Empowered Excellence: Flourishing in the All-Girls School Experience
February 28, 2024
Writer: Miranda Jefferds
Editor: Chava Makman
I have always recognized the power of my voice. As a child, I was the epitome of a loud-mouthed toddler, always demanding more and complaining when I didn’t get my way. As I matured, I left behind my brattiness but retained my belief in the weight of my voice.
Being a teenager introduces a multitude of challenges, but being a teenage girl warps your total sense of self, character, and worth due to the constant pressure and expectations that society places on women. At my co-ed middle school, I witnessed countless friends changing themselves to conform to societal standards, mostly for boys. I saw girls dye their hair for boys who "like blondes better" and experienced boys making fun of me for being hardworking, deeming it a masculine quality. I watched as my smartest friends stopped raising their hands in class after being consistently spoken over. Although I knew these occurrences were wrong, I was ingrained with the belief that life as a woman was supposed to look this way.
Switching to an all-girls school in seventh grade completely changed that viewpoint. My school made it a core mission to foster resilience and confidence within young women. Each day, I was surrounded by girls unafraid of their own intelligence, potential, and worth. Being surrounded by women in the classroom helped me understand my own worth as a female and reestablished confidence in my voice. By the end of my senior year, I had made amazing friendships and found significant female role models that transformed who I am. One role model is my biology teacher, Dr. Fishel. As a researcher, she embodied what it means to be a woman in STEM: inquisitive, hardworking, and resilient. She continually pushed me to reach higher and work harder. Without her, I would not be pursuing a career in the biomedical field. Seeing her success in the scientific community inspired me to not only achieve similar levels of success but also thrive in a male-dominated field.
Arriving at the University of Michigan, I knew my confidence would not waver despite leaving the all-girls environment behind. However, I did not anticipate how significantly it would shape me compared to those who did not have the same high school experience. I was immediately struck by the male-dominated discourse flooding each class I attended. Having developed the habit of speaking my mind, I entered these discussions and academic settings unafraid to express my intelligence, especially around boys. While it's challenging to feel like I may be perceived as inferior to others in my field, the mind set my high school instilled in me has fundamentally changed how I respond. Surrounded exclusively by girls who aspired to be presidents, doctors, and changemakers, I couldn’t fathom how some women didn't believe in themselves and their potential, or let boys undermine their academic confidence.
The version of myself that is self-reliant and determined, is one that I am unsure would have existed if I had continued at my co-ed middle school. I firmly believe that having ambitious women role models empowered me to stand up to sexism, whether overtly intended or subtly by implicit biases, and advocate for feminism in all aspects of my life.
