“United in Elevating Women’s Leadership Worldwide”
“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful.” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists, illuminates a sad truth that cuts across several centuries and numerous borders: that women and girls should only aspire to be what society tells them they should be. This truth is perpetuated by the people who believe women’s empowerment is a direct threat to their privilege and the systems that are as intentionally invisible as they are insidious. For that reason, NCGS is grateful to the truth tellers at so many of our member schools who increase our collective visibility and uplift as they empower. In unprecedented ways, our Black students and students of color have shared their lived experiences of how our schools have made them shrink themselves, forcing them to regulate their identity and negotiate between “too much” and “too little.” Their courageous and brilliant voices have been reinforced by many BIPOC alumnae who shared similar truths.
NCGS stands with our students, and we are proud to provide a platform through which they can channel their hopes into actionable change. Our charge has not wavered, but through their activism, it has been strengthened. In everything we do, we will offer a counter narrative to the norms that inspired Ms. Adichie’s brilliant analysis: We teach girls to embolden themselves, to make their impact larger. We say to girls, you cannot have too much ambition. You should aim to be successful, and you should use your success to uplift those who come after you.
More than a different take, girls’ schools have a different vision—a vision for what is possible when we live in a world that is more just; that champions equity; and that doesn’t just offer a seat at the table, but supports the creation of new tables, new rooms, and new structures and systems in our students’ visions.
For well over a year, the NCGS Board has been thinking about vision. We started pre-pandemic. We started with you. We culled over our 2019 membership survey. We dreamed. We questioned. We edited. We dreamed again. And last week, we voted. My colleagues on the NCGS Board all said a resounding “YES” when presented with an updated vision statement:
We are united in elevating women’s leadership worldwide by educating and empowering our students to be ethical, globally minded changemakers.
“We are united.” Difference and division are two very separate concepts. While difference strengthens us, division weakens the foundation of our charge. When it comes to elevating women’s leadership, NCGS schools stand as one.
Our ambitions are “worldwide.” This pandemic has highlighted an undeniable truth—we are all connected. We need empathy, and we need one another. NCGS membership reflects that connection; over the past decade, we have become increasingly global, and we are determined to ensure that continues. We believe we owe it to our member schools, and more pointedly, we owe it to our students, to build new bridges. In the end, it is our students who inspire our vision: “educating and empowering” them will forever be our North Star. To do so today, we place a premium on teaching them to be “ethical, globally minded changemakers.” My colleagues on the NCGS Board invite you to join with us in pursuit of our vision.
In the most important ways, our students have led the way during this time. Despite a global pandemic that has dramatically altered our everyday lives, they resolutely refuse to shrink. NCGS has a chance to meet our students where they are and families have called upon us to do—to be bold, unapologetic, and proactive in our pursuit to empower every young woman to thrive as her full self.
Paul Burke, President of the NCGS Board of Trustees and Head of The Nightingale-Bamford School