Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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!

This book is OUTSTANDING. It gives theoretical background along with practical advice on countering the harmful messages girls receive from society. I found the dating chapters particularly helpful. It is vitally important that our daughters have strong, authoritative voices and feel capable and competent in their lives. That, after all, is our JOB as parents! Seriously, BUY THIS BOOK. You won't regret it.