Supporting a girl child without ensuring she has access to positions of power or influence contradicts the very purpose of that support. Here’s why it’s crucial to not only support girls but also provide them opportunities for leadership:
- Empowerment Through Opportunity: Supporting a girl child’s education, skills development, and well-being is meant to empower her to achieve her potential. Without access to positions of influence, that support is incomplete, as it limits her ability to use her knowledge and skills for personal and societal progress.
- Breaking the Cycle of Inequality: Supporting girls but denying them positions of authority perpetuates the same cycle of gender inequality. True support means giving them the chance to contribute meaningfully to society, especially in leadership roles where they can influence policy and create systemic change.
- Utilizing Their Full Potential: Girls, when educated and empowered, have the potential to be exceptional leaders. Denying them leadership roles wastes their talents and underutilizes half of the population’s potential, which could drive innovation, progress, and growth in society.
- Achieving Gender Parity: Support without access to positions means girls will continue to face glass ceilings in politics, business, and other fields. To achieve true gender parity, support must extend to giving them equal opportunities in leadership and decision-making.
- Long-Term Impact: The true impact of supporting girls is realized when they are given positions where they can influence the next generation, ensuring that future girls benefit from better policies and role models. Without positions of power, their ability to effect long-term change is limited.
- Symbolic and Practical Change: When girls are supported and then allowed into positions of power, they become living symbols of the possibility of equality and progress. They can challenge stereotypes and shift societal expectations about what women can achieve.
Supporting a girl child without providing her with positions of influence is an incomplete effort. Real support ensures that she not only grows but also has a voice and space to lead in shaping her future and society’s progress.