Why a single-sex school is great for girls

Original source: The Age

Loren Bridge says developing resilience, confidence and fearlessness is what girls’ schools do best. 

Girls in co-ed schools tend to be more self-conscious and less confident. They are less likely to speak up in class, ask questions or take on a leadership role. They are also more likely to have a negative body image and to experience sexual harassment or bullying. 

By contrast, girls thrive in an all-girls environment – they do better academically, socially and emotionally. Students in girls’ schools feel empowered to be themselves. They participate more freely in discussions, are more competitive and take more healthy risks with their learning – skills that are advantageous for life success. 

Girls thrive in all-girl schools and  dream of careers in traditionally male-dominated areas such as science.

Source: Shine Nucha/Shutterstock

This is why girls from single-sex schools buck the trend when it comes to participation in areas that have been traditionally male-dominated, such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and economics, opening the door for girls to pursue tertiary studies and careers in the highly skilled and more highly paid areas of engineering, computing, business and entrepreneurship.

The lack of gender stereotyping allows them to happily be whatever they want to be, whether that is a data analyst or medical researcher, a politician or an artist.