We Need To Raise Girls To Be Brave, Not To Be Perfect

In the morning, while scrolling my Facebook wall, I stumbled upon this video:

This video raises a very important question — how should we raise our girls?

Reshma tells her own story about how it took her a long time to pursue her career in politics and she explains why girls are more afraid to take risks than boys.

When boys grow up, they like to play rough, they want to climb things and jump from trees and walls. In short, they are learning not to be afraid of taking risks and trying new things.

On the other hand, girls are told to play soft and be gentle. Without realizing it, we are raising our girls to be perfect. So girls are afraid to take risks and try new things.

In one study, famous psychologist Carol Dweck conducted a small experiment on 5th graders:

She gave some challenging problems to the class and found surprising results — when boys encountered the problems, they were thrilled by the challenge and determined to solve the problem. However, girls gave up too early even though they were equally capable of solving the problems.

This experiment perfectly depicts the mentality of boys and girls when they are being groomed. Boys are taught to be rough and brave while girls are told to be perfect.

Reshma reveals another surprising study:

Boys apply to jobs if they meet at least 60% of the qualifications, but girls apply to jobs if they meet 100% of the qualifications.

We need to change this behavior.

We can only achieve this by encouraging our girls to be brave and to play it rough. We should tell them to take more risks.

We should appreciate their imperfections and their efforts rather than telling them to be soft and gentle. That’s how we can bridge the gap between boys and girls.

So, I have a task for everyone:

Go to your mother, wife, daughter, female colleague, or friend and tell them that they are brave. Tell them that it’s okay to be imperfect. Tell them that they are courageous.

Thanks for reading.