History of Gender- Specific Programs

The Cambridge YWCA Basketball Team, 1916. Photo courtesy of the
Cambridge Historical Commission, Gladys G. Boyce Collection.

In our examination of gender-specific programs, we thought it important to know the history and larger context.  According to Youth Today Staff, “Gender-specific programs have a long history in the U.S. Some of the earliest came out of the industrial revolution. Girls Inc., for example, began in 1864 in response to the needs of young women who flooded into the textile mills of New England. Poorly paid and with little opportunity for recreation, the young women benefitted from a place to gather and discuss common concerns. The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), founded in 1858, and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), founded in 1844, formed in response to the bleak conditions faced by young factory workers in London.

In the early 1900s, single-gender scouting organizations began in England and quickly were adopted in the United States. The Boy Scouts of America was modeled on the British movement started by Robert Baden-Powell, which emphasized outdoor skills and the development of character. Juliette Gordon Low began Girls Scouts of the USA in 1912 to get girls out of isolated home environments and into active outdoor pursuits and community service. 

Today 
Today’s gender-specific programs are based on more recent ideas about the needs of boys and girls. The men’s movement that underlies Boys to Men was sparked by poet Robert Bly in the 1970s, with his book 'Iron John,' which sought to redefine masculinity. It came in the wake of the feminist movement’s redefinition of women’s roles.

Girls Inc., which in the 1950s focused on preparing young women to be wives and mothers, was influenced by feminism in the 1970s and shifted its focus to empowering girls.

Source: Girls Inc.

In 2009, a Boston organization, Build the Out-of-School Time Network (BOSTnet), took a look at the shifting debate around gender-specific programs and noted the new interest in single-sex education as well as the charge of a 'boy crisis' from the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, which has used the decreasing graduation rates of Hispanic and African-American males to argue for all-boys schools, based on research into biological differences. That research has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women – even as all-girls’ schools organize to meet the different learning styles of girls.” [1]

Source: www.pexels.com

COMMON GOALS FOR PROGRAMS FOR GIRLS

In looking across girls’ programs, they have several goals in common:

• Help girls build confidence
• Help girls develop leadership skills
• Help girls explore STEM/STEAM
• Help girls navigate gender, economic, and racial barriers
• Help girls develop healthy habits for life

In future blogs we will discuss program strategies for achieving these goals. 

END NOTES:

[1] Youth Today Staff, Gender-Specific Programs Seen as Valuable Tools