Let Your Daughters Grow Up Proud to Be Women

For years, women have been subjected to a great deal of devaluation. But it's time for new generations of girls to take back their power and feel proud to be women.

Written and verified by the psychologist Elena Sanz Martín.

Last update: 27 December, 2022

In virtually every corner of the world, women have suffered due to great devaluation for hundreds of years. They’ve been considered weak, inferior, and less capable. And while today the situation is gradually improving, it’s imperative that we make sure that our daughters grow up proud to be women.

Can you imagine the psychological damage of feeling that you belong to the weaker sex? Of being ascribed, from birth, a series of negative and limiting characteristics? Of being treated unfairly and unequally in comparison to your brothers and male peers?

It’s time for us women to reconcile ourselves with our essence and pass on to our daughters the precious gift of being a woman. It’s time for the new generations of girls to regain their power and feel comfortable in their own skin. And it’s time for them to know that they can achieve anything they set their minds to.

Proud to be women

A positive concept

A girl’s self-image, self-esteem, and self-confidence will depend on the information she receives from the outside. As parents, we’re primarily responsible for helping to shape that self-concept in the most positive way possible. However, without realizing it, we sometimes transmit harmful messages.

Many mothers tell their daughters, from an early age, that they wish they’d been born a boy to spare them suffering. They repeat phrases such as “this is a man’s world” and that women have a hard and limited path.

Likewise, with their own actions, they reinforce this negative idea of femininity, offering an unequal education to sons and daughters. And what do we accomplish with all these apparently insignificant gestures? We engrave in the minds of little girls that they don’t have the same rights and freedoms as men. And we deprive them of being proud to be women.

Therefore, it’s essential that you review what concept you have of being a woman and what you are transmitting to your daughters in this regard. Change the messages of fear and disappointment for others of personal power and pride. Talk to your daughter about the wonderful gifts and abilities that women possess. Reconcile with your femininity so you can be the best guide and example of a happy, strong, confident woman.

Woman are cyclical

Menstruation is another of the most taboo aspects of womanhood. Many mothers treat the arrival of their daughters’ first period with sadness; treating it as a curse. They tell them that, from now on, they’ll suffer pain, discomfort, and limitation. They portray menstruation as something shameful, something to hide, and a great burden.

It’s essential that we talk to young women about it in a natural way. Help them feel comfortable with a process that will accompany them throughout their lives. We must help them understand it and learn to handle it with security and confidence.

Explain to your daughter that women are cyclical, that each phase marks differences in our bodies and in our moods. And, if they learn to listen to their bodies, they’ll be able to take advantage of each one of them.

Remind them that menstruation is something natural and intrinsic to all of us. And it gives us the wonderful ability to give life. Remember that under no circumstances should we feel ashamed of something so natural and so much our own.

Make sure you provide your daughters with all the necessary information and resources so that their period doesn’t limit their daily activity. And, if you don’t feel capable, go to a specialist who can do it for you.

Proud to be women: Healthy femininity

Finally, many young or adult women assume that, in order to reach the successes and possibilities of men, they have to adapt to their patterns. Thus, they begin to adopt more arrogant, aggressive, or selfish attitudes in order not to suffer gender discrimination. In short, they take on the behaviors socially attributed to men.

However, this can be harmful as it denies one’s own personality and essence. In this regard, it’s imperative that, from a girl’s earliest years, we provide her with examples of intelligent, capable, and successful women. That way, she has role models on which to reflect her future choices.

Take pride in being women

You don’t need to change who you are in order to succeed. It’s not healthy to deny our feminine side, our sensitivity, and our capacity to care. Both men and women have to integrate both polarities in order to develop fully. So let’s help all girls to grow up proud to be women.