I am the mother of three wonderful daughters, all under the age of 10. Knowing that extra challenges exist in the world simply because my children are girls, I am always trying to better educate myself on how to raise confident girls with high self-esteem and self-respect. The sexualization of women in our society is a major hurdle to girls developing confidence, self-esteem and self-respect. The tendencies to try to "protect" girls and to impose limitations in their lives also hinder their ability to develop these things. We need to encourage girls to have healthy body images. We need to encourage them to take risks, as we tend to do for boys, which means they may "fail". By not letting them experience some failure, girls will tend to feel incapable of doing anything independently. We need to stop limiting them. Let them try math, chemistry and physics. Let them play sports traditionally known as "boy" sports. Let them get the "boy" toy in their McDonald's happy meal.
The Whole SHEbang blog was born through this desire to celebrate women, to show my daughters that strong, confident, successful women have always and will continue to exist in all areas of life. History is full of the celebration of strong, confident, and successful men. I want to introduce my daughters to the struggles faced by women and how far we have come in dealing with these. I just want them to be proud of who they are and where they came from and for them to lead happy lives. If I had any sons, I would wish the same for them, but would have fewer obstacles to help them overcome since society has already removed many for them.
Look out world...here we come!!!!!
