What Girls Need

How to Raise Bold, Courageous and Resilient Women

Marissa Porges,

Vermilion, March 2020

The key ingredient to success for girls isn’t confidence or resilience, education or courage. What matters most is how all these elements work together in the boldest way possible. This is What Girls Need, now and for the future.

Based on ground-breaking work at the all-girls Baldwin School, renowned for helping girls thrive personally and professionally, and using lessons from the author’s own stellar career path in typically male-dominated environments – she has a BA from Harvard in Geophysics, flown jets for the US Navy and been a counter-terrorism expert in Afghanistan and the White House – this is an essential hand-book for all parents of girls – and anyone who cares about girls and what happens to them. It will empower you to help her close the confidence gap with boys, find her voice, nurture her competitive spirit, turn her audacity into persuasion, learn the art and skill of networking, and find role models – all the things that will help her succeed as an adult woman – whatever field they enter, whatever challenge they face.s

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About the Author

Dr. Marisa Porges is Head of School at the Baldwin School. Dr. Porges previously served at the White House, as White House Fellow and a senior advisor for cybersecurity and technology policy at the National Economic Council. Prior to joining the White House, she was a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and at the Council on Foreign Relations. In these roles, she traveled throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan, conducting research on counterterrorism—including interviews with former members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban and Syrian rebel fighters, where she sought to better understand their perspectives. Dr. Porges also served as a counterterrorism policy advisor in the U.S. Departments of the Treasury and Defense, and on active duty in the U.S. Navy, flying jets as a Naval Flight Officer.

Dr. Porges holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a doctorate from King’s College London. Her awards include the National Committee on American Foreign Policy 21st Century Leader Award and the NATO Medal for service in Afghanistan. She is widely published, including by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and other top-tier outlets and she has appeared on CNN, CSPAN, Al Jazeera and more.

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