Raising boys and girls

Hello friends in Steem for Ladies Community welcome to week 3 of our engagement contest. This week's contest asked us to discuss on how our children should be raised with regards to how we were raised back then with more preference to male children. It is of importance to deliberate on this topic in order to educate our children on the need for gender equality which is one of the challenges faced in our society. This will guide and shape a better future for our children without being bias in rendering justice.

Before the emergence of gender equality awareness and education, female children were often seen as worthless children and educating them was never considered as being important. This was because they were often seen as strangers who would be married out to a man in another family who was supposed to take care of her. All that she was to be good for was for raising of children and caring for her husband. This was the order of event in many communities, cultures and religious organizations. Female are always considered as inferior and weaker type of human beings. I can recall many times when men will demean women and compare their brain to that of a fish. I can recall many times my step-mother will tell me that as a woman I was supposed to be doing domestic work so that I will be able to continue in my husband's house.

I could remember my mother told me that her brother was permitted to mingle with friends for studies because he was a boy, but for girls they should do house chores at home and never go out.

I have seen a situation where a male child is hurt and he expressed his emotions by crying or shouting and they are shut in and are told "man up man up men do not cry out. The cry of a man ends in the heart". You begin to wonder are they not human beings?

I have also seen a situation where parents share their inheritance only to male children and sometimes even when the female child is given a portion the male children will forcefully take that inheritance from her even when they were married and the marriage did not go well.

I have heard many men including women say "no matter your level of education and attainment in life, you are nothing without a man as a woman". Can this be true?

To be sincere this is a myth that was invented my certain group of males just to dominate, humiliate and reduce women to nothing. Whether it is from religion, culture or where ever I do not know. From my own study of the Bible as a religious person, Bible does not say that men are in anyway better than women, in Genesis 5:2 "He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created." This is when Adam was first created, yet Eve was inside of him, meaning they were both created at the same time. The gender Male and Female does not make one more superior than the other and by that should not bring about discrimination.

Every human was created equally and should be treated as such. The sex is just to identify a certain being with different role and responsibility. This is the way to raise our children whether boys and girls. We should be able to inculcate in them the knowledge that humans should be treated as humans irrespective of their gender and status. Male should not be given more priority over the female. Being a female is not a disability and should not be taken as such. Girls should be encourage to study, work, included in decision making process and take leadership roles.

We as parents, should let our kids share responsibilities doing domestic tasks such as house chores, farming, cooking, etc. not because they are male or female but because they need to do those things to better themselves. Every child should learn to respect each other. Every child should to given access to quality education. Share inheritance equally to every child. Allow every child to take leadership roles irrespective of their gender.

As teachers, religious leaders, political leaders and leaders at what ever level we should learn to include female children and women in our decision making process and also educate our followers about gender equality.

I wish to invite my friends @dequeen, @ruthjoe and @goodybest to share their views on this topic.

Thank your for visiting my blog.