Overview

Failure to receive a high school diploma often places girls and gender-expansive youth on a pathway to low-wage work, poverty and/or incarceration. Teen parenting, sexual harassment and bullying, trauma from family and/or community violence, and unfair disciplinary policies in public schools are all well-known risk factors for girls and gender-expansive students—especially students of color—which negatively affect educational attainment and opportunity. Young women and gender-expansive students in higher education also face significant challenges, including pervasive sexual harassment and sexual assault, gender bias in academia relating to pregnancy and caregiving responsibilities, and lack of affordable childcare for student parents.