Leadership and girls

Last night at dinner we talked about how we would advise a young woman going into our career field. One woman was a lawyer; one an elementary suburban school teacher; and one a high school teacher of special needs students in an urban system. My own advice would be to participate more in committee and leadership opportunities even if you hate it (like me), because for now, that's how you establish a network and climb the ladder (at least in library science).

I noticed that at career journal.com Sue Shellenbarger notes

There's evidence children and teens aren't getting as much practice at leadership as in the past. Only 1.5% of today's young college graduates have ever worked on a political campaign, based on a study of 40,000 recent grads by Robert Zemsky, a University of Pennsylvania professor, and Peterson's, a learning-resource unit of Thomson Corp., Toronto.

With today's huge high schools, the opportunities for young people to practice leadership roles in a small, familiar setting have dwindled. "There can only be one president of the senior class," and with 3,500 kids in a high school, that leaves out a lot of kids, says Barbara Schneider, a University of Chicago professor and author of "The Ambitious Generation."

That surprised me a bit, so I looked back--and the opportunities were there for me, particularly in high school, I just didn't like it. I was in 4-H and performed "demonstrations" even as young as 11 or 12; I was my church youth group (CBYF) president; I attended leadership workshops and seminars offered by my church's district; I was on the student council in high school; I think (but can't actually remember) that other organization I belonged to like band, Pepsters, and yearbook staff, probably had assigned offices. I was a camp counselor, and after high school got on a bus, travelled to California, and worked for a summer in a settlement house situation. I can't imagine that those opportunities aren't still out there, even at large high schools. However, when I got to college, I participated very little in extra curricular activities. For one thing, the competition had ratcheted up! To be an officer, or even a committee member meant long hours, and much more competition, and I just hated anything competitive. I suspect that like grades, there is today much more competition for positions of leadership. No, I have no one but myself to blame for not becoming a leader--I didn't like it. I much preferred the one-on-one with the students, the small group teaching, getting into research and publication, and supervising a staff of one or two people.

Every place of employment has opportunities for networking, and for lack of a better word, empire building. Yes, everything is political. Get over it! That usually means paying your dues with committee work or putting in time on task forces. Breathe deep. Exhale. Pray for direction. Sign up. Feel the power.