About the Voices Series

Activities

Resources About Girls and the Girls' Movement

This article, by Laurel Zimmerman, a guidance counselor at Cretin-Derham Hall, Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Marilyn Kielbasa, co-writer of the Voices series, looks at the needs of young women and offers suggestions to begin addressing those needs. Available on the Web at http://www.smp.org/resourcepage.cfm?article=75

"Ideas for Teaching Feminine Spirituality," by Julia Keller, originally appeared in Connect, a Saint Mary's Press newsletter for Catholic high schools.

This article gives concrete ideas to help adolescent girls think about the experience of gender and how it affects their spirituality. Julia Keller highlights activities used in her course in women's spirituality that range from a look at Carol Gilligan's work and modern literature and films to spiritual autobiographies and children's books. Available on the Web at http://www.smp.org/resourcepage.cfm?article=76

In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, by Carol Gilligan (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993).

This scholarly work by Gilligan, a Harvard professor, is the foundation for her later works that emphasize the unique psychological perspective of girls and women, particularly regarding moral development.

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, by Mary Pipher (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994).

A clinical psychologist, Pipher uses the voices of adolescent girls to tell their stories of loss of self, depression, eating disorders, and lowered expectations.

Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities, by Bonnie J. Ross Leadbetter and Niobe Way, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1996).

This collection of essays is based on research with adolescent girls from urban settings who are primarily of African-American and Hispanic heritage.

Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development, by Lyn M. Brown and Carol Gilligan (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992).

Meeting at the Crossroads recounts the stories of 100 girls who answer the question, "On the way to womanhood, what does a girl give up?"

The Girls Report: What We Know and Need to Know About Growing Up Female, by Lynn Phillips (New York: National Council for Research on Women, 1998).

Commissioned by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW), this comprehensive summary of research looks at every aspect of life for girls.

Available for $20 through NCRW, 11 Hanover Square, 20^th floor, New York, NY 10005, (212) 785-7335.

Voices of a Generation: Teenage Girls Report About Their Lives Today, by Pamela Haig and the American Association of University Women Foundation (AAUW) (New York: Marlowe and Company, 1999).

This work highlights the voices of girls from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and includes published research from summits with adolescent girls from around the country. One of many good gender-equity resources from AAUW. (800) 225-9998 www.aauw.org.

Girls Speak Out: Teens Before Their Time, by Girl Scout Research Institute (New York: Girl Scouts of the USA, 2000).

This executive summary explores issues ranging from relationships and physical development to gender roles among girls, ages 8-12.

For All Our Daughters: How Mentoring Helps Young Women and Girls Master the Art of Growing Up, by Pegine Echevarria (Chandler, Massachusetts: Chandler House, 1998).

Focusing on the wisdom of mentors for girls, Echevarria devotes one chapter on the necessity of fostering the spirituality of girls.

The Power and the Promise: A Gender Primer for Parents and Teachers, by Tim Flinders (Petaluma, California: Two Rock Publications, 1999).

This book offers practical ideas to address the issues of pre-adolescent girls in the academic setting as well as the home.

Counseling Adolescent Girls, by Patricia H. Davis (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1996).

From the Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling Series, this work includes a chapter on girls' spirituality.

Beyond Nice: The Spiritual Wisdom of Adolescent Girls, by Patricia H. Davis (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2001).

Based on a four-year study, this book reveals insights the author has gleaned from interviews with girls as well as stories and anecdotes from the girls themselves as they talk about God, religion, sexuality, and violence.

New Moon Magazine (for girls) and New Moon Network (for adults) (www.newmoon.org).

The Web magazine is edited entirely by a team of girls, ages 8 to 14. The network is a helpful supplement for any adult who works with girls.

Daughters: For Parents of Girls 10 to 16, brought to you by American Girl (Middleton, Wisconsin: Pleasant Company Publications).

Daughters newsletter is packed with helpful tools and tips for raising girls.

Dads and Daughters (DADS) (www.dadsanddaughters.org/).

This organization is dedicated to the healthy development of girls, the father/daughter relationship, and media influences on girls.

Frontline: The Lost Children of Rockdale County (Alexandria, Virginia: PBS Video, 1999)

This PBS documentary is an account of the promiscuity among a group of suburban teens. Particularly powerful are the interviews with girls who reflect on their choices to become sexually active. (800) 328-7271.

Girls Inc. (www.girlsinc.org/)

This national organization is dedicated to inspiring girls to be strong, smart, and bold. The Web site includes a Girl's Bill of Rights and is meant for younger adolescents.

About-Face (www.about-face.org/)

About-Face is an organization that combats negative and distorted images of women. This Web site is an excellent resource for information on eating disorders and media images of women, for older adolescent girls and adults.

Resources About Women's Spirituality

Dance of the Spirit: The Seven Steps of Women's Spirituality, by Maria Harris (New York: Bantam, 1989).

This classic work about women's spirituality is useful both for individuals and for women's groups who wish to engage in exercises of self-discovery that lead to transformation.

The Wisdom of Women: Models for Faith and Action, by National Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Women in Society and in the Church (Washington, DC: National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference, 1991).

The Wisdom of Women includes texts of keynote addresses, panel discussions, and workshops from a 1990 symposium sponsored by the U.S. bishops. Order this book from the USCCB at www.usccb.org.

The Feminization of the Church? by Kaye Ashe (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1997).

This book offers analysis of key issues of spirituality, ethics, language, ministry, and leadership from the perspective of women in the Catholic church today.

The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women, by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins (New York: Bantam Books, 1991).

The Feminine Face of God is a landmark book on women's experience of God, faith, and religion.

Womanspirit Rising and Weaving the Visions, by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, eds. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992 and 1989).

Both of these books are classic collections of readings in theology and women's spirituality.

With Oil in Their Lamps: Faith, Feminism, and the Future, by Sandra Schneiders (New York: Paulist Press, 2000).

In this latest volume in the Madeleva Lecture Series, Schneiders makes a strong case for Gospel feminism as a way to bring out the full humanity of all persons.

At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst, by Carol Lee Flinders (New York: Harper, 1998).

This story of the author's spiritual journey contains two chapters that make a strong case for addressing the spirituality of adolescent girls.

WomanWitness, WomanWisdom, and WomanWord by Miriam Therese Winter (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1992).

This three-volume set tells the stories of every woman in the Bible while providing creative lectionary readings, rituals, and artwork by Meinrad Craighead. They are excellent reference books. WomanWisdom contains a helpful index for the entire series.

About Boys

"America's boys have had enough. They want to find people who love them just the way they are. They need to be in touch with people who will encourage them to pursue their true passions and speak openly of their vulnerabilities. They need to form meaningful friendships and relationships in which they can be openly caring, loving and affectionate without the fear of being seen as 'weak' or 'feminine.' . . . . We must help to create a society in which boys can attain the self confidence and peace of mind all human beings naturally desire and deserve." (Michael Pollack, Real Boys' Voices [New York: Random House, 2000], p. 392)

"Unless a boy is emotionally literate, is in touch with his inner world, it is very difficult for him to engage in a spiritual way with another world. To open oneself up to that introspection is almost the first step to a true religiosity, where you can be honest with yourself and humble in the way I think you have to be in order to be truly religious. Because so many boys are so on guard all the time in terms of needing to be tough or needing to protect themselves from psychological attack, I think they have trouble opening themselves up to that experience." (Dan Kindlon, Raising Cain [New York: Ballantine Books, 2000], p. 291)