Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She Is Changing the World [Paperback]

I think the one reviewer's comments about specious statistics and lack of supporting evidence is right on. I also have to take issue with the use of the term 'born leader'. A person is born into this world with either risk factors or protective factors...the more protective factors a person has, such as 2 parents, being white, having economic privilege, are the kinds of thing to factor in when really trying to understand what determines a person's ability to 'lead', that is, to feel at home and entitled enough in the world to successfully navigate it, and access and utilize resources...when a person is experienced in these ways, they can much more easily 'lead' as the world feels essentially 'theirs'. Classism, sexism, racism, still divide those who 'could' lead, vs those who were 'born with resources to lead.' A sense of inclusion is what helps shape confidence, and if you come from a home or socio-economic background that is not representative of those who hold power in the country or even just your school or town, then a feeling of exclusion can erode a wonderfully intelligent person's confidence.

The other thing I had a problem with in the book, is the notion that being an Alpha female is 1-a good thing, and that 2-being an alpha female is indicative of feminism 'working'. The idea of an "Alpha" is a male/patriarchal construct, so a woman being able to do what a man can do and to play well on his field, isn't authentic equality, nor is it feminist if today, the only ways women can be 'great', is to 'conquer' the world, be aggressive, competitive, perpetuate colonial thinking, and do things 'just like men'...which essentially are all signs of male-identification, not 'self-identification', something that would be a truer feminist goal.

Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She Is Changing the World, is author Dan Kindlon's analysis of the present and future life of "alpha" girls: those girls who are excellent academic achievers, leaders in high school, shine in sports, and have high levels of self-esteem, motivation, and confidence.

Kindlon argues that, whatever the decade old AAUW study on girls reported, the new alpha girl is either immune to bias in the classroom or situated in the "new age" of education that provides opportunity and removes barriers based on sex. He reaches this conclusion after interviewing a bit over 100 "alpha girls," kids recommended to him by teachers, principals, and other students. He compares these girls to students who have completed a questionnaire in about 18 high schools concentrated in the east (6 public and the rest private).

I appreciate the analysis that Kindlon has undertaken, but I also recognize its methodological weaknesses. There is a difference in having interviews with top-performing girls (and they are going to admit that their life isn't perfect?) and looking at their school, home, and work records, and interviewing a random sample of students and looking at the characteristics of those who are performing at the top of some pre-developed scale. Also, the vast majority of kids in Kindlon's study were from private schools. This is not a random sample of Americana, and brings in biases of income, race, and social status. Thus, he states that there are these amazingly confident and motivated girls in high school as his conclusion. However, in 1999 there were 16 million kids in high school in the US. Certainly, there should have been no problem in finding about 100 of the 8 million girls to be fantastic students. One hundred out of 8 million is less than .002%. If I would look at the top .002% of girl scholars in 1950, or 1920, or 1890, I suspect these would always have been amazing girls. So one of the big questions is, what can studying the top .002% of students tell us about the experience of girls in high school today? Furthermore, how does a better understanding of this group affect the results of the AAUW study done in the 1990s? Finally, the kicker will be a longitudinal study where we can see how these girls perform in society and at home compared to a control group of girls.

This book, and the study design, would not make it into the peer-reviewed literature. However, I did enjoy, and appreciate, the lengthy discussion and review of the issues by Kindlon. I would really like this to be a book read by high school girls to get their feedback and reaction.

I wish he would have spent more time with girls in public schools. I also hope he utilized an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to gain permission to work with these minors. I didn't notice any reference to this critical oversight to make sure confidentialities and parental permissions were kept and obtained.

While there is a lot of info here, the title is misleading. Maybe half the text is about alpha girls, the rest about the increasing status of women in general. There is a whole chapter on the "descent" of boys/men. There is a recitation of common wisdom that a woman will be president and that women professionals like/need flex time. There is also lot of peripheral text (for a book on alpha girls) for instance, about women in Norway, anecdotes about the status of women in the 50's, random data and interviews about the sexuality of college females, etc.

While the many charts are documented by source, I had the feeling that the author took the data at hand, rather than the best data to illustrate his points. The bar charts with alpha girls data plotted with all girls and all boys were very illustrative, but there were a lot of charts that seemed to be of general interest or just filler. Some charts extrapolated 45 years showing female predominance in various endeavors without comment. It is spurious to assume today's data, which represents an abrupt break from history, will meaningfully project so far outward. The charts are provided without comment on the potential for a plateauing of the trend.

The author cites Simone de Beauvoir's observation that once women were more valued by their families and their culture, a new psychology would follow. This topic of the "new girl" is worthy of treatment, which this book only promises to do.

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