2004 Annual Report - Girls Inc.

Letter from the President and CEO
The More Things Change ...
In 1984, the differences in how boys and girls learned — and were being
taught — were being described very powerfully by researchers and academics.
Girls weren’t being called on as often as boys in math class, and many were actively
discouraged from pursuing science and technology as paths of study or career.
Girls Inc. responded by exploring the issues that shape girls’ lives and applying
our own research to the developing programs that would empower girls to overcome
statistics and stereotypes.
Has the world changed much in 20 years? To hear the president of Harvard,
who in 2005 questioned whether “intrinsic aptitude” might explain women’s relative
lack of success in math and science careers, the answer would have to be, “not much.”
Joyce M. Roché
That’s why one of the programs that emerged from our 1984 efforts — Girls Inc. Operation SMART ® — remains
the epitome of what we stand for. Like all Girls Inc. programs, Operation SMART reflects the core principles of our
organizational philosophy: to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.
The same parallels exist in the realm of teen pregnancy and girls’ athletics. In 1984, when Girls Inc. Preventing
Adolescent Pregnancy ® was first developed, the United States had the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized
world. Today, it still does — although thankfully, those rates have declined.
The virus that causes AIDS was first isolated in 1984, and its method of sexual transmission was becoming more
widely understood. Today, fear of AIDS has been replaced by complacency, and hard-won knowledge is being put by
the wayside. And the startling rate of sexual pressure and activity in America’s schools is often at odds with a focus on
abstinence-only programs.
And it was in 1984 that a federal court ruled, in Grove City vs. Bell, that Title IX, the landmark 1972 law against
sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs, didn’t apply to athletics. Just as girls were beginning
to get their fair shot at playing time and coaching staff, the Astroturf was pulled from under them. Too many of the
powers-that-be in male sports couldn’t accept the idea of fair play if it meant a truly equal distribution of funding.
It took four years for Congress to restore athletics to the purview of Title IX via the Civil Rights Restoration Act,
and the results are undeniable. Yet it was only a year ago that Title IX survived another major attempt to limit its reach
— another sign that the messages and hurdles that led to the creation of Girls Inc. Sporting Chance ® are still there.
The truth is, 20 years is barely a blip in time. And in many ways, Girls Inc. is addressing the same inequities that
confronted girls and young women 140 years ago, when the first Girls Club was established in Waterbury, Connecticut.
They are still present in one form or another — affecting pay, educational opportunity, professional advancement and
the very ability of girls to imagine themselves as something other than what society’s narrow limits will permit them.
So while we celebrate the progress that Girls Inc. has made — and more important, the progress that girls
themselves have made — we recognize that change must always remain a constant. The forces working against it
are simply too powerful. And the window of opportunity to reach girls is too small.
Joyce M. Roché
Girls Incorporated
Strong
Smart