» Leadership in Action

Leadership in Action

Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts is transforming the way the general public views leadership. It is also transforming the way it delivers its own program thanks, in part, to insights from girls and extensive research on current youth development models and best practices.

In 2008, the Girl Scout Research Institute based in New York released an original study, Change It Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership. The study was based on research conducted with nearly 4,000 girls and boys around the country.

Some important findings of the study:

  • Girls embrace a leadership style that focuses on ethics, personal principles, and social change values.
  • Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents said they want to be a leader who "stands up for their beliefs and values," and 59 percent said they want to be a leader "who tries to change the world for the better." Girls are clearly telling us that we need to "change it up" in how we define and think about leadership.
  • Thirty-nine percent of girls say they want to be leaders. Despite this, girls face barriers that include a lack of self-confidence in their own skill set and competencies, stress, fear of speaking in front of others, peer pressure, and stereotypes about what it means to be a girl in today's society.
  • The desire for leadership is higher among African American (53 percent), Hispanic (50 percent) and Asian American (59 percent) girls compared to Caucasian girls (34 percent).
  • Girls' mothers are their main source of support in terms of leadership.
  • Girls feel that places for them to develop their leadership skills are scarce.
  • Girls feel that the power to change things or teach/help others in many environments is the kind of leadership most appealing to them.

This important study reaffirms Girl Scouting’s commitment to providing a wide range of activities, workshops, camps, and interactive learning opportunities that encourage girls to develop their own leadership style. Most importantly, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana invests in the development of local programming and resources that encourage girls to put their leadership into action to make the world a better place.