One of the most important things parents of daughters can do is to help them get "comfortable being uncomfortable" and that it is ok to take risks. For example, a parent can talk to their daughter about how they approach a risk and some of the ways they can support themselves. "It's kind of counterintuitive, but just telling yourself 'Oh, you shouldn't be afraid of this' or 'there's nothing scary about it' or 'fake it until you make it,' that doesn't actually help. Risks can be scary," author Claire Shipman says. So encourage your daughter and tell her, "Yes, it's normal to feel afraid. This is a little frightening, but tell yourself 'I'm just going to do it afraid. I'm just going to do it anyway.' "

"I think too many women unfortunately just don't talk about this enough," said Kimberly Churches, chief executive officer of AAUW. "It's a muscle and it takes practice to learn negotiation skills and if you're not already in a sales job, that becomes even more trying."

According to a 2016 survey conducted by SheKnows Media, a women's lifestyle digital media company, 53% of women said they have purchased a product just because they liked how the brand's ads portrayed them. About 46% of women surveyed said they stopped buying a product because they didn't like the way women were portrayed in that brand's ad.

Kimmel says the program, which will be offered exclusively online, will explore the research on the impact of media representations on men. As an example, he points to the transformation of the action figure G.I. Joe, which has gotten significantly more muscular through the years. "The effect on a young boy of seeing these kinds of unbelievably, sort of hyper pumped up guys is, 'I feel small. I feel inadequate. I have to get bigger. I am not big enough,' " Kimmel said. "We have a lot of good research on the effect of these kind of media images on girls' development ... so now we have to have that parallel conversation about boys because we basically ignored them," he said.

According to a recent report by Common Sense Media, "Watching Gender: How Stereotypes in Movies and on TV Impact Kids' Development," gender stereotypes play a big role in teaching boys and girls what the culture expects of them.