Growing Strong Daughters: Encouraging Girls to Become All They're Meant to Be [Paperback]

Lisa Graham McMinn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2007

Today's culture offers broadening opportunities for women; yet it still pressures them to fit long-standing stereotypes. McMinn challenges parents, teachers, churches, and civic communities to create a social environment that nurtures strong, confident girls. Combining careful research with personal experience, McMinn takes a thoughtful look at gender differences and patterns limiting women's full participation in society. She discusses what it means to raise strong daughters made in the image of God and covers the various aspects of strength--confidence, interdependence, voice, and self-image.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

How can you help shape your daughter to be confident and gracious, empowered to become the woman she was meant to be?

Today women enjoy more opportunities than in any previous century. Yet they are still pressured to be beautiful, thin, and sexy. In this sort of environment, our daughters get mixed messages about what a strong woman really is. How can we work to create a social environment that nurtures strong, confident girls?

This helpful book is filled with strategies and personal insights to guide you in growing a strong, capable daughter. McMinn discusses topics such as how you can teach your daughter to:
• be confident as well as interdependent
• feel confident in her ability to think and speak for herself
• have a healthy perspective toward her body and sexuality
• develop strong relationships with boys, both parents, and a future mate
McMinn thoughtfully examines these issues, reminding us of our God-given responsibilities to "grow" the next generation of women. Her personal insight, life experience, and careful research combine to make this book helpful for all who are involved in raising and nurturing girls--whether parents, teachers, church leaders, or civic communities. This revised edition includes a new preface, study questions, and updated studies, illustrations, and concepts.

Praise for the first edition:
"Reading this book will truly make a difference for mothers and daughters, and this will make a difference in our world!"--Judy and Jack Balswick, Fuller Theological Seminary

"McMinn speaks from her professional expertise as well as her personal experiences as the mother of three daughters. This thoughtful and perceptive guide should be on the bookshelves of parents, educators, and pastors."--Beliefnet

Lisa Graham McMinn is associate professor of sociology at George Fox University, where much of her teaching and work with students intersects with the issues she raises in Growing Strong Daughters. She and her husband Mark are the parents of three daughters.

About the Author

Lisa Graham McMinn is associate professor of sociology at George Fox University, where much of her teaching and work with students intersects with the issues she raises in Growing Strong Daughters. McMinn lives in Oregon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books; 2 Revised edition (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801067995
• ISBN-13: 978-0801067990
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical insights into raising girls, September 9, 2000

By 

Paula H. (Newberg, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Strong Daughters: Encouraging Girls to Become All They're Meant to Be (Paperback)

Women, created by God in His own image, serve as co-stewards (with men)over God's creation. Historically the church, as well as society as a whole, has placed women in a silent and subservient role, far from God's purpose at creation. How do parents in the 21st century raise up confident and strong daughters who will fulfill their potential in bringing wholeness to a broken world?

Lisa Graham McMinn has written a thoughtful, well-organized and practical book addressing some of the issues women and girls face in today's society. Drawing from her own experience as mother of three daughters and sociology professor at Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL), McMinn outlines ways parents can encourage girls to have confidence, voice, a balanced self-image, and an appropriate perception of themselves as women. In short, McMinn celebrates biblical feminism, urging women and girls to rejoice in their uniqueness as image-bearers of God.

"Being gracious, empowered women is what I hope for my students and my daughters," McMinn writes in her introductory chapter. "To be a non-bitter Christian woman is to feel blessed, after all, to BE a woman ... Christian women who are empowered to interact in the world recognize the strength endowed them from being made in the image of God. Thus they are able to respond confidently to God's call ... seeking to bring peace, justice and mercy to a broken world."

Women of all ages will find their own stories in the pages of McMinn's book. Written not only for parents of adolescent girls, GROWING STRONG DAUGHTERS is important reading for pastors, teachers, youth workers, grandparents, and young men -- anyone whose life touches that of a young woman.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical and Balanced, August 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Growing Strong Daughters: Encouraging Girls to Become All They're Meant to Be (Paperback)

Thank God - literally - for Lisa McMinn's book. As my husband and I wrestle with raising our own 14-year-old daughter, we find comfort and guidance through the pages of this balanced, helpful look at bringing up girls. McMinn offers valuable insights about the mixed messages girls receive from their families, their churches, and from contemporary culture, and is vulnerable about her own successes and failures in raising her three daughters. Practical without preachy, this is a book we'll refer to again and again -- and give as a gift to our friends.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully disturbing, November 16, 2009

By 

W. Elizabeth Chapin "chaotic creator" (Kenmore, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Growing Strong Daughters: Encouraging Girls to Become All They're Meant to Be (Kindle Edition)

I was very disturbed after I read this book. McMinn offers a view of women that runs counter to the evangelical view of women that I had come to embrace as a young adult. Was it possible that what I had been taught about the role of women in the church and in relation to men had been wrong? While McMinn's arguments offer food for thought, I decided to do some research for myself. After two years in seminary, I have not found anything that contradicts McMinn's findings or advice. I needed to be disturbed by her book and I have given this book to others hoping to disturb their thinking and engage them in a new way of thinking about women and their place in this world and in the church. This book is definitely more than merely a book for parents of daughters. I would recommend it for all women, and anyone in relation with women - OK, I guess I would recommend it for anyone and everyone. We need to change our world. I want my four daughters to grow up in a different world than I did. I want to be a part of the change. Read this book and you may be inspired to be a part of the change too!