My daughter turned 9 this week, and she reminds me of a wave about to hit the sand, full of power and beauty at the same time. Rarely have I wanted to turn back the clock to any earlier life stage—after all, I’m learning as I go—but girlhood right now looks pretty impressive from my towel safely above the shoreline.
Number 1: Title IX Rules
Title IX became law in 1972, so I am also a beneficiary of the legislation, but I think that my daughter will reap its rewards more fully. Title IX applies to both athletics and education, but its impact on athletic particpation is especially dramatic. In 1970 only 1 in 27 females played varsity sports; the number is 1 in 2.5 today. My daughter already plays soccer, a sport that I never encountered as an elementary school student; in fact, I didn’t have any opportunities to participate in team sports in middle or high school, either.
Number 2: Girl Power Rocks
Three cheers for the Girl Scouts! My daughter joined a Brownie troop last year, and while I don’t love everything about Girl Scouting, I do love the values of leadership and social consciousness that scouting promotes. My daughter dashes out the door to Friday meetings on dark winter evenings (when a week’s worth of work and school activities leave me feeling ready to hunker down at home) and bursts into a giggly gaggle of girls who sincerlely work—and play—at building community across differences.
Number 3: It’s All About Social Justice
My son and daugther spent last week hanging environmental responsibility signs around our house: they posted reminders on bathroom doors about conserving water during showers and decorated the hamper with a sign about wearing clean clothes more than once. Today my daughter took money to donate to a Haiti relief fund at school. To be sure these efforts are small and inconsistent (we discussed contributing to earthquake relief instead of buying birthday gifts and my daughter was not quite so selfless). Yet I’m hopeful that social justice issues are woven into her home, school, and extracurricular life in ways that reflect a larger generational trend. What do you notice about the girls in your lives, GWP readers?
Comments
MER — January 21, 2010
I think that a lot of these things really are indicative of the advances that feminism has made.
This reminds me of a conversation that I had with a few of my female classmates about a gender studies class we were taking. A large segment of the class was devoted to talking about socialization of girls, and how it effects the workplace.
A lot of the points that our 60 something professor brought up seemed foreign and maybe a little untrue for our lives. Now this is not to say that the issues have gone away, and there is definitely selection bias in my experience.
There was a definite disconnect between our professor's experience and that of our class; The number's haven't caught up yet, but in our experience math and science are perfectly viable fields.
I know very few girls that haven't played sports from 5th grade through 12th.
After doing a lot of reading about gender issues, I've become a lot more observant. So I started keeping a tally of the number of times men and women in my classes speak. I have not seen a real difference (granted, I'm an English major at a private university that's 60-65% female. Some serious sample bias here).
At least in student organizations, proportions of men and women in leadership positions are even if not majority women.
And even beyond that, I can't think of a woman in my life (or girl), that fits our book or professor's definition of how society says they should be.
Bob Lamm — January 22, 2010
Thanks for this great statement on behalf of Title IX, which I believe has been and continues to be very important as part of the fight for better lives for women and girls in the United States.
In 1970, when I was just out of college, I taught 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at a Montessori school on Manhattan's Upper West Side. One afternoon when we'd taken our kids to a school playground, I noticed four-year-old Karen staring through the fence at a group of junior high school age boys playing basketball. Karen's mother was a dancer; Karen was a lively, well-coordinated kid.
I watched Karen staring and staring at these boys. And I thought: "If I say to her that girls can play basketball too, she'll think I'm lying or a fool. She's undoubtedly NEVER seen girls or women play basketball or most other sports." I said nothing.
But now, thanks to Title IX, the four-year-old Karens of our society can watch girls of all ages play basketball and can go to WNBA games or watch them on television. And some of those four-year-olds will be the basketball stars of the future.
Allison Kimmich — January 22, 2010
MER, I absolutely agree that feminism has played an important role in shaping the world for girls today, and that it is indeed a different (and better) reality from even the world in which I grew up.
Angela Davis had some terrific thoughts on this very point during her National Women's Studies Association keynote address. You can see the video here: http://www.nwsa.org
In a nutshell, she said that people often tell her that young people today don't understand how difficult things were. She said she agrees--they don't understand--and she's happy about that!
Allison Kimmich — January 22, 2010
Bob, you're so right. I would not even have been aware of the impact were it not for my daughter. She is definitely growing up in a world where she can see prominent female athletes and be athletic herself from an early age.
Thanks again, Title IX!
Aranya — January 31, 2010
Coming from India I find it hard to agree with. Now I am a part of the female population in India which is educated and has a lot of freedom but still not absolute freedom.
When I go to rural areas in India I am hard pressed to find a face which is not covered behind the saree pallu (the edge of the saree used to cover one's head and face).Its a symbol of respect to adults .The problem in India is of symbology and keeping up with traditions.They usually end up being anti-woman as they are seen as the upholders of cultural integrity.
I sometimes see women being treated like beasts of labour.
The cities are a lot better .
I think its great being a girl today only if you are born at the right place.
Aranya
Allison Kimmich — February 1, 2010
Aranya, I with you 100%. My daughter is half-Indian, and we travel to India frequently. I do think that gender norms and expectations "travel" very differently around the world. But I would even say that in a US context it can be very challenging to a be a girl if you're born into circumstances of violence, poverty, etc. Often feminists understandably focus on problems (and there are plenty of them!), so this post was just a thumbnail sketch to point to some successes in the US.
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