As an educator in all-girls schools, I struggle with the knowledge that upon graduation, girls will face a world that is not made for them. Few places beyond the insular environment of an all-girls school are designed intentionally to meet girls' unique needs. Despite our best efforts as educators, schools are not one-size-fits-all, which holds true across abilities, socio-economic status, race, and gender. Gender disparities have gone largely unexplored as a means through which we should differentiate education. I am referring to gender as a social construct, despite the proposal of the biologically based cognitive differences between male and female students (Sax, 2017).
Traditionally, educators have used the same techniques to teach all students regardless of gender, but it is not sufficient to treat everyone the same because this approach ignores the evidence of the gendered ways in which we experience the world. For girls, a gender-blind approach means the denial of the implicit bias and discrimination they encounter.
When I taught in a coeducational environment, I found that my male students dominated discussions and commanded more positive and negative attention than their female counterparts, a reality of many coeducational settings (Hart, 2016). Coeducational schools have fallen short in addressing girls' needs because schools are microcosms of society; just like women are treated differently and face obstacles in their day-to-day lives, so, too, do girls in K–12 schools.
In all-girls schools, however, there is a commitment to tailoring the environment to girls' needs, including the adoption of social-emotional programming to address developmental demands, the promotion of healthy risk tolerance in girls (Booth, Cardona-Sosa, & Nolen, 2014), and the minimization of gender stereotypes (Sharma, 2015).
Meeting Girls' Needs
A 2009 study comparing graduates of all-girls schools to their coeducational counterparts found that all-girls school alumnae are more likely to attend graduate school; have higher academic self-confidence in writing, public speaking, math, and computer science; are more likely to aspire to engineering careers; and have higher political engagement. These results were later reinforced by a study that found all-girls school graduates have stronger academic skills; demonstrate higher science self-confidence; and display higher levels of cultural competence, community involvement, and political engagement.
All-girls schools in the United States have historically been an intervention for the gender achievement gap that exists in many coeducational settings (DeBare, 2004). Although my work and personal experience cause me to strongly attest to the myriad benefits, I recognize that they are less widely available in the United States as compared to other countries and are often fee-based, preventing them from being a financial reality for all families. However, there are instructional, curricular, and programmatic best practices that coeducational schools can adopt to increase outcomes for girls and reap the benefits of a single-sex environment.
Approach career development through the lens of understanding the challenges girls and women face in both colleges and universities and in careers.
This is especially important in areas like STEM, business, and entrepreneurship. My students have relished opportunities exposing them to women professionals in these industries through guest speakers and field trips. Formal or informal mentoring experiences can help to create transparency in industries where women are often underrepresented. I have found this transparency to be key in preparing my female students for the subtle hostility and harassment they may still face in these fields.
Encourage girls to pursue advanced math and science courses in equal measure to languages and humanities.
In STEM courses, especially during group work, ensure there is gender parity, which helps girls to feel less anxious, participate more, and deflect gender stereotypes (Dasgupta, Scircle, & Hunsinger, 2015). Give girls specific praise (especially in STEM courses) on tasks to help foster a growth mindset. Cultivate a classroom culture in which academic risk-taking is encouraged, especially through equitable participation and the normalization of failure.
I once witnessed a female student who was highly competent in engineering shrink in the presence of male students on a maker project, demonstrating that when faced with a task in which gender stereotypes are being enforced, girls will sometimes disengage or revert to gender stereotypical behavior. In this case, had the group had gender parity, her confidence would have been preserved, as was evident in future meetings of the group in which she had at least one female peer. Nontraditional, student-centered alternatives to lecture, like games or collaborative tasks, help girls to take risks and reach outside of their comfort zone. While teaching in a very competitive, independent school, I found it important in terms of content retention (versus attainment of a desired grade) to offer nontraditional summative assessments that promoted student choice. I saw girls take risks in their unit reflections that they may not have taken had I maintained a more traditional approach to summative assessment.
Confront gender biases in curricula and the socialization of gender roles by considering how course materials portray both women and men.
Share personal experiences and acknowledge the role that gender plays in all our lives (Kuriloff, Andrus, & Jacobs, 2017). Highlight the importance of women's contributions across the academic spectrum and expose students to women who are role models and leaders in the world in order to break down negative stereotypes. I have sought to accomplish these goals from developing curriculum that depict the status of women and girls globally through current events, to assigning a class research project and devoting a sub-unit to representation of women in the U.S. Congress. In both cases, this has opened students' eyes to current conditions for women.
Prioritize resources and time in school schedules to build mentoring relationships.
Exposing students to professional women in industries in which women are traditionally underrepresented, especially those serving in leadership positions. This approach provides girls with role models, improves their trajectories, and builds social capital. You can partner with organizations in your community to identify opportunities for mentorships, internships, role models, and experiential learning. In the classroom, personal-interest projects, in which girls choose a female mentor to help advise them, can be valuable. Large-scale measures could include holding a student leadership conference or developing a cohort-style mentoring program that meets after school.
Provide training that interrogates stereotypes and biases about girls, women, and leadership.
This creates embed opportunities to develop empathy and understanding about the unique challenges women and girls encounter. Help girls practice crucial leadership skills, such as public speaking, conflict resolution, effective or assertive communication, problem solving, goal setting, networking, and self-advocacy. This approach can be accomplished by developing a leadership course as an elective or by integrating this skill development into student council or athletics training. Given the correlation between participation in athletics and pursuit of future leadership opportunities in girls, all schools would do well to include leadership skills training in existing athletics practices and team meetings.
Closing Gaps
This is not an exhaustive list of recommendations, and the study of pedagogy for girls is an area of research that is still ripe for development. Coeducational schools can, however, implement these measures to ensure that instruction, curriculum, and co-curricular programming meet girls' needs and address gender opportunity gaps.
As educators, we have the opportunity to create an academic experience to best support girls, with recognition of who they are as learners and the challenges they will eventually encounter as they prepare to face a world that is not made for them. I challenge all of us to consider how we can minimize these obstacles so that all places, not just all-girls schools, are ones where girls can thrive.
