What do you think?
Rate this book
Girl Talk: Mother-Daughter Conversations on Biblical Womanhood
Mothers and daughters have a lot to talk about. That's how God designed it. A mother is her daughter's first role model, teacher, and friend, and she carries the responsibility of passing on to her daughter a legacy of biblical womanhood. Join mother-daughter team Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre as they give you insights and suggestions on how to talk—really talk—to each other about what it means to become a godly woman. Tips and study questions make it easy for moms and their pre-teen and teenage daughters to read, share, discuss, and grow.
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2005
58 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn Mahaney
31 books53 followersCarolyn Mahaney is a wife, mother, and homemaker. Having spent over thirty years as a pastor's wife, Carolyn has spoken to women in many churches and conferences. She is the author of Feminine Appeal, Girl Talk, Shopping for Time and True Beauty. She blogs with her daughters at www girltalkhome com, a blog focused on biblical womanhood. Carolyn and her husband, C. J., are the parents of three married daughters and one son, and the happy grandparents to twelve grandchildren.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
July 30, 2021
PURITY CULTURE ALERT: this book would have been a 4 star read if it weren’t laced with sentiments that so many respected evangelicals have turned their backs on for extra-biblical legalism and the moral fall of poster child Josh Harris. I have great respect for the Mahaneys and their practical biblical advice. They are helpful, faithful people and I am sure that they didn’t foresee the future as they repeatedly hailed Josh Harris and his views when they discussed biblical womanhood as pertains to young single women. But I really cannot abide legalism such as: it is ungodly to flirt. Ok, what exactly is flirting then? When does friendliness cross into flirtiness? This mindset lends to sinful self-absorption of its own variety, not to mention arrests healthy social development in my opinion. How can our teens be friends with the opposite sex or develop a relationship that could possibly advance toward marriage if they are made to be terrified of flirting whatever it even means? I feel that such a mindset also sets a young person up for dishonesty either toward themselves internally or toward their parents as it is natural to have interest and develop deepening friendships with the opposite sex during these years. Of course we should be on guard, and have parameters in place, but I am increasingly concerned with the unhealthy focus and effects of a legalistic extrabiblical purity culture. I don’t want my daughter inundated with that sort of garbage during her formative teen years.
I did love the chapter “A Girl’s Reputation” and am considering using it as a devotional tool for a discipleship event I’d like to host for youth girls at my church.
So my takeaway and advice for potential readers is: this book is worth reading, but don’t feel free to encourage your daughter to read it without you or she may be convinced that you are worldly and ungodly if you have allowed her to date (even community dances) or don’t have a problem with friendliness that might cross over into flirtiness with a special friend. It will steer her toward a more godly woman than you if you are such an immature Christian and that is not ok. We all have to figure out what is best for our families and our individual children and while experiential advice from other Christians is so valuable and helpful, black and white divisive legalism is never safe for families.
I did love the chapter “A Girl’s Reputation” and am considering using it as a devotional tool for a discipleship event I’d like to host for youth girls at my church.
So my takeaway and advice for potential readers is: this book is worth reading, but don’t feel free to encourage your daughter to read it without you or she may be convinced that you are worldly and ungodly if you have allowed her to date (even community dances) or don’t have a problem with friendliness that might cross over into flirtiness with a special friend. It will steer her toward a more godly woman than you if you are such an immature Christian and that is not ok. We all have to figure out what is best for our families and our individual children and while experiential advice from other Christians is so valuable and helpful, black and white divisive legalism is never safe for families.
April 9, 2022
A mostly practical and helpful book to encourage mothers to invest in the spiritual growth of their daughters. Although it’s s noble thing to set out to equip mothers and daughters well, I struggle with books like this, given that my youngest daughter is a teen, and my older 2 are adults. I often find myself lamenting about all the things I did wrong and how it’s mostly too late to apply any of these things. Sometimes it’s really hard to read about people who just don’t seem to have any iota of relational strife in their lives, and the daughters are all walking in obedience with the Lord, and I wonder if they’ve had any relational challenges that my life is full of. Yes, sometimes these books give me sadness and deep regret.
But, in all that, it’s never too late to start doing the right thing. I hope to share this book with my teenage daughter, as a means to help purge her of so much worldliness and stress the importance of her walk with me as her mother.
I appreciate the chapter to fathers; something I think that the fathers really don’t think to attend to the application of theology to lives as husbands, which then negatively impacts the mothers ability to nurture a strong relationship with the kids. It’s just a small part of this book, but the importance of how the father treats the mother cannot be overstated, and I like that attention was brought to this topic.
What a difficult, difficult journey it is to raise girls in this culture. The battle is huge and I am ill-equipped to fight it. The scriptures tell us to not lose hope, and to put our trust in the Lord, the healer of hearts. This book gives many practical helps; I just hope my outcomes are as good as the authors’…
But, in all that, it’s never too late to start doing the right thing. I hope to share this book with my teenage daughter, as a means to help purge her of so much worldliness and stress the importance of her walk with me as her mother.
I appreciate the chapter to fathers; something I think that the fathers really don’t think to attend to the application of theology to lives as husbands, which then negatively impacts the mothers ability to nurture a strong relationship with the kids. It’s just a small part of this book, but the importance of how the father treats the mother cannot be overstated, and I like that attention was brought to this topic.
What a difficult, difficult journey it is to raise girls in this culture. The battle is huge and I am ill-equipped to fight it. The scriptures tell us to not lose hope, and to put our trust in the Lord, the healer of hearts. This book gives many practical helps; I just hope my outcomes are as good as the authors’…
January 25, 2024
I appreciated a lot of the practical tips this book had to offer. The last section (appendix) of the book had some really great ways to converse with your daughter and some great ways to spend time with them, etc. I do feel like some points and scripture were stretched quite a bit. I didn’t agree with the authors, specifically, on the last couple chapters in a handful of ways. All in all, it was a decent book with some helpful ways on how to engage good conversation and relationships with your daughter(s). I was able to get some meat and just toss what I didn’t agree with.
December 8, 2020
My favorite part of this book is the appendix. Great questions to foster good discussions between moms and daughters.
March 17, 2023
There was some really good advice in this book, but not enough to make up for the bad parts.
I had 2 main problems with it (they overlap somewhat but I'll get into that in a bit).
1. Double standards for men and women.
In the section on "Biblical femininity," the authors basically say things like "As a Christian woman, you should respect authority figures, like teachers, parents, religious leaders, etc. which I agree with to some extent... but why is that a feminine thing?? Last I checked, "Honor your mother and father" applied to everyone equally.
Certain parts of this book almost seemed to be discouraging women from getting any education post-high school, and made feminism sound like an anti-housewife movement. I'm aware there are extreme feminists who take it too far ("kill all men," etc.) but true feminism is just meant to give women the choice as to what they want to do with their lives. You can absolutely be a wife and a SAHM and still support womens' rights to go to college and have careers.
2. Purity culture.
As I said, there is some overlap here. For example, this book says that all men lust (they just can't help it, the poor guys) and all women want to be lusted after (pardon??). They interviewed 2 young "Christian" men to get their opinions on women and modesty, and they agreed that when one of their women friends is wearing something revealing they can't focus on the conversation and just think that the woman must be doing it to get sexual attention. I'm sorry, but if what I wear decides whether you see me as a person or a sex object, maybe you need to go read Matthew 18:9 and think about that for a while.
Also, the authors spent so much time quoting Joshua Harris?? I know it hadn't happened at the time this book was written, but in 2019 (I think?) he renounced his books, which made it so much harder to take this book seriously when they kept using him as a reference.
I had 2 main problems with it (they overlap somewhat but I'll get into that in a bit).
1. Double standards for men and women.
In the section on "Biblical femininity," the authors basically say things like "As a Christian woman, you should respect authority figures, like teachers, parents, religious leaders, etc. which I agree with to some extent... but why is that a feminine thing?? Last I checked, "Honor your mother and father" applied to everyone equally.
Certain parts of this book almost seemed to be discouraging women from getting any education post-high school, and made feminism sound like an anti-housewife movement. I'm aware there are extreme feminists who take it too far ("kill all men," etc.) but true feminism is just meant to give women the choice as to what they want to do with their lives. You can absolutely be a wife and a SAHM and still support womens' rights to go to college and have careers.
2. Purity culture.
As I said, there is some overlap here. For example, this book says that all men lust (they just can't help it, the poor guys) and all women want to be lusted after (pardon??). They interviewed 2 young "Christian" men to get their opinions on women and modesty, and they agreed that when one of their women friends is wearing something revealing they can't focus on the conversation and just think that the woman must be doing it to get sexual attention. I'm sorry, but if what I wear decides whether you see me as a person or a sex object, maybe you need to go read Matthew 18:9 and think about that for a while.
Also, the authors spent so much time quoting Joshua Harris?? I know it hadn't happened at the time this book was written, but in 2019 (I think?) he renounced his books, which made it so much harder to take this book seriously when they kept using him as a reference.
November 6, 2014
A good book, but I tried reading it when my children were smaller and I was homeschooling. Just felt too much pressure to be able to do everything when reading it. Read it at a later time, and got some good stuff from it. I just didn't feel like I could "live up" the standards presented the first time I tried to read it. I think God is gracious, and if you can't spend time with God at 5am, He will still accept you. :)
February 1, 2010
I'm reading through this with my mom. I really am enjoying it. =)
January 24, 2023
Only one chapter into this book and I was holding back tears, raising women is hard, but nothing worth doing was ever really easy. I’ve purchased at least four books in the last year in hopes that it could be helpful to me and my girls, but out of all the books I purchased I wasn’t pleased to use any of them, the bad outweighed the good. I loved part one & I’m a little conflicted about part two, but that is mostly because I didn’t realize that this book was written in 2005 during the height of purity culture. So unfortunately there are some recommendations to read books written by author Joshua Harris (I haven’t read any of his books so I can’t speak to if those are good books or not). In chapter 19 “Taking God to the Gap” (a chapter about modesty) there are unhelpful letters from “Jack and “Jason” about modesty (I will be blacking those out before handing this book to my daughters). Don’t get me wrong I am very much for modesty and purity, but feel that the church at large has done an unsatisfactory job of communicating this in a helpful way to our sons & daughters. Hopefully as we raise this next generation of youth we as Christians can be carful not to let the pendulum swing to the other direction, but instead find our footing and teach our children on the why of purity and modesty without all the unhelpful weird scare tactics, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water and fail to instruct them in the truth. Much of the other books she recommends for further reading are great books. Overall I am pleased with the book, but feel it should definitely be used as intended as a tool to bring up conversations with your daughter where you can help her have a deeper understanding of the things that are touched on. The documentary Eve in Exile did a better job at communicating the good of all a women can do with the giftings God has given her.
November 8, 2018
My daughter and I really enjoyed reading this together and the discussion question for each chapter were helpful in guiding our conversations. I love how the Mahaney ladies paint a hopeful and beautiful picture of what a mother daughter relationship can be like, which is refreshing in our culture of pessimism and low standards regarding parent and teen relationships.
September 15, 2020
Second half of the book was more applicable for our mother/daughter time. (We have a good relationship, homeschool [therefore some of the peer pressure stuff wasn’t relatable], and as of now my daughter is walking a mature faith.) The chapters at the end were good conversation starters during our weekly discipleship nights.
August 29, 2019
I read this with my 15 and 12 year old daughters and what a great message in a time when it is very unpopular. A much needed book on the responsibilities of women in this age when The biblical roles of men and women are largely ignored.
March 28, 2012
MY REVIEW:
It's got a bright pink cover and fun graphics...it's a book that's irresistibly cute! But more important, it's packed full of Biblical counsel for Mothers and Daughters. It's a "must read" for any Mother-of-a-Daughter(s), and of course any Daughter, too.
The whole idea of this book is about Moms teaching and passing down Biblical womanhood to our daughters. While intended to be read by both Mothers and their Daughters as a joint read - either at the same time or one at at time and then come together to chat about it - it still is a great read for just a mom or just a daughter. I was encouraged, convicted, and challenged by reading this book and I didn't read it with my mom or with my daughters. (They are still too young for this book.)
I personally enjoyed Carolyn's warm approach and kindness throughout the book. It was fun to read about her failures and success as a mother and to be encouraged by her example. The book as a whole is Biblically sound, uplifting, and offers a lot of practical application. This book is not just another lofty story of a "super-mom" and an "extraordinary daughter" making you feel like a failure - it's truly a help and encouragement to both Mothers and Daughters.
Here are 25 things that I stood out to me as I read this book:
-It's a privilege to pass on Biblical womanhood.
-God has ordained for me to have the mother and daughters I have.
-I want to be the "front cover" mom in my daughter's lives.
-Teens take just as much time as toddlers.
-What do I want so much that it causes conflict?
-Communicate!
-Trust God.
-I am an example...but of what?
-There is power in a mother's love.
-Discipline is so much more than punishment.
-Honor my mother...even as an adult.
-I need to teach my daughters about the blessing of obedience, not just about obedience.
-Biblical womanhood is best learned early.
-Revel in your female design.
-Fear of God is good.
-Am I best friend material?
-Be easy to talk to about purity and sex.
-Pursue an extreme heart makeover.
-Am I an example of modesty?
-I need to exemplify being a homemaker.
-Consider my daughters to be my homemaking interns.
-How am I training my daughters to serve?
-Counsel my daughters through courtship.
-Point my daughter to her husband.
-Pass on Biblical womanhood.
It's got a bright pink cover and fun graphics...it's a book that's irresistibly cute! But more important, it's packed full of Biblical counsel for Mothers and Daughters. It's a "must read" for any Mother-of-a-Daughter(s), and of course any Daughter, too.
The whole idea of this book is about Moms teaching and passing down Biblical womanhood to our daughters. While intended to be read by both Mothers and their Daughters as a joint read - either at the same time or one at at time and then come together to chat about it - it still is a great read for just a mom or just a daughter. I was encouraged, convicted, and challenged by reading this book and I didn't read it with my mom or with my daughters. (They are still too young for this book.)
I personally enjoyed Carolyn's warm approach and kindness throughout the book. It was fun to read about her failures and success as a mother and to be encouraged by her example. The book as a whole is Biblically sound, uplifting, and offers a lot of practical application. This book is not just another lofty story of a "super-mom" and an "extraordinary daughter" making you feel like a failure - it's truly a help and encouragement to both Mothers and Daughters.
Here are 25 things that I stood out to me as I read this book:
-It's a privilege to pass on Biblical womanhood.
-God has ordained for me to have the mother and daughters I have.
-I want to be the "front cover" mom in my daughter's lives.
-Teens take just as much time as toddlers.
-What do I want so much that it causes conflict?
-Communicate!
-Trust God.
-I am an example...but of what?
-There is power in a mother's love.
-Discipline is so much more than punishment.
-Honor my mother...even as an adult.
-I need to teach my daughters about the blessing of obedience, not just about obedience.
-Biblical womanhood is best learned early.
-Revel in your female design.
-Fear of God is good.
-Am I best friend material?
-Be easy to talk to about purity and sex.
-Pursue an extreme heart makeover.
-Am I an example of modesty?
-I need to exemplify being a homemaker.
-Consider my daughters to be my homemaking interns.
-How am I training my daughters to serve?
-Counsel my daughters through courtship.
-Point my daughter to her husband.
-Pass on Biblical womanhood.
June 18, 2017
While overall I think this book is a good resource...I did have a problem with several of the chapters towards the end of the book. Especially chapter 18 - True Beauty...I felt that the chapter was appealing to a girls behavior instead of her overall belief in where she finds her beauty. I felt most of the chapter was spent on shaming girls into dressing a certain way instead instilling a desire to reflect her God given beauty and embracing that all girls are fearfully and wonderfully made. I also, had a difficult time with Chapter 19 - Taking God to the Gap - which was encouraging modest dress by shaming girls to not entice men. I think this chapter is flawed and makes women responsible for Men's sin. The traditional christian narrative so often makes women/girls responsible for mens natural tendency to objectify women. Finally, Chapter 20 - Future Homemakers...a chapter that states that women are to be keepers of the home. I think that this ideology is antiquated and sexist at best. Men and Women alike have a responsibility to care for the home and children. My thoughts. This book overall tends to appeal to a women/girl behavior instead of her belief system. I personally believe that showing Girls who they need to turn to when in doubt and instilling in them a true sense of value is far more important then do's and don'ts.
January 13, 2010
This is a great book that helps me understand more of my mom's heart. If you're a mom, I think this book will help you understand more of the struggles that your daughter is facing. If you both are Christians, this is a great book to go through together to learn how to develop godly, God-glorifying mother-daughter relationship. Among the features that I like about this book is that it brings up many hard subjects that probably are hard to be brought up naturally even within a great mother-daughter relationship.
I also like the conversational approach of the book done by the mother-daughter authors Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre, and how amidst the conversation I can sometimes see real tensions that are commonly found in typical, modern day mother-daughter relationship. I'm gleaning a lot from how the authors approach their differences as mother and daughter and letting the clear guiding principles of the Bible to have the last say in each differences.
I also like the conversational approach of the book done by the mother-daughter authors Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre, and how amidst the conversation I can sometimes see real tensions that are commonly found in typical, modern day mother-daughter relationship. I'm gleaning a lot from how the authors approach their differences as mother and daughter and letting the clear guiding principles of the Bible to have the last say in each differences.
March 30, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this book with Kati and Kori. The chapters were short with questions to discuss. Many of the questions were for me, not just them. And they were able to be open and honest about me, too.
Some of the chapters were written by the mom, while others were written by the daughters. So there is a little something for everyone. Great book to do with teen daughters.
My favorite part was actually an activity the author did with her daughters. They rent a hotel room for Black Friday weekend. Spend the entire weekend together shopping, dining and relaxing. I currently have a Black Friday day with the girls. But when we get back ot America, I hope to start this tradition.
Some of the chapters were written by the mom, while others were written by the daughters. So there is a little something for everyone. Great book to do with teen daughters.
My favorite part was actually an activity the author did with her daughters. They rent a hotel room for Black Friday weekend. Spend the entire weekend together shopping, dining and relaxing. I currently have a Black Friday day with the girls. But when we get back ot America, I hope to start this tradition.
April 24, 2014
I really enjoyed this basic book on passing Biblical womanhood onto the next generation. It is a topic that I have been studying a lot in the last 5 years or so, and this book explains it so simply. It is geared mostly towards daughters, but is meant to be read with mothers and daughters together. I enjoyed reading it to Lillian and hope we can read it again together as she grows up. It covers a variety of topics and is not just a how to guide, but gives you ways to think about what Biblical womanhood looks like for your house, your daughter and you. I very highly recommend this book.
October 10, 2010
This was a wonderful book about how mothers can pass on the legacy and vision of Biblical womanhood to their daughters. Having read other books on this topic, I appreciated the winsome and practical way in which the mother and daughter authors shared from their hearts. They were very honest and encouraging, and I gained a lot of helpful information that will stand me in good stead in my relationship with my daughter.
September 27, 2008
This is a great resource for any mom with daughters! I enjoyed the author's wise advice alongside her daughter's. Too much to condense into this small review, I suggest buying it and keeping it for future use. Biblical womanhood is awesome, and this book truly helps paint a godly portrait of a beautiful relationship that is so needed between moms and their girls.
March 13, 2007
jama asked me to do a book review on this for mother's day. it was okay. i would never pick it up on my own, but for people that are looking for an example of a christian mother-daughter relationship it's good i suppose.
June 25, 2008
Great resource for moms of teen girls. Biblical and practical instruction for both child and parent on how to communicate. Borrowed this initially, but had to buy my own since it is such a great resource.
August 25, 2008
This was a wonderful book to read with my teenage daughters. It opened up all kinds of conversations with them on becoming a woman of God. Be sure and do at least some of the exercises in the appendix that correspond with each chapter.
July 11, 2015
So I'm not a girly girl, but I am aiming toward being a Godly girl and shooting my two arrows in the same direction. Girl Talk is full of pointed scripture and wise counsel on how to achieve both. Borrowed the copy and am now buying three more for myself and my arrows when the time comes.
March 23, 2012
I will go back to read this again, with my girls, in a few years. It is a great springboard for important conversations between moms & their daughters.
February 19, 2014
A must read for all moms and daughters!!
July 10, 2010
Has an excellent bibliography as well.
July 23, 2014
Read about 3/4 of this book with my mom. Really great conversation starter, and so filled with great truths.
February 25, 2013
This was a great book for my 13 year old daughter and I to read together. It helped to open up some conversations about some topics that we hadn't really spent a lot of time discussing yet.
July 24, 2015
Mother Daughter conversations are so important. This encouraging book reminds you to spend on a regular basis with your daughter and really talk and listen to them.
January 9, 2021
Definitely recommend that every Christian girl reads this one! I read it at a different time than my mum and it was still really helpful, but I know it would just as helpful to read it together!
Read
March 25, 2009Great for mother's with middle schoolers and older but I definately got a head start on somethings.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews