Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Dr. Marisa Porges discusses her new book, WHAT GIRLS NEED: How to Raise Bold, Courageous and Resilient Girls



The key ingredient to success for girls isn’t confidence or resilience, education or courage. What matters most is how all these elements work together in the boldest way possible.

Known for her work on leadership, education, and national security, Marisa Porges combines lessons she learned throughout her career with the practices she is developing at The Baldwin School, to help today's girls cultivate the skills they need to become tomorrow's leading women. The ways we define leadership are changing, and the women now stepping into leadership roles are mapping new paths to inhabiting traits such as grit, resilience, audacity, and self-confidence. The lessons Porges shares in WHAT GIRLS NEED prepares the next generation to confidently hold their own later in life in whatever fields they enter and no matter what challenges they face.

WHAT GIRLS NEED demonstrates how to celebrate and own the traits which might have been undervalued in the past but which are more critical than ever today and will make the biggest difference in decades to come – including empathy, collaboration, and adaptability. Given the added pressure now placed on children because of school closures and the unfolding public health crisis, there is no better time to ensure parents know the most effective strategies for nurturing their daughters’ courage and resilience.

Marisa Porges discusses:

· Navigating an unconventional “back to school” during the pandemic

· The new set of twenty-first century skills our kids need to succeed now, and in the decades ahead

· Why adaptability is the greatest skill we need to succeed and the greatest advantage we give our kids

· Cultivating collaborative problem-solving skills and why empathy is critical as a leader

· How to prepare for and talk to our children about change

· How to help young girls find their voice and become self-advocates

· Navigating and preparing to face gender bias early to help bridge the gender gap later in life

· Why a little healthy competition is good for our kids

· How to help young girls, and young women, recognize and nurture the innate skills that give them a competitive edge to succeed and lead in the future of work.



WHAT GIRLS NEED is the essential book necessary to nurture and empower the future generation of female leaders, especially as we embark on an unconventional “back to school” this August.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Marisa Porges is known for her work on leadership, education, and national security. She is currently the eighth head of The Baldwin School, a 130-year-old all-girls school outside of Philadelphia renowned for academic excellence and for preparing girls to be leaders and changemakers. Prior to joining Baldwin in 2016, Dr. Porges served in the Obama White House; was a visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and at the Council on Foreign Relations, where her research focused on worldwide counterterrorism efforts; and served in the US Navy as one of eight female aviators in an air wing of about two hundred. She graduated from Harvard University in 2000 and earned her doctorate from King’s College London in 2014, and now lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, with her family.

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