for a man.” An almost equal percentage of girls believe that “girls have to work harder than boys in order to gain positions
of leadership,” but boys are reluctant to agree to this statement (only 44% agree). These findings spotlight the environmental barriers that still exist for girls and young women pursuing leadership roles. When statements about women’s or mens’ roles or qualities are posed, boys and girls find
no difference in their inherent abilities.

 However, women are judged by youth to be better at fulfilling traditionally feminine roles, such as “taking care of others,” “forming and maintaining relationships,” “running a household,” and “listening to others.” These stereotypes can inhibit girls’ aspirations for leadership because girls are sent the message that it is inappropriate for them to behave outside the narrow range of “accepted” female qualities/roles. 

Ie. what it means to be “feminine” and
exhibiting stereotypically “female” behaviors like being nice, quiet, polite, agreeable, and liked by all. 

As we move further into the 21st century, it is imperative to ask and explore questions that address girls' attitudes, perceptions, behaviors, and experiences of leadership. 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? Will the leadership experiences of girls today translate into greater leadership roles for them tomorrow?