Young Female Empowerment

On March 1st, Women’s History Month begins; a month of recognizing powerful women, their hardships, accomplishments, and influences they’ve had in history that affects our modern-day life. Women have faced hardships for centuries, especially with misogyny and sexism, yet an impactful way for women to tear down these harmful mindsets is empowerment; especially for young girls. Teaching female empowerment to girls at a young age helps their mindset to be more confident and assured of themselves as they get older, along with being able to recognize how they should and should not be treated.

AP Human Geographer Teacher, Dr. B (AKA Dr. Wierzchuki) is a father to two lively and beautiful kids, one of them being his 10-year-old daughter, Sofia. He talks about how he’s able to empower his daughter without having to do a whole lesson but instead shows it more naturally by how he treats her mother and how her mother presents herself to her daughter.

“Y’know [sic] first and foremost, it’s really less about showing them an example in the outside world, the first thing you have to do, even as a dad, is just be a good person with good morals and good values. Things like how I treat her mother, my wife, how I communicate with my wife, how she sees us work as a team, how she sees that Brenda (Mother; Wife) is allowed to be an individual, she doesn’t need my permission to do things; she’s a strong, independent woman who speaks her own mind, has her own opinions, works through things, stands up for herself and gets up off the ground, those lessons right?”

Dr. B also discusses how positive affirmations and reassurance go a really long way, and how as Sofia ages he won’t be afraid to discuss things she’ll have to face as she grows older.

“It’s how you talk to them, a lot of positive affirmation with a lot of simple things I would tell my son, I also tell daughter; things like the only person responsible for your happiness is you, you don’t need someone else to make you happy; if you are hurt why and how do you cope[…]with girls it’s being able to tell her she can be good at sports or at a dance, dress down or pretty, you can do whatever it is that you want just do it to the best of your ability. Also just being open and honest about everything with her y’know [sic]?  When you have discussions at her young age she won’t do stupid things later, I’d rather her hear things from me because it builds trust.”

In general, female empowerment should be known and taught more, it paves a pathway for women all over the world to feel more self-independent and realize their real worth instead of what others may have told them otherwise. It’s especially important for girls to see it because as they grow and get older, they will grow up knowing what their worth is and how no one, especially no man, can tell them differently. Dr. B shows amazing examples of how parents, especially fathers, can empower their daughters, and overall how we can bring more awareness in general. Happy Women’s History Month!