With all the advancements that women have made in recent years, they are still grossly underrepresented in top corporate and government positions. Girl Scouts of the USA had embarked on a mission to build the world’s best-integrated leadership development model for girls. However, little research had explored girls’ attitudes towards leadership and their aspirations to become leaders.
Change It Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership
About This Project
While the topic of gender and leadership has been widely explored by social scientists and management practitioners, little or no specific in-depth research has been done on how girls and youth view leadership itself. Girls explore leadership opportunities in school and college, on the sports field, in after-school programs, and in other social institutions and organizations, but little is known about how they understand their leadership experiences, their motivations for pursuing these opportunities, or the implications of their current behaviors and attitudes on their future lives. Fluent conducted a seminal study to fill this gap in knowledge and give voice to girls on a wide range of issues related to leadership.
Fluent conducted a large-scale study with over 4,000 girls and boys to explore their definitions of leadership, their experiences with leadership, and to identify barriers and opportunities for engaging in leadership roles and developing leadership skills.
Girl Scouts of the USA used the results of the research in the development of their leadership model for girls, to inspire girls to be leaders of today and tomorrow. The research was presented by Girl Scouts of the USA in a testimony to the US Congress.