Why Good Girls Shouldn't Be Nice: Implications of Female Psychological Development for Health Educators

For adolescent girls, and for many adult women, to be good is to be “perfect” and “nice”; not always to say what you feel or what you know to be true; not to ask questions that make people uncomfortable; not to challenge what you think is not right. This is the picture that is emerging from the work being done in the area of female psychological development. It is time for health educators to begin to explore how we can challenge and support girls to keep speaking out; not to bury their true selves behind a wall constructed to soften the blows of culturally constructed expectations. To do this, we must acknowledge and incorporate the emerging research in female psychological development into the design and implementation of health education programs and services.