Last month, the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation released its flagship report, The Status of Girls in New Hampshire 2024, which includes 74 indicators in girls’ well-being in education, economic security, health, substance use and safety.
According to a press release from the foundation, these indicators highlight a strong, smart, resilient, and diversifying population of girls with endless potential. However, the data also highlights disparate outcomes by gender, race, ethnicity, and geography, due to historical, political, economic, and social inequities.
The foundation says these disparities present opportunities for investment and involvement to support girls “As a trusted source of data-driven research on women and girls, we believe that accurate and comprehensive data must be the foundation for policies and laws that impact women and girls,” said New Hampshire Women’s Foundation CEO Tanna Clews. “We hope the information in this report will be used by policy, education and community leaders to make data-driven decisions that will positively impact girls in New Hampshire.”
The report highlights statistics ranging from girls’ academic performance, career and education aspirations, economic security, labor force participation, health and wellness, substance use and more.
“Once again, the NH Women’s Foundation Status of Girls report serves as a wakeup call for policymakers, service providers, parents, and educators,” said Kristin Smith, Ph.D., visiting research associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College. “The most striking data to me is the sharp uptick in girls’ depression and suicide consideration — more than half of girls in New Hampshire experienced depression (feelings of sadness and hopelessness), and one in three considered suicide in 2021. The rates are even higher for gay, lesbian or bisexual girls. These levels are unprecedented and indicate a need for ‘all hands-on deck.’”
New Hampshire Women’s Foundation Board Chair Allison Potter said, “While we see some positive and some negative outcomes for girls in the data of this report, we want to remind readers of the impact and influence positive community programming has and can continue to make in girls’ lives.”
Riyah Patel, founder and president of New American Scholars, a New Hampshire Women’s Foundation grantee, said the report “helps us evaluate state trends compared to our community, apply for grants and launch programs where they are needed the most. Additionally, it allows us to effectively communicate the need for our programming to community members, policymakers, grantors and donors.”
The full report can be viewed at nhwomensfoundation.org/SOG.
