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THE STATUS
OF GIRLS IN
NORTH CAROLINA

Contact Information
General Information:
Amie Hess
(919) 760-8016
hessamie@meredith.edu

Press Contact:
Melyssa Allen, News Director
(919) 760-8455
allenme@meredith.edu

Girls in North Carolina are active members of their communities. Young women are taking on school leadership positions, are civically engaged, and are participating in community leadership programs and organized athletics at higher rates than ever before. These are part of a cluster of leadership behaviors thought to be positively associated with future academic and occupational success.68

Civic Engagement

Women in North Carolina vote. In the 2016 general election, women made up 55% of the voters and slightly over 70% of women turned out to vote.69 Women comprise 52% of the current registered electorate in North Carolina and are a majority of registered voters in every county.70 Among young people 18-19, females also make up a majority of voters.

Source: ncvotetracker.com, a project of the Civitas Institute

Beyond voting, there are other ways that young women are civically engaged. North Carolina ranks 29th nationally in terms of our volunteer rate with residents volunteering an average of 30 hours a year.71 This is a substantial in­ crease from our 2010 ranking of 47th in the nation. In 2015, 28% of women and 23% of men in North Carolina volunteered in some capacity in the community.72

Source: Current Population Survey, September Volunteering Supplement, 2014

Community and School Organizations

Girls and young women across North Carolina are participating in a host of community-based leadership, educational, advocacy and esteem-building programs. 

Girl Scouts is a national organization that supports local councils working directly with girls orga­nized into age-based troops. The national organization and regional councils provide local troops with resources and programming in areas like financial literacy, environmentalism, leadership, and STEM, among other topics. Over 65,000 girls participate in local Girl Scout troops across the state.

In addition to the Girl Scouts, there are other national and state-level organizations working in com­munities throughout North Carolina to build capacities among girls. One of the largest girl-serving pro­ grams working across the state is Girls on the Run (GOTR). This international organization also works through regional councils that provide training to adult coaches who work with small groups of girls afterschool to take them through a curriculum that builds life skills through physical fitness. GOTR served almost 13,000 in 2016 in programming for elementary school and middle school aged girls.

Sources: Membership data provided by Girls on the Run International73 and Girl Scout individual councils and council annual reports 74

Both Girl Scouts and GOTR serve a diverse a population of girls across North Carolina. Both organizations emphasize that girls be able to participate regardless of financial needs. GOTR reports that in North Carolina almost 40% of participants received a financial scholarship in calendar year 2016.

Community organizations are not the only space in which girls are getting leadership opportunities, building skills, and finding spaces of support. Schools are another venue in which some girls are honing their leadership skills and engaging in community activities.

Spotlight Organization: Girl Scouts—North Carolina Coastal Pines

Girl Scouts is an organization dedicated to helping girls become brave, bold and strong leaders in their schools and communities. The Coastal Pines Council serves 41 counties in parts of central and eastern North Carolina. Coastal Pines is the largest council in the state, with over 25,000 Girl Scouts. Council activities are low-cost to ensure that all girls can participate regardless of financial means. The Council provides financial assistance to approximately one-third of their members. The Council emphasizes girl- led experiences where every girl learns—and leads—by doing. Program areas include business skills, STEM and innovation, outdoor learning, and leadership. Local troops design their own set of activities in which girls earn badges and patches by mastering new skills, engaging in community service, and testing their own limits. The Council operates three outdoor camps, which troops can use for camp­ing or day outdoors adventures. Individual girls (whether Girl Scouts or not) can also attend summer camps. And, of course, there are the cookies! 

For more information, click here.

Source: Hess, et al. 2016, North Carolina High School Leadership and Policies Survey

One third of schools participating in our survey of North Carolina high schools indicated that their school hosts at least one student organization primarily for girls or young women. The clubs were primarily clustered in three areas: STEM, ethnic/racial identity, and self-esteem/fitness.

In addition to the important academic and esteem support that programming for girls provides, school-based and community programs provide other benefits. The Afterschool Alliance reports that 15% of children in North Carolina participate in after school programs, and 20% of girls nationwide participate in after school programs.75 Additionally, 19% of children in North Carolina and 15% of girls nationally are left unsupervised after school.

School Leadership

Girls in North Carolina are very active in student government. Girls make up 65% of student government association members in North Carolina high schools.76

Source: Hess, et al. 2016, North Carolina High School Leadership and Policies Survey

In both public and private schools across North Carolina, girls were almost twice as likely as boys to serve as student government officers across all levels of student government.77

Cause for Concern

Females—young and old—are actively engaged social citizens in North Carolina and nationally. How­ ever, this has been slow to translate into direct representation among political leadership, representation in the ranks of corporate executives, or a narrowing of the gender wage gap in North Carolina.78

Notes and References

1 U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, 2014.

2 U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2015.

3 Annie E. Casey Foundation. 2015. Kids Count Data Center. See: http://datacenter.kidscount.org.

4 North Carolina Office of Budget and Management, Municipal Estimates, 2015.

5 U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, 2014.

6 U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2015.