Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She is Changing the World

Dan Kindlon, PhD
Rodale (2006)
ISBN 1594862559
Reviewed by AJ Cooper for Reader Views (11/06)

"Alpha Girls" to me is a study of how girls and their ambitions and goals have changed over the years. It is a book that I feel is mainly for someone in the psychology field. The study and the information come from schools over a wide range of areas in the United States and Canada.   The views of girls that are high achievers today have changed dramatically even from 10 years ago. This book provides some very scientific statistics and information that I would not necessarily need or want to know. Some parts were very interesting and I can clearly see how girls’ thinking has changed over the years.

At first when I started reading the book the information really made me stop and think about how school was for me when I was growing up. I remember being encouraged to go into nursing. I was not really that interested in nursing so I dropped out and joined the military. My parents did not feel that was a good role or job for me to be involved in. They tried everything possible to persuade me to stay in school.

The most interesting part of "Alpha Girls" for me was the girls’ lack of anger about adults in society making traditional statements about women and girls and discounting the fact that women/girls can do anything they set their minds to. It seems the girls really did not care about women’s lib and that whole movement and were more interested in their achievements and their goals in life.

I did start to lose interest in “Alpha Girls” and found myself skipping back and forth through the book. It was a lot more technical writing than I had anticipated. It was all very understandable and formatted well, but just not the type of technical book I am interested in. I can see some of my ideas and feelings in the girls that were interviewed from when I was in school. I did not enjoy typical stereotypes of women growing up and always worked to be able to compete with my brothers. I was and still am very competitive.

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