Robin Ramson didn't set out to start a girls' chess organization; she just wanted to help her daughter find some other girls to play with. "I started bringing pink chess boards to the library," she said, and soon the interest was so high, parents asked her to create a space for girls to play chess among themselves. And thus Chess Girls was born.
"We saw we could use chess to build the confidence of girls," said Ramson. Indeed, the Chess Girls motto is "move with confidence."
The organization aims to help the girls make connections between chess and other academic activities, particularly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) subjects.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, women hold only 24 percent of jobs in STEM fields and that the number of men with computing degrees far outweighs the number of women, statistics that can be traced back to elementary school. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between playing chess and academic, especially mathematic, achievement, but there's still a stereotype of chess as a "boys' game;" the U.S. Chess Federation even has women's rankings.
The leaders of Chess Girls know that young women are exposed to these types of stereotypes -- that girls aren't as good at math, for instance -- and negative marketing every day. They strive to fight these stereotypes by using chess to help their students advance. The strategic thinking necessary for chess helps the girls learn to solve problems. As students grow and develop skills, they might choose to enter competitions. The organization raises funds to send the girls to national tournaments.
But success on the board is only part of the goal of Chess Girls. The game of chess is intended to help the young ladies prepare for real life -- just as they must defend their queen on the board, so will they need to be prepared to defend a thesis, perhaps, or a presentation at work, or maybe a legal client, or her own rights. Parents have told Ramson that their daughters have developed a better sense of focus, even better test-taking skills.
"We talk about how great leaders have the same skills in common with great chess players," Ramson said -- skills like time management, strategic thinking, risk-taking and confidence. She brings in guest speakers, including Admiral Michelle Howard, the first four-star woman in Navy history.
"When you invest in girls, it's powerful."