Schoolgirls

The subtitle for journalist Peggy Orenstein's book is, "Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap". It was produced in cooperation with the American Association of University Women in an attempt to put human faces on the results of an AAUW research project that provided evidence that girls tend to lose self-confidence at about junior high school age. Ms. Orenstein reports her interviews over about eighteen months, with girls from a fairly typical suburban school and from an inner-city school. Both were in California. You won't find data in this book, but the interviews are disquieting. There may be a reason here that fewer women enter science, mathematics, and engineering careers.