I'm all for increasing women and girl's participation in STEM, but I'm not sure how I feel about making the capitalist system such a large part of our participation. I don't believe true equality is possible within the confines of the capitalist structure. ( )

"Venture Girls: Raising Girls to Be Tomorrow's Leaders" by Cristal Glangchai is a really impressive book and an interesting read. I am going to give it to my younger sisters to read next. ( )

I received a copy of Venture Girls by Cristal Glangchai through The Librarything’s Early Review program. What an interesting and thought-provoking book about inspiring young girls in the STEM subjects. I intend to share this book and information with anyone who will listen to me. ( )

As a female chemical engineer, I found "Venture Girls" to be an interesting and thought-provoking book about developing entrepreneurial and leadership skills in girls from a young age with the goal of decreasing the gender gap in STEM fields. The author shares her expertise in an engaging way, providing both research and anecdotes to support of her vision of using entrepreneurship to empower girls and young women. I appreciated the practical advice and activities provided to help adults foster these qualities in children, and I am looking forward to putting them into practice.

Wow! This book is terrific! It reads like a Malcolm Gladwell book with supporting stories about our society and how we are not doing a good enough job at encouraging girls and women to enter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs and professions. What an incredible read. For a research/case study book, it had me fired up about 1/3 of the way into the book. I was wishing I worked for VentureLab making a difference everyday and inspiring girls to be creative, to be entrepreneur and by all means, to think and challenge and come up with solutions to problems in today's world. It made me wish I had pursued by own original plans of becoming a doctor but, as countless stories in this book reflected, I was told by a college counselor when looking for advice that the medical field was no place for a women, especially a women who also had plans to be a wife and mother. Discouraged and feeling I did not have the support and guidance I needed to navigate the complicated and discouraging gateway classes, I switched majors into a Humanities degree. Thankfully, I was able to find a passion for International Business so in the end it worked out, but I can't help but wonder, what if? What if society was more encouraging towards women in STEM careers? What if that counselor and just suggested a way or been more encouraging? What if I had stuck to the science and just tweaked things a bit?

This book is full of great stories that will inspire, great solutions and ideas to help encourage girls and boys in your own homes and communities and a network of people to go to for help.

This is an issue that we can all do something about, starting today? Encourage kids to ask questions, to think about things scientifically, to take things apart and put them back together again, to get dirty! Help them learn to code. With all of the technological advancements, learning some from of tech will be invaluable to them. Give girls Lego sets, erector sets, get them working on a car so that they too will be inspired by how things work. And it doesn't stop there. Our country thrives when entrepreneurs continue to start new businesses or grow existing ones, creating economies and more jobs. Inspire kids to be entrepreneurs. To look for solutions to problems. How to manage money, businesses, presentations, idea generation...rather than stifling creativity to fit into the same molds we have been pushing as a society on boys jobs and girls jobs. In the end, our nation and our world depend on their creative minds and their ability to see possibilities beyond our wildest imaginations.

I highly recommend this book and the inspiration it brings to everyone! ( )