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We have all been victims of gender inequality. We are subject to gender stereotypes from the get-go. These stereotypes have bound all of us irrespective of which gender we belong to. They define us, everything that we do from walk, eat to the career that we choose.
Let girls be girls….
‘Princess’ or ‘Angel’ are the words used by most parents to describe their little
girls. From the time they are born, they are treasured and loved and cuddled.
They are dressed in pink bows and pretty frocks and adorned with accessories.
As these baby girls grow up, they find themselves looking for ‘pretty
and pink’ whether
it is dolls, toys marked separately for girls, books with glitter. They are
more and more aware of the way they look and by age four have understood that
being pretty really matters to being a girl. For life, she is
left struggling to bridge the gap from what she is to being the so-called
perfect woman.
Don’t get me
wrong; I have nothing against pretty or beautiful looking women. I strongly feel that
we are not giving the right role models for our girls. We are not giving them
the aspirations for greatness. We are limiting our girls to defined gender
biased roles. If we think about some of the stereotypes that we as a culture imbibe in our children, they include the likes of 'Run like a girl, throw like a girl' cry like a girl' to be derogatory remarks. Statistics shows that girls out perform boys in studies right through school and college. However, women are expected to give up their careers when they start a family and are never considered the bread winners of the family.
Why is there no voice against Barbie being a girl’s
best friend, to Chutki (from the Chota Bheem fame) being reduced to a silly
sidekick with rosy cheeks and a supplier of laddoos, or ads that feature fair looking girls getting
better jobs? Where are the female superheroes (or heroines)?
What then, is our role as parents, educators and society at
large, to ensure that we help our girls, the female human species to never feel
as the weaker sex? A monumental task as it may seem, we can each make a small
change in our thinking that will have a rippling effect to cause a huge wave of
change.
Well here are 5 pointers to begin with while raising girls:
1.
Use the words ‘princess’ and ‘angel’ along with the likes of, Braveheart, Champion, Mighty,
Brilliant, Smart, Strong, etc. Let us give our daughters more aspirations.
2. Pick up books that depict girls in varied roles, carrying on all kinds of work. Ensure that your library is stocked with books that have a balance of male and female protagonists. Refuse to give into the marketing gurus’ strategies that trick you into buying what THEY think is right for your girl. Refuse to pick up toys based on what girls ‘should’ play with and steer toward ‘ what is best for my girl’s brain development.’ A good reading list can be found here http://www.amightygirl.com/books.
3. Choose birthday party themes that enable girls. We need to move away from the Disney
princess series into more interesting themes. This is what you find if you Google party themes for girls. I for one, refuse to put up with so much of pink in the name of being a girl!
4. Give your girl varied role models to choose from. Ensure that you, as a mother, often tell stories of your own childhood, the women you’ve known who have made a difference, stories from your culture where women are revered.
5. Help your girl develop a positive body image. Ensure that she lives in a ridicule free environment. It is also important to never let your own misgivings about your body image affect your daughters’. A casual ‘Look how fat mommy is…’ or ‘I hate the way I look…’ to a friend or a spouse could go a long way in affecting our daughters. Nip it in the bud.
That doesn’t seem
too hard to do, does it?
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