Teaching girls to have the confidence to be brave not perfect

We are educating our girls to be perfect rather than brave

Girls from all over the world have been socialized to be perfect. They won’t take risks or try challenges because they think that they may be ridiculed. If you are a girl, try to think of a time when you have chosen the “safe” route, while a male in your class at school takes a risk and does better than you. We can educate our girls to take risks and this video is an inspiration for parents, teachers and lecturers to view. To have the confidence to ask for a pay rise is significantly more likely in men rather than in women. Consequently, women earn less for doing the same job as men – certainly true in Australia.

Confidence: Discrepancy in perceived expertise

In mainstream news articles, 76% of quotes are from men while only 24% of quotes are from women. One reason for that discrepancy is that there are fewer women in senior positions to quote. Another is that more men have the confidence to speak to journalists than women. Where does this inequality begin? By the time students are in Middle years schooling, boys are strongly socialized to step up. In the Science classroom for example, as soon as an experiment is outlined, boys will rush to get the equipment first and dominate the conducting of the experiment. The equally smart girls will hang back, unsure of themselves and be at the periphery of the group, recording results or some other passive task. They don’t want to risk making a mistake, while their male counterparts will often rush in, make mistakes but continue on because making mistakes doesn’t bother them as much.