We need to mentor girls and women
Nearly two generations have passed since the activism that launched the modern women’s movement and changed our laws and national conscience. But still:
- The U.S teen pregnancy rate is the highest in the industrialized world.
- Prostitution is attracting more girls than ever before.
- The difference in income between working women and men remains at least twenty percent, and for those in some professions is getting worse.
- The number of women penetrating management and leadership positions is still small and growing at only a snail’s pace.
- Recent studies across scores of cultures have shown that men are benefitting more than women from prosperity and progressive institutional changes in the most advanced nations. Behavioral and personality differences between men and women are getting greater, not smaller, as cultures evolve, and these changes are helping men better take advantage of greater opportunities at the expense of women’s advancement.
The higher quality of life that comes to women when they reach their full potential is one reason why every girl and young woman should have a mentor. But perhaps the more important reason is that we would all benefit from having more women in positions of influence and power. Just a few examples why are that women - on average - take a longer view when investing and spending, and are less inclined to resort to violence to solve disputes.
MentorHer will enhance exisiting mentoring programs.
It has three programmatic objectives:
- With its own outreach and recruitment efforts, connect more mentors and mentees, ensure demand and supply are not out of balance, and fill service gaps between existing programs.
- Provide training, certification and on-going enrichment to the efforts of its own and other programs’ mentors. Mentors are more effective when they regularly share their experiences with other mentors and enhance their skills through continuing education programs.
- Create a national standard that ensures raising girls to midlife womanhood includes a mentor for each one.
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