Rockville Woman Who Writes About 'Good Girls' Featured in AOL/PBS Documentary

Forty years after the beginning of the Women's Movement in the United States, some of the unsung heroes of the revolution in women's rights are being featured in a documentary film called "Makers: Women Who Make America." Among those featured is a woman from Rockville.

Rachel Simmons, co-founder of the Girls' Leadership Institute, graduated in 1992 from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville.

She is featured as one of the notable women in the documentary that will air beginning at 8 p.m. today on local PBS stations. 

"My drive to understand and empower girls comes from personal experience," she says on her website. "My childhood relationships, and my involvement in bullying, had a profound impact on my development."

She is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, and The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. 

Watch Simmons talk about her research and writing in a TEDx talk here.

According to its producers, Makers, developed with AOL, is the "remarkable story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy. It’s a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves."  

Note: Patch is an AOL company.