The Importance of Education for Women and Girls

Thursday, August 4, 2016
7:00 PM
Farmington Main Library, 6 Monteith Drive

“Education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women … It is also an area that offers some of the clearest examples of discrimination women suffer. Among children not attending school there are twice as many girls as boys, and among illiterate adults there are twice as many women as men.

Offering girls basic education is one sure way of giving them much greater power — of enabling them to make genuine choices over the kinds of lives they wish to lead. This is not a luxury. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women establish it as a basic human right.” – UNICEF

“Our girls are studying their absence.” – Gloria Steinem

Women and girls don’t see themselves in most leadership positions in the United States, whether it’s as Head of School or President of the United States. Educating women and girls is more than giving them information, it’s about showing them paths to what they could be; it’s about realizing potential.

Sarah Odell grew up in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah spent her college years interning in the private office of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then senator from New York. After three years as an editorial assistant at HarperCollins Publishers, Sarah realized her true calling and became an English teacher. She also coaches girls varsity squash in addition to teaching 11th and 12th grade English at Miss Porter’s School. She has represented the United States three times in international competition and will be head coach of the US Junior team in the 2017 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

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