Yes! ALL Girls CAN! Our Blog
Yes ALL Girls Can!
“People say, what is the sense of our small effort?
Celebrating HERstory Every Day
Jacqui Fishman
“Well behaved women rarely make history”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
It is #WomensHistoryMonth and in this month and every month we share our hope that EVERY girl will believe that Yes! she can make #HERstory
This #WomensHistoryMonth we celebrate the rule-breakers, the trailblazers, the fearless, and the indefatigable who said Yes! #ThisGirlCan!… and She Will! Guess what, history is filled with stories of women and girls just like YOU who made their own way, defied societal expectations and command, and bravely and independently pushed down doors, ignorance, harassment, and even threats to their lives and well-being. Every day we celebrate these women and now it is your turn-and we cannot wait to see YOU make HERstory.
Why do we study women's history? The lives of women and their role in, and impact on, our history has rarely been spotlit. We need to know women's stories, we need to look to them as models, beacons of inspiration to follow as we aspire to our dreams and follow our convictions. We need to learn about their lives and experiences. Their trailblazing paths will show us the way forward. Ensuring that every woman's story is heard and respected provides every little girl, and not so little girl, with the opportunities to understand and to know they can realize the power of their dreams because there was someone who came before them who showed that Yes! This Girl Can! Change the World. So, let’s make HERstory!
#ThisGirlCanChangetheWorld #EveryMonthisWomensHistoryMonth #TheFutureisFemale #BelieveinthePowerofYourDreams
With Hope and Heart for the Girls and Women of Afghanistan
Jacqui Fishman
"I will stand by my students and my girls until the last breath I have," ~Razia Jan
On this difficult day, it is hard not to reflect on what 20 years of war have brought. This day is also #WomensEqualityDay and the silver lining from two decades of trauma has been the amazing progress for women and girls' rights, education, and well-being in Afghanistan thanks to the heroic work of extraordinary organizations such as Razia Jan's Razia's Ray of Hope Foundation
Jan told The Patriot Ledger that the education of nearly an entire generation of girls in the region has led to a shift in how women are perceived by themselves, their peers, and men in their communities-
"I have great hope. I think that the last 20 years have made a great difference in the awareness of self-respect, self-care, and being a person of our own for women and girls," she said. "I think it has changed, and men are – in my area – really respecting these girls. They are not selling them, not giving them away, or forcing marriage. These are the things that I see every day and I believe in all of these young women."
To help support the girls and women of Afghanistan with hope and heart visit Razia Jan's Go Fund Me page
Read about the lives of Afghan Women and Girls-A Mighty Girl has a great booklist
You can also support efforts to help women and girls in Afghanistan through Women for Afghan Women
A Girl’s First Cheering Section-Her Dad
Jacqui Fishman
“It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals.
”
We talk so often about the importance of girls having role models to look to, to see that there are girls just like them following their dreams, that there are women who are kicking open doors every day so that they can follow them and hopefully kick some of their own doors open.
It is equally important for girls to know to their core that they have a cheering squad, the people who love them, who believe in them, and who always help them to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get right back in that race. Sound familiar? If you are lucky enough this cheering section starts with your Dad. A Dad for a girl can be a hero, but he is also her foundation. Her Dad can be her greatest ally, her mentor, the one who slays the dragons under the bed, and the one who instills a sense that there is nothing she cannot do. And when she falls, and she will, he is there to make sure she doesn’t quit. A girl’s Dad is also her model, the model of what a man can and should be for her and to her-supporting, listening, encouraging, loving. Knowing she is safe and she feels grounded and nurtured can start with her Dad. Understanding the role a man can and should have in her life, that begins with her Dad too. The relationship a daughter has with her Dad helps her to gain a sense of empowerment from the love and the encouragement she receives. She will be rooted in the knowledge that she is strong, she is smart and she can do anything! She will carry the confidence to not only use her mind but speak her mind. She will grow to be independent and walk her own path without obstacles. This can all start with a Dad.
“She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.
”
As a girl grows up the support from her Dad and the relationship she has with her Dad, impacts not only her sense of self but also her vision of what her life can be and the expectations for how the men in her life will and should treat her. A Dad is the one who leaves his daughter a gift to be opened whenever she needs it, long after he is gone...the gift that she is loved, the gift that there is always someone who believes in her, the gift that helps her stand on her own feet and take on the world.
The term “Daddy’s Girl” very often has negative connotations, but it shouldn’t. It doesn’t matter if you are your Dad’s Princess, that just means he has given you the power to be, to go forward with strength, and to believe that Yes! This Girl Can!...and she will!
We love these great books to read with your Dad. For more Father /Daughter Book Ideas Visit A Mighty Girl!
“Being a daddy’s girl is like having permanent armor for the rest of your life.”
”
What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? This Girl Can! Have the Confidence to Believe in Her Dreams
Jacqui Fishman
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Every little one gets asked this question, but the answers that girls give change over time as stereotypes set in and confidence erodes. An OECD Study found that gender norms are in place as early as 5 years old. The study found that boys will choose traditional male dominated professions while girls are more apt to select caring professions for their career goals. For example, the most popular career choice among five-year-old girls was that of a teacher, while the boys chose to be a police officer. The careers girls looked toward involved more protective, helping or caring roles than those preferred by boys.
“You can’t be what you can’t see.”
~Marian Wright Edelman
All children absorb the world in front of them and react to how that world receives and responds to them. As girls grow their dreams can diminish. Without a real world view of girls like them actually living those roles they aspire to, and without continuous inspiration and encouragement to realize their dreams they start to shed the belief that anything is possible for them. As girls move into their tween and teen years their confidence begins to decline considerably. This is influenced by expectations, both internal and external, including for too many an often very frightening world where hope and promise are hard to envision. Immersion in social media of course piles onto this as does popular culture which deliver a false narrative of what a girl’s world is supposed to be about. All this sets girls up with high expectations of what the world thinks of them and a building of doubt, causing girls to lose their hold on what is possible and what they want for themselves.
As girls grow they step away from “watch out I can do anything” to become “pleasers” looking to fulfill others expectations and wishes rather than their own. This impacts their emotional framework and of course their self image. The once strong belief in themselves wanes and girls lose their positive view of not only their abilities but also their bodies. Girls become vulnerable to peer pressure and bullying, and their once strong resilience and determination erodes. Without nurturing and reinforcement of their critical confidence, girls start to doubt and hold themselves back. They stop taking risks and instead strive for approval and perfection. They stop describing themselves as “fearless” ,“adventurous” and “strong”. A new vocabulary of doubt takes hold and all that great sense of “I can do anything” is often lost.
In fact, as Carol Dweck, the Stanford University psychologist observed “If life were one long grade school,” women “would be the undisputed rulers of the world. But life isn’t one long grade school.”
In their empowering book,The Confidence Code for Girls: Taking Risks, Messing Up, and Becoming Your Amazingly Imperfect, Totally Powerful Self, Claire Shipman,Katty Kay, and Jillellyn Riley explain that their research found that until the age of 12 there is almost no difference in confidence between boys and girls. By the age of 14,however, the average girl they found was far less confident than the average boy, and it is this decline in confidence that becomes the change factor that impacts their future.
“Confidence is an essential ingredient for turning thoughts into action, wishes into reality… confidence can perpetuate and multiply itself.”
The significant decline in the confidence girls experience as they move into their teen years is not short term. If confidence is not fostered girls stop taking risks, stop believing in themselves and stop, as Shipman explains. “stockpiling confidence for the future….the confidence gender gap that opens at puberty often remains throughout adulthood.”
How do we help girls change this course? We need to ensure from the start that girls are not only shown but guided in the development of a real belief, and in very real ways, that they can live any life they can dream. Girls need to be supported, encouraged and educated to always! know their own power and to believe they can grow forward with a strong sense of self. When girls’ sense of self-esteem is not nurtured their belief in themselves, their self-doubt and ability to be empowered diminish significantly. Their emotional well being and choices they make for themselves is impacted negatively-very possibly for life.
How can we change the pattern? 1. It is imperative that all girls, especially those in the key tween and teen years, can see and celebrate real life models-not simply Instagram “celebrities”, but everyday women living roles that demonstrate there are no barriers. 2. Girls need to be consistently presented with, and immersed in. positive reading and popular culture experiences that help them truly imagine what is possible for them. 3. Girls need to be shown that it is OK to color outside the lines, in fact it can be pretty fun! 4. In order to really believe, girls need to have mentors and guides who will cheer them on, help them bounce back from adversity and disappointment and show them how to dust themselves off and get back out there and keep trying.
It is possible to help every girl to hold onto and continue to build upon their critical confidence. We need to show them that even if they fall they can bounce back up-and learn from the experience. .Girls need to know that no one is perfect, there is no perfect, and that is OK! They need to have the freedom to not get it right every time, and that is OK too. Taking a risk, even failing at something new, are opportunities to learn and should be applauded, otherwise girls retreat and play it too safe, perhaps forever. When we help girls to discover and learn about the women who have blazed trails, yesterday and today they can hold a mirror up. When we mentor and be their cheering section they can know someone believes in them, no matter what, even when the world may knock them back. It is possible for girls to reverse course as doubt sets in and keep building upon the confidence, boldness and determination they often have in abundance in their early years. Confidence is a muscle that is built and exercised, one that will serve every girl well as she steps into the world. So the next time you ask a little girl “What do you want to be when you grow up?” listen to her, encourage her, cheer her on, not just in the moment, but continuously, so she can keep believing that Yes! This Girl Can!…and She Will.
"I desire you would remember the ladies", Abigail Adams- Celebrating Women's History Month
Jacqui Fishman
“... I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
Abigail Adams was not a woman who kept her opinions to herself. She did not sit idly by in Quincy Massachusetts while her husband forged a new nation. As the wife and the mother of presidents, and her husband’s closest advisor, she had a unique opportunity to influence the decisions of how a young country would be shaped and she implored her husband to “remember the ladies.” Abigail like so many women was left alone to manage the farm and raise her children while her husband was in Philadelphia and England for months and years, all in the midst of a revolution on her doorstep finding her life and her children’s lives in danger at all times. Abigail knew very well that the future of the new country would depend as much on its women as the men and she let her husband know that to not include women in the decisions and for them to have a real voice would set the new country on the wrong path. It would be 144 years until women were recognized as having the right to legally participate as a citizen with the passage of the 19th amendment acknowledging women’s right to vote, and would not be until 1965 and the passage of the Voting Rights Act that all women were allowed to vote.
“Well behaved women rarely make history”
American history is filled with stories of women, most unknown, who made their own way, defied societal expectation and command, and bravely and independently pushed down doors, ignorance, harassment and even threats to their lives and well being. Women such as Mabel Ping-Hua Lee who in a 1912 New York Times article was cited as “the symbol of the new era, when all women will be free and unhampered.” She was just 16 years old at the time and was already gaining notoriety for her work as a suffragist who had led over 10,000 in the New York suffrage parade. Mabel would go on to become the first Chinese woman to get a PhD in economics. Think of Maria Mitchell, born who on Natucket in 1818. In 1847 at the age of 29 Maria discovered a comet. She was the first female astronomer in the United States, and was also the first American scientist to discover a comet! Maria was a strong advocate for science and math education for girls and became the first female astronomy professor. Then there is Charlotta Spears Bass. Throughout the first half of the 20th century Charlotta was the editor of the African American newspaper The California Eagle. She worked as a journalist, civil rights activist, and politician...she was also the first Black woman to run for vice president of the United States in 1952. Charlotta dedicated her work to fighting what she called “The two-headed monster, Segregation and Discrimination.”
“Where there is a woman there is magic.”
Why do we study women's history? The lives of women and their role in, and impact on, our history has been overlooked for so long. We need to know women's stories, we need to look to them as models, for inspiration, to follow our dreams and convictions. We need to learn about their lives and experiences. Their trailblazing paths will show us the way forward. Ensuring that every woman's story is heard and respected let’s every little girl know there is a role model to show her that This Girl Can!
This #WomensHistoryMonth we celebrate the rule breakers, the trailblazers, the fearless and the indefatigable who said Yes! #ThisGirlCan and She Will!
Be sure to follow us to help us celebrate. For more great stories and biographies visit The National Women's History Museum and PBS Videos on Women in American History
This Girl Can! Celebrates Trailblazers -Black History Month
Jacqui Fishman
For too long our history as a country and as a people has had enormous holes. In order to understand who we are, how we got to be, we need to know everyone’s stories. Women and people of color have only recently started to be included in our historical narrative. How important it is for every little girl to learn about women who pushed beyond where society wanted and expected them to go. This Black History Month let’s celebrate those trailblazers who ignored the many many obstacles set in their way not simply because they were women but also women of color- huge mountains to climb, but climb they did! While Black History Month opens the opportunity for discovery and discussion, it is important that we remember to look to and learn more about women and women of color all year long.
Let’s celebrate some of these remarkable women who said Yes! This Girl Can! They defied expectations, pushed beyond the artificial borders society imposed, found courage and bravely fought forward as they dared to dream and believe they could…and they did!
To Learn More and Read More About Trailblazing Women Visit:
"Dwell in Possibility"-Celebrate Your Creative Voice
Jacqui Fishman
This week, at a once in history Presidential innaugural celebration, 22 year old Amanda Gorman ,the former junior poet laureate of the United States, delivered the innaugural poem “The Hill We Climb”. Her powerful and inspiring piece had everyone wrapped in her words. She truly stole the show, and we will carry her words with us through these days:
"The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it."
Amanda is a voice, has a voice, and uses her voice, but she could not always do that with confidence out loud and so her poetry was her outlet. “I think that passion was exacerbated by the fact that I had a speech impediment. So having an arena in which I could express my thoughts freely was just so liberating that I fell head over heels, you know, when I was barely a toddler.”
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Being creative, immersing ourselves in creative activities, does not require any special skill or talent, really! Pick up a pencil, a paint brush, a camera, knitting needles…sit at a piano, put on your dancing shoes, open your voice …
Who cares about what the end result, this is for you! Just be open to moving your thoughts, emotions, energies into your favorite creative outlet as a wonderful way to express how you feel, and who you are!
January is #CreativityMonth. Let's celebrate some of the extraordinary women whose creativity moves us, engage us, bring us joy, and inspire us everyday. #ThisGirlCanCreateHerWorld
“I Dwell in Possibility”
In 2020, Women and Girls Said Yes! This Girl Can!
Jacqui Fishman
“This stardust won’t settle because none of us should settle.”
2020 is not a year we want to ever live again. Yet amidst all the darkness and pain there was light, and there was hope. We saw grace as neighbors helped neighbors. We saw extraordinary dedication as those who worked, and continue to work, tirelessly to help all those in need and to keep us all safe. We saw such courage as so many stepped forward to speak truth and to exclaim “No More”.
At the end of this difficult year as we anxiously toss 2020 into the dustbin, we must remember all who were lost, all who risked their health and life to be there for others, all who put on their masks and marched, all who found ways to bring us music, art and joy, and all who declared that we can no longer wait for change and who in their courage began to move the needle of social justice and who brought hope.
So much of the light to be found in 2020 was ignited by women and girls around the globe who stepped up, were thrust forward into spotlights they didn’t seek, used their voices, and who simply did their job and in so doing showed that Yes! This Girl Can! We celebrate EVERY woman and girl who showed us the way in 2020. These are just a few who inspired us and who are shining a beacon for every little girl to look to and follow. For all girls to believe in themselves and forge their own way they need to know that little girls just like them can grow to be women of strength, power, creativity, courage, innovation and leadership. As we move forward, and we must, we need the light, we need the hope, and we need the promise. May 2021 bring peace, joy, health, and the belief that change can happen! and that Yes! This Girl Can…and She Will! take us there. Be Safe. Be Well!
“My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.”
Jacinda Ardern: The Prime Minister of New Zealand recently won her second term in a landslide and is the youngest woman leader in the world. Her approach to handling the global pandemic has kept her country with one of the lowest rates of infection and death. She voluntarily took a pay cut to stand with all those economically impacted by Covid-19 and recently she made sure that young women had access to sanitary products at no charge in schools. She has faced crisis after crisis in her country with empathy, courage and strength, showing what the future of world leadership can be. During her term in office she gave birth to her daughter and has spoken of her hopes for her:
“I hope that she doesn’t feel any limitations. That she doesn’t have any sense of what girls can or can’t do. That it’s just not even a concept for her.”
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett: is a 34-year-old viral immunologist, who just might help save the world. Dr. Corbett leads the coronavirus vaccine research at Dr.Fauci’s National Institutes of Health, and the vaccine they’ve developed has been approved and has begun to be delivered to key frontline workers. She recently spoke about the importance of building trust for the vaccine for communities who have historically been exploited by scientific research :
“Trust, especially when it has been stripped from people, has to be rebuilt in a brick-by-brick fashion…And so, what I say to people firstly is that I empathize, and then secondly is that I'm going to do my part in laying those bricks. And I think that if everyone on our side, as physicians and scientists, went about it that way, then the trust would start to be rebuilt."
Marley Dias: When she was just ten, Marley Dias realized there was something missing in her education. Dias wasn’t seeing herself in the books she was given to read and so she set out to collect 1,000 books that featured black girls and she then sent these to the school her mother had attended as a girl in Jamaica. Marley created the hashtag #1000blackgirls on social media which helped her build support and attention..This year Marley debuted her Bookmarks series on Netflix a great series of shorts featuring well known folks reading wonderful books aloud celebrating Black voices and inspiring us all.
“I'm working to create a space where it feels easy to include and imagine black girls and make black girls like me the main characters of our lives.”
Somaya Faruqi: When Covid hit Somaya Faruqi’s town of Herat in worn torn Afghanistan she and her all-female Afghan Robotics Team, “The Afghan Dreamers”, went to work. They designed a low cost ventilator to help treat coronavirus patients. 18 year old Somaya and her team have won numerous international awards for their innovations and are showing the world that Yes! This Girl Can!
“The key to our future is what we are teaching our girls and boys today. We have to make sure every kid has the same access to education, and the tools to make their dream come true.”
Darnella Frazier: With just her cell phone and incredible bravery 17 year old Darnella Frazier bore witness to the killing of George Floyd and ensured that the “whole world was watching”. Darnella’s act of guts and courage brought forth the horror and truth of Floyd’s murder and her video documentation helped to set forth what can only be hoped to be a fundamental change in racial and social justice. She was recently awarded the PEN 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award.
"With remarkable steadiness, Darnella carried out the expressive act of bearing witness, and allowing hundreds of millions around the world to see what she saw…Without Darnella's presence of mind and readiness to risk her own safety and wellbeing, we may never have known the truth about George Floyd's murder.” ~PEN America CEO, Suzanne Nossel.
Sarah Fuller: Sarah Fuller became the first woman to participate in a Power Five conference football game when she kicked off for Vanderbilt. No woman before her had ever appeared for any Power 5 team.
“I just think it’s incredible that I am able to do this, and all I want to do is be a good influence to the young girls out there … literally you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Kamala Harris: Senator Kamala Harris is taking every little girl by the hand and saying “walk this way” as she becomes the first African American, the first Indian American, and the first woman to serve as Vice President of the United States. This is something she has done throughout her professional career including as the first person of color elected as district attorney of San Francisco and the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the Attorney General's office in California state history.
"You are going to lead. You are brilliant; you are strong. I know you hear me. You remember that, OK?"
Kim Ng: Ng became the first female general manager in Major League Baseball, and the first East Asian American in a GM role – highest-ranking woman in baseball history.more than 30 years after starting out as an intern for the Chicago White Sox
. "This challenge is one I don't take lightly,..When I got into this business, it seemed unlikely a woman would lead a major league team, but I am dogged in the pursuit of my goals.”
Gitanjali Rao: To land on the cover of TIME Magazine is usally not something that happens to a 15 year old but this year Gitanjali Rao was selected from a field of more than 5,000 nominees as TIME’s first ever Kid of the Year. Rao is an innovator who brilliantly tackles major issues in her work including contaminated drinking water, opiod addiction and cyber bullying through an app called Kindly. She is on a mission to create a global community of young innovators to solve major problems across the globe.
“If I can do it, anybody can do it…Observe, brainstorm, research, build and communicate.”
Marie Yovanovitch: Ambassador Yovanovitch is a career member of the State Department and has served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine (2016–2019), to the Republic of Armenia (2008–2011), and to the Kyrgyz Republic (2005–2008) and has been the recipient of two Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award. In 2020 she courageously defied orders and spoke truth before the impeachment committee and stood for her convictions and patriotism. In her acceptance of the PEN/Berenson Courage Award she thanked Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright by recalling her inspiration:
“You told your many female employees—of which I was one—that we should reach for the stars. The power of your example—and not incidentally, the example of your power—has inspired not just us, but many little girls across America, and all across the globe.”
Giving Girls a Chance on #GivingTuesday...and Everyday!
Jacqui Fishman
“I want every girl to know that her voice can change the world.”
“Educating girls isn’t just good for the girls, it’s good for all of us. The future of our world is only as bright as the future of our girls.”
2020 has been a year we would all like to toss away. As this tumultuous year draws to a close we reflect back on ALL that has happened and we look to find what we can learn, what we can move forward upon with rays of promise and hope. So much of that hope and promise can be found in the engagement and motivation of young women all over the world who used their voice to show everyone that Yes! This Girl Can
Long before the pandemic access to quality education for millions of girls around the globe was fraught with obstacles and met with closed doors. The upheaval in education everywhere has only exacerbated the problems that girls encounter as they seek to change their lives and uplift their communities through education. As the effects of the pandemic take hold there is the very real fear that millions of young girls may never return to school and will have their dreams cut short.
On this Giving Tuesday, or whenever you can, let’s help organizations working to change the future by kicking open doors and showing girls everywhere how to walk through them into a better tomorrow. Supporting organizations that are committed to helping girls gain the education they deserve, the safe and equitable communities they need to thrive, and empowering them to use their voices to change their lives, their communities and their world, can only mean a brighter future for us all.
Visit these organizations, many have a matching gift on this Giving Tuesday, and let’s help EVERY girl show that This Girl Can! Use Her Voice to Change the World.
“When you educate a girl, you kickstart a cycle of success. It makes economic sense. It makes social sense. It makes moral sense. But, it seems, it’s not common sense yet. ”
“Imagine if you have a team and you don’t let half of the team play. That’s stupid. That makes no sense. And the evidence shows that communities that give their daughters the same opportunities as their sons, they are more peaceful, they are more prosperous, they develop faster, they are more likely to succeed.”