A Girl's Place
is in the Universe

This drop appears in three ways: The first is academic decline; girls experience lower achievement and lower enrollment in science and mathematics courses. The second is diminishing dreams; girls look outward, encountering sexism, discrimination, and violence toward women in our culture. The third is self-silencing; girls' voices, once confident and assertive, are "softened" to fit the societal sex-role expectations of compliance and passivity.

We do not need to protect girls from adolescence itself; rather we need to give them the skills so that as they grow, they can keep the strong parts of themselves that they value.

Girls should be immunized with empowerment. By finding their own voices, girls identify their talents and capabilities. This provides a direction and a shelter to revisit when faced with the pervasive negative messages they may encounter in adolescence.

A source of strength for girls in school is Girls' Group. The group has four goals: One, build a community of girls; two, develop a sense of self-worth, self-confidence, and self-advocacy; three, celebrate women's history and contributions; and four, meet role models and mentors in our community.

The group is informal, voluntary, and combines both planned activities and informal social interaction. It is a weekly meeting for girls in grades three through six to develop self-esteem, promote self-advocacy, and develop "voice".

There are four major styles, or "voices," in which the girls have responded to Girls' Group and the issues we address. These four voices are "sister," "critic," "whistle-blower," and "girl-next-door." "Sister" is a girl who benefits primarily through her social growth from Girls' Group. "Critic" is a girl who, through Girls' Group, finally has the place to share her frustrations and the freedom to explain her views. "Whistle-blower," based on Brown and Gilligan's whistle-blower (1992), is a girl whose keen critical thinking skills and personality enable her to challenge assumptions of our society. Finally, "girl-next-door" is the girl who finds her own power and pride in developing her feminine identity.

"Sister"

The "sister" girls attend Girls' Group because they enjoy the social aspect of the meetings. They expand their peer groups, and break away from grade level and classroom identities. In Girls' Group they have common interests; they seek connections with other girls. Favorite activities for these girls include the "downtime" at the beginning of the group meeting, when the girls sit in a circle and eat lunches, chatting informally before the official discussion begin. They love the organized games, like Pictionary, charades, or knock-knock joke contests. They are highly motivated to organize parties and celebrations. They love to dance together. The "sisters" have trusting, open relationships that last outside of Girls' Group. One example of a "sister" is a girl I will call Sara.

"Sara" was the tallest girl in the sixth grade. Based on my observations of Sara in class and in Girls' Group, she often felt out of place and outside of her peers' friendship circles. She was an excellent reader and had a mature awareness. I introduced her to an articulate third grade girl and asked the two of them to come up with an announcement for Girls' Group. For the next several days they spent recess and lunches together, drafting announcement scripts and designing advertising posters. Sara became an idol to a core group of third graders. When she would come to group, they would crowd around her, pulling her hands to get attention as she towered over them. Down she would sit for the meeting and instantly disagreements would break out among the younger girls as to whose turn it was to sit with Sara. I perceived that when Sara felt wanted and liked, it was a tremendous boost for her confidence and esteem. She was valued for her outrageous ideas and her uninhibited dancing at celebrations. Sara was valued for both social and intellectual contributions.

Sara's ability to balance voice and relationships was one of the surprises of Girls' Group. Brown and Gilligan (1992) contend that as girls enter adolescence their relationships threaten their voices. Girls, they say, lose relationships if they speak their true thoughts and feelings, so they establish "false relationships" in which they are silent or carefully moderate their voices. This pattern was frequently evident, but the group helped alleviate this problem for many girls, but especially for Sara. As Belenky et al (1986) report, the discovery of voice can be facilitated: "To learn to speak in a unique and authentic voice, women must 'jump outside' the frames and systems authorities provide and create their own frame." "Sara" was able to form strong social connections because she had a new context, that is, she was able to form relationships that were not based on existing social patterns in her class and grade. Thus, the cross-grade composition of the group was a strength. In addition, establishing the group as something other than a regular class proved to be a critical factor in its success, not only for Sara but for many of the "sister" girls. The group became a place to redefine social roles and relationships into "honest", instead of Brown and Gilligan's "false" relationships that exist in so many social groups. This seems to be a valuable step towards facilitating the strengthening of voice.