As a woman, I feel like I can be considered an expert in confidence in my particular gender. I recently read an article about young girls and confidence. I found the information interesting, surprising, and yet….not surprising.
According to this article, girls are as confident as their male counterparts right up to the point of tween or puberty…and at that point, girl’s confidence plummets. All of a sudden, the girl who was going to be an astronaut no longer dreams of space, because she doesn’t believe she is good in math and math is required to be an engineer and an astronaut.
The girl who was going to be President of the United States won’t even try out for the debate team, because she doesn’t believe she could ever get up in front of others and have anything interesting to say.
Every day, right here in our neigborhoods, country, world…..little girls are getting ready to slay dragons and change the world……and teen girls are wilting under the new found belief of…..no belief….in THEMSELVES!!!!
All the while young boys are dreaming of slaying their dragons and changing the world…..and teen boys are preparing themselves to do just that. And guess what? They really believe they can!
So what is the difference? Confidence my friends. Both boys and girls are born with it, but they don’t both continue to grow it!!! While boys continue to nurture and grow their Confidence…girls toss theirs right out the window….often never to be found again before the age of about 65.
WTF? Right? I mean is this a matter of Nature over Nurture? Is it simply how we are wired? Boys have to slay the Saber tooth tiger so he is naturally provided with all the confidence he needs to do just that, while girls are wired to quiver in fear behind closed doors….afraid the Tiger will soon make her a meal?
Maybe, but this has never really made a great deal of sense to me. If that is true, than why would girls EVER have an abundance of confidence? And even if we believe men are more equipped physically to slay the tiger, the fact is women were often left at home alone, the only ones to protect small children, and ready to do battle if needed. So I don’t believe Nature is the Answer.
Well then Aimee, you may be asking, is it Nurture? Are we turning our girls into fearful, tearful, no confidence women with how we raise them? With what we do and don’t expose them to? With how we talk to them? With what we do and don’t expect of them?
Personally, yes, I think in this situation Nurture plays a very critical role in how confident a girl grows up to be. I believe we can help our girls overcome this loss of confidence as they sail into the teen years. I believe we can help women overcome their lack of confidence in themselves and their abilities….in the work place, on Wall Street, in the oval office, at home…AND I KNOW we can help them both nurture and grow the confidence each of us was born with!
Girl power? Pashaw!!! How about Empowered girls? Let’s provide the path to empowerment….a path paved in confidence.
Girl power these days has become nothing more than an entitlement….lacking in personal responsibility, risk, and what? That’s right: CONFIDENCE!!
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