Women's Leadership
At Notre Dame, we are developing leaders who will create a more just world. As people of service and impact, they take their place in the community, standing with, and speaking up for, others.
Each student at Notre Dame San Jose has the opportunity to develop leadership skills through over 400 selected and elected leadership positions on campus. In our unique, women-centric environment, all students have specifically allocated time in their weekly schedules to hone these skills.
All Sophomores receive formal leadership training, and students of all grade levels have opportunities for skill building and skill application throughout the school year, both on and off campus.
Signature Events
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Women Of Impact
Notre Dame advances women's leadership within our larger community by honoring women of impact and creating space for them to engage with our students.
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Woman's Place Project
In their freshman year, all students undertake the interdisciplinary study of the strength and contributions of women across time, culture and industry, each honoring an individual woman.
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Young Women's Advocacy Summit
At the Young Women's Advocacy Summit, attended by local politicians and community members, seniors advocate on behalf of the organizations they've served through their Senior Service Learning Project (SSLP).
The Value of Women’s Education
Academic Outcomes1
Linda Sax’s UCLA study of women in single-sex and co-educational high schools found a statistically significant difference between the two groups noting that graduates of the single-sex schools have:
- greater academic engagement
- higher SAT scores
- greater interest in grad school
- higher confidence in math & computer skills
- greater interest in engineering careers
- greater political engagement
Self Confidence2
According to a study in the Journal of Educational Psychology, girls who attended all-girls Catholic high schools experienced higher academic achievement, higher educational aspirations and higher self-esteem.
Leadership3
93% of students who graduated from an all-girls institution say they were offered greater leadership opportunities than peers at co-ed schools, and 80% have held leadership positions since graduating high school.
Meaningful Relationships4
A study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education observed, “more positive academic and behavioral interactions between teachers and students in the single-sex schools than in the comparison to co-ed schools.”
Careers in STEM5
Students who graduate from an all-girls school are 6 times more likely to consider a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) major, than girls who attended co-ed schools.
Positive Environment6
“Girls’ schools create a school environment where girls are encouraged to take risks, to see themselves as leaders, to resist pressure to hide or deny their intelligence and interest in school and to learn how to work collaboratively and compete fairly.”
The Challenge
Even though women earn 60% of the college degrees each year they only represent...
36%
of medical
doctors
27%
of the
US Congress
26%
of executive
officers
Our Solution
Women-centric spaces like the one Notre Dame San Jose has cultivated since 1851 disrupt the limitations women face by promoting empowerment, cultivating confidence, providing representation and enabling broad access to skill-building, free from stereotypes of what is, or is not, possible for women.
A women-centric learning community provides a space where academic achievement is valued and does not conflict with social acceptance.
Notre Dame is led by a team of individuals highly experienced in education, business and nonprofit management who have seen first-hand the benefits of our institutional environment first–hand.
Sources: (1) Linda J. Sax, Ph.D., “Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College” (2)Valerie Lee and Anthony Bryk, “Effects of Single-Sex Secondary Schools on Student Achievement and Attitudes” (3)Whitney Ransome and Meg Milne Moulton, “Why Girls’ Schools? The Difference in Girl-Centered Education” (4) Goodman Research Group, “The Girls’ School Experience: A Survey of Young Alumnae of Single-Sex Schools” (5) U.S. Department of Education (6) National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.