September 25 is National Daughter’s Day.<\/p>\n
According to nationaldaycalendar.com, this is an opportunity to remind us of the young women and girls in our lives. The purpose is to spend time with your daughter or someone you think of as a daughter. <\/p>\n
Well, I’ve got three daughters and they are all pretty awesome. I think my parents would say I am also a pretty awesome daughter.<\/p>\n
The idea behind the day was to provide an opportunity to show your daughter genuine support, encouragement, and love. I feel like, or at least I hope, I do that every day— at least I strive to.<\/p>\n
We are very lucky in Canada that our daughters are treated, for the most part, the same as sons.<\/p>\n
In some countries, daughters face a difficult start in the world. In some places, they are denied education, equal employment, or even health care. In some parts of the world, they put sons before daughters. Also, there are social stereotypes that set certain expectations of behaviour for daughters, including how they dress and behave.<\/p>\n
Today offers us an opportunity to be thankful for our daughters and to find ways to ensure daughters around the world have every opportunity to succeed.<\/p>\n
If you are able, you can donate to a charity that supports the work to break down barriers to girls' education globally such as the Malala Fund, Room to Read, or World Vision.<\/p>\n
According to UNICEF, around the world, 119 million girls are out of school, including 34 million of primary school age, 28 million of lower-secondary school age, and 58 million of upper-secondary school age. In countries affected by conflict, girls are more than twice as likely to be out of school than girls living in non-affected countries.<\/p>\n
The reasons are many. Barriers to girls’ education – such as poverty, child marriage and gender-based violence – vary among countries and communities. Poor families often favour boys when investing in education.<\/p>\n
In some places, schools do not meet the safety, hygiene or sanitation needs of girls. In others, teaching practices are not gender-responsive and result in gender gaps in learning and skills development.<\/p>\n
We can do better, not only for our daughters but all those daughters across the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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