Choosing Community

Choosing Community:
Girls Get Together To Be Themselves

Girls get numerous and important benefits from girls' communities

Girls who participate in girls' communities are more likely to expect to go to college than girls who have never participated (81% vs. 65%).
Girls who participate in girls' communities are more likely than girls who have never participated to read books (46% vs. 33%).
Girls who participate in girls' communities are more likely than girls who have never participated to play sports (52% vs. 26%).
Girls who participate in girls' communities are more likely to feel safe in their schools. Sixty-three percent of girls who participate in girls' communities report feeling very safe in their classrooms at school compared to 50% of girls who never participated.

Both girls and boys recognize the value of girls' communities

Two-thirds of students (67%) believe that girls are more likely to say what they really feel in groups with only girls.
Half of secondary school students believe that girls are more likely to be listened to (49%) and to be leaders (49%) in groups with only girls.
Forty-five percent of secondary schools students believe that girls are more likely to try new things in groups with only girls.

Girls still feel limited by gender stereotypes

Girls believe that it is easier for boys to achieve their goals than it is for girls (80% vs. 69%).
Twenty-eight percent of girls in grades 7-12 say that people often or very often decide what they can or cannot do only because they are girls.
Twenty-five percent of girls in grades 7-12 believe that when they are adults, people will often or very often decide what they can or cannot do only because they are women.

Girls' participation in girls' communities is limited by their economic circumstances.

Girls whose mothers have only a high school degree or less are almost twice as likely to say that they have never participated in a girls' community as girls whose mothers graduated college.