The Girls Coalition exists to address strategic gaps in the region--meeting a need for staff and leaders of girl- and youth-serving agencies to share information about programs, new research, or training opportunities. We strive to build a strong coalition of providers that serve girls to address and remedy issues that face all girls in education, physical & mental health, violence & crime, and economics. We exist because as women continue to be provided with more opportunities to achieve success in their professional and personal lives, research points to the fact that women continue to be marginalized in society due to persistent inequities and obstacles they need to overcome as girls. Our education system continues to discriminate against our girls in the field of math and science, putting the needs of their male counterparts first. Granted this is not the case in every school and there are girls achieving their dreams despite the challenges they face in the classroom. Economically, women earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes for the same work performed in the United States. In Pittsburgh, alone, the gap is even greater with 70 cents for every dollar that a man earned. Today, one in ten American families live in poverty and the majority of single headed households are held by women.
