The State of Girls

[quiversR4hunting]

I saw this on the Girl Scout blog this morning. blog.girlscouts.org/2014/09/the-state-of-girls-thriving-or-surviving.html I have not read the full report (156 pages) I am not surprised that the southern, very, conservative states are not fairing as well as more progressive states. I also know that majority of the fundies on this blog will never read this report because it was created by the ebil girl scouts. The report is based on: "five indicators of girls' well-being: physical health and safety, economic well-being, education, emotional health, and extracurricular / out-of-school time activities."

The top five states are:

New Hampshire 1

North Dakota 2*

South Dakota 3*

Massachusetts 4

Vermont 5

* I was surprised at the Dakota's because the native American Lakota tribes in this area are typically very poor and the government has not helped them. But maybe the oil boom has helped the girls in the area.

Arkansas - with our dear Duggars - is ranked #41

Tennessee - with our dear Bates - is ranked #43

Bottom five states:

Mississippi: 50

Nevada: 49

New Mexico: 48

Arizona: 47

Oklahoma: 46

I didn't realize that GS had a research institute. I'm not surprised since they need to keep track of the girls needs to keep girl scouts thriving.

BTW- in my area- cookies sales start in January - only 4 months away! (If you are really craving some samosa or thin mints then call up your local council, sometimes they still have cookies.)

[TXGirlInAMaterialWorld]

Interesting. I also did not know they had a Research Institute.

[DGayle]

I knew about this institute. The founder of Girl Scouts was very forward for her time. We might not see what she did as girl empowerment because by todays standards, it's no big deal, but back when Lowe was alive and women couldn't even vote, even small steps were radical.

Girl Scouts has always been more inclusive and dedicated to making sure the girls, including transgender girls, have a full range of opportunities, and this includes doing research to figure out what areas they should focus on more. The Boy Scouts are homophobic and only inclusionary as much as they need to claim to be to get everyone of their backs, but the Girl Scouts really mean it.

[RosyDaisy]

I'm pleasantly surprised that Alabama isn't at the bottom of the barrel. It kind of sticks out compared to other states in the South. But the South can and should do more to make girls thrive.

[browncoatslytherin]

i'm happy to see minnesota in the top 13 :)

[BrownieMomma]

Read through the executive summary, can't yet find answers to my questions.

They state this " In particular, black/African American and Hispanic/Latina girls face significant challenges in making successful transitions to adulthood. " yet I cannot find exactly how they define a transition to adulthood. Do they mean just that a girl turned 18? Established a separate home? Got married? Went to college?

It certainly looks skewed to look bad for the South. It also looks bad for black and Latina girls. What is the population? Can't find that. Is the minority population disproportionately higher in the South than in New Hampshire?

When teen pregnancy overall is trending downward, why are black and latina teen pregnancies on the rise?

What is the real problem here?

[FloraKitty35]

Delaware is 24.

[quiversR4hunting]

Read through the executive summary, can't yet find answers to my questions.

They state this " In particular, black/African American and Hispanic/Latina girls face significant challenges in making successful transitions to adulthood. " yet I cannot find exactly how they define a transition to adulthood. Do they mean just that a girl turned 18? Established a separate home? Got married? Went to college?

It certainly looks skewed to look bad for the South. It also looks bad for black and Latina girls. What is the population? Can't find that. Is the minority population disproportionately higher in the South than in New Hampshire?

When teen pregnancy overall is trending downward, why are black and latina teen pregnancies on the rise?

What is the real problem here?

(to the bold) See if you can find your answers in the full report. The executive summary is just a highlight for everyone that doesn't want to read all 156 pages of the full report. girlscouts.org/research/pdf/sog_full_report.pdf The section on "The changing face of girls" talks about the racial/ethnic composition. In the report highlights (p8) it talks about white girls having fewer babies and, being over weight and that black/African American and Hispanic/Latina have birth rates more than twice the national average. At many points in the full report it says "girls ages 5 to 17" Page 22 talks more about the regional distribution and 2 major trends of where girls live and in 2011 3 in 5 girls ages 5 to 17 live in the South and the West. I think you might get some of your answers if you keep digging through the full report.

As to "what the real problem is"? I don't think that is the point of the article, I think it is to establish a baseline for girls today and then other research, could use this research to answer the question - "what is the real problem?" And that would depend on who is looking at the data- they could work on figuring out why minorities have more teen births or any of the other issues the report addresses. Page 26 talks about the summary and implications - the findings of the report.

All in all I think the report is interesting as to where girls fair today in the US.

[quiversR4hunting]

I saw this on the Girl Scout blog this morning. I also know that majority of the fundies on this blog will never read this report because it was created by the ebil girl scouts. The report is based on: "five indicators of girls' well-being: physical health and safety, economic well-being, education, emotional health, and extracurricular / out-of-school time activities."

I meant to say - "I also know that majority of the fundies we snark on this blog will never read this report because it was created by ebil girl scouts."

but the fundies that are lurking on this site probably won't read the report either.