Hi Nairalanders!

This week, the International Day of the Girl Child is being celebrated and was celebrated in numerous ways and we thought it fit to add our voice to the global discussion.

The default modern approach to raising the girl child screams gender equality, capacity to be and do better than the boy child! No glass ceilings! And other related advice. It's important, however, that we do not through our zeal to pass the message of gender equality to the girl child, transfer a legacy of struggle and aggression.

A legacy of struggle and aggression which colors a good part of the social values transferred to the girl child forces her to develop an aggressive stance towards her journey through life. Forcing her to think that she will have to struggle than the boy child to achieve the same feat, prove herself (in comparison to male competitors) and the list goes on. The legacy does not encourage her to approach her growth through life with the demeanor of a human being, rather, she approaches it first as a girl before she does as a human being (this should be the other way round), thereby painting an altered picture of life to her.

She was not born to fight, she was born to live just like every other child is born. Preach first to her humanity before feminism so that she does not grow up to a shaped loyalty to the feminine gender than to the human race.

Teach her not to approach life with aggression as very soon, the battle against her sex and the attendant impediments will be etched out.
The existence of a male child is not the presence of another battle to fight but an opportunity for co-existence and collaborative development.

Life should not be served to her on the altar of gender awareness but on the awareness of the fact that she is first human before she is a girl.
Teach her that "because I am a girl " is never her primary defense. She must merit what she desires, where merit is impossible; create her own opportunities and bask in the greatness she has achieved because she is human.

This post does not undermine the fact that gender inequality is still a global issue or the global efforts towards achieving them, rather, it is to call our attention to the fact that if the predecessors of the girl child who are already working towards gender equality are successful (which is our desire), it becomes important to raise the girl child in preparedness to live the life the success of her predecessors makes available for her (one where she doesn't have to struggle for equality).

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