Girl Scouts of the USA launched ToGetHerThere, the largest, boldest advocacy and fundraising cause dedicated to girls’ leadership in the nation’s history. The multi-year effort will seek to create balanced leadership – the equal representation of women in leadership positions in all sectors and levels of society  – within one generation.

A voice can build a supportive environment. Speak up and get involved.

Support STEM Careers for Girls
High-paying science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers provide a financial future for girls.

When given a choice in 4th grade whether to continue studying math, 91% of girls say “yes.” By 12th grade, only 50% of girls would continue. As a result, women account for less than 20% of the bachelor’s degrees in engineering, computer science, and physics; make up less than 12% of the engineering workforce; and hold only 10% of physics teaching positions at American colleges and universities.

A number of factors influence girls’ pursuit of STEM careers, including poor self-perception, teacher bias, gender stereotypes, and failure of schools to accommodate learning differences between boys and girls. Yet every girl needs the opportunity to explore the high-earning STEM fields that are changing the world.

Prevent Cyberbullying and Aggression
Spread the word about the emotional damage of the mean-girl culture. Bullying can take many forms, but girls are more likely to use behaviors like shunning, taunting, spreading rumors, and betraying a confidence, both online and offline. Teachers and parents tend to write off these behaviors as a “part of growing up,” but the impact is severe.

• Girls say technology allows them to treat their peers more cruelly, without having to see the immediate response to their behavior.
• 38% of girls worry about their emotional safety when spending time with their peers.
• Cyberbullying starts as early as second grade, and 85% of middle-school students say they’ve been cyberbullied at least once.

Focusing only on physical bullying that causes physical harm isn’t enough. We need to protect the physical and emotional security of girls, so that they can achieve their full potential.

Promote Healthy Images of Women
Change the way the world views women – and the way girls see themselves. Girls ages 8 to 18 consume more than 10 hours per day of media messages, and the media images they see of women and girls affect their confidence, body image, relationships, and leadership aspirations.

• In media messages and images, females were over five times as likely as males to be show in sexually revealing clothing.
• Eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed mood are all linked to sexualization of girls and women in media.
• Nearly 90% of girls say they feel pressure from media to be thin, and 31% admit to starving themselves or refusing to eat as a weight-loss strategy.

Girls need your help. Together, we can change the way the world views women – and the way girls see themselves.

Click here to take the ToGetHerThere Pledge.