The Year of the Girl or Woman

The 100th year of Girl Scouts has been deemed the Year of the Girl.

To learn more, visit http://www.girlscouts.org/yearofthegirl.
A Century of Leadership: How has Girl Scouts been changing the world the last 100 years?
Research: Examining issues in girls' lives
To find events in your area, go to this website.  http://www.girlscouts.org/yearofthegirl/a_year_of_events.asp
How to Get Involved:
Where are we headed in the next 100 years and how to do we get more girls into leadership roles, etc?

Here are some interesting facts:

• Only one in five girls believes she has what it takes to lead.
• Fifty-nine percent of girls say the fashion industry makes them feel fat.
• Eighty-five percent of middle-school students say they've been cyber-bullied at least once.
• Although more than 90 percent of girls in fourth grade want to continue studying math, by twelfth grade that number drops to 50 percent. 
• Women account for less than 17 percent of the bachelor's degrees in engineering, make up only 17 percent of the U.S. Congress, and claim only 3 percent of the top positions at Fortune 500 companies.

(retrieved from http://www.girlscouts.org/yearofthegirl/get_involved_today.asp)

When I look at my niece, her friends, and the girls in our troop, I see the future.  Who will they become?  What changes will they lead?  What will their impact on the world be?
I truly wish the absolute best for them and hope that what they learn in Girl Scouts or by my being a role model will get them where they need to be in order to be the most amazing young women possible.

I have been watching a lot of the Olympics this summer.  Over the weekend, they started talking about this being The Year of the Woman, and this talk has only gained speed since then.  I thought that was kind of neat . . . Year of the Girl and Year of the Woman.  The women are racking up medals left and right.  I hope our girls have seen how their dedication and hard work has led them to represent our country in front of the world. Anything is possible.  American, Olympic, and World Records are being broken and more medals are being won by our women than before.  They are great role models for our future Olympians, politicians, business women, doctors, teachers, judges, and on and on and on.

Here's to the Year of the Girl and the Woman!