Schoolgirls

Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap

by Peggy Orenstein

Anchor Books, 368 pp., $14.95 (paper)

One can’t help but speculate that the reissue of Schoolgirls is a reaction to the backlash we’ve seen in the past year of a rash of books concerning adolescent boys which has been prompted, in part, by the call-to-arms that resulted when Schoolgirls initially appeared back in 1994. At that time, it was already known that girls reaching adolescence showed a dramatic decline in self-esteem and academic achievement. In looking for the causes of this phenomenon, Orenstein spent time at two very different Bay Area middle schools. Weston is predominately white, middle class, and suburban; Audubon is inner-city, impoverished, and predominately black and Hispanic. Despite some very interesting cultural differences, she found at both schools a hidden curriculum that, among other things, casts different expectations upon boys and girls. The irony, Orenstein found, was that girls were often penalized by teachers and ostracized by peers for behavior that didn’t strictly adhere to preconceived notions of passivity and dependence. Schoolgirls is a landmark in addressing the serious issues that have long plagued female adolescents and deprived them, and all of us, of the fruits of their potential.

This article appears in November 3 • 2000.

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