Today’s weekly post once again draws from Jennifer Shewmaker’s podcast entitled “Gender and Media Talk Podcast” in which her guest speakers Lori Day and Pia Guerrero discuss the topic of girls and leadership via their “Making Caring Common” project based out of Harvard. Primarily, the discussion draws on examples that recount the fact that girls from a very young age face challenges as far as being perceived as legitimate and respectable leaders. One point brought up by Pia that I found especially compelling came from an article entitled “are you holding your own daughter back?” which explicates the notion that female teachers whom are not personally good at math often allow their young female students to be okay with the fact that they are not good at math either. This is considered a fairly common phenomenon. While in a sense it is good for such female teachers to not allow their female students to become discouraged when they do not grasp certain academic subjects such a math, the negatives of this situation outweigh the positives, as doing this not only stunts these student’s development and leadership skills, but additionally allows these students the luxury of accepting defeat without having truly attempted to overcome their struggles with the subject by means of hard work and determination. Without a doubt, it can be asserted that part of girl’s difficulty in assuming roles of leadership in our contemporary setting is related to the fact that girls are overwhelmingly viewed as inferior to men. While society has certainly progressed in its acceptance of female leaders within the last few decades, the unfortunate reality is that women are still less respected than men in the eyes of society, and this reality may perhaps be rooted in the fact that women as young girls are not given the right tools to gain the confidence necessary to push past the boundaries of gender inequality and lead with authority. 

Link to the podcast: http://jennifershewmaker.com/2015/08/10/4422/