The Women Who Shaped Us

The Women Who Will Shape Tomorrow

All week, we’ve been talking about “The Women Who Shaped Us.”

We’ve spoken about the women who shaped our lives, the women whose sacrifices often go unnoticed, and the women who have made an impact on their communities.

Today, let’s look forward.

Because there is another generation of women growing up around us right now.

• Our daughters.
• Our sisters.
• Our nieces.
• Our students.

Young women who are watching everything happening around them and forming an idea of what it means to be a woman. And that raises an important question:

What are we teaching them?

Because long before a young girl becomes a woman, she is receiving messages about her value. She hears messages:

• From her family.
• From her friends.
• From school.
• From society.
• And, of course, from social media.

She sees images telling her what she should look like.

She sees people measuring success by popularity, appearance and followers.

She sees people constantly comparing themselves with others.

And eventually, she may begin asking: “Am I good enough?”

But perhaps we need to give our daughters a different message.

We need to teach them that their value isn’t determined by how many people admire them.

It isn’t determined by how they compare to somebody else.

And it certainly isn’t determined by social media.

Their value comes from their character, their knowledge, their principles, their kindness, their resilience and the contribution they make to the world around them.

We need to teach our girls that being strong doesn’t mean never struggling.

It means having the courage to keep going.

We need to teach them that asking for help isn’t weakness.

That learning is powerful.

That failure doesn’t make them failures.

And that they don’t have to become somebody else to be worthy.

But there’s another responsibility we have.

We need to show them what we are teaching them.

We can tell our daughters to respect people — but do they see respect in our homes?

We can tell them to value themselves — but do we constantly criticise ourselves in front of them?

We can tell them to be confident — but do we listen when they speak?

Children learn from what we do far more than from what we say.

And perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give the next generation is a home where a young girl feels that her voice matters.

Where she can ask questions.

Where she can make mistakes.

Where she can learn.

Where she knows that she is loved.

And where she understands that success doesn’t have to look the same for everyone.