Father’s Day – To All Fathers of Daughters

Usually in patriarchal societies, fathers are known by their sons. But I’m one of the few fathers who are known by their daughters, and I’m proud of it. – Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala Yousafzai’s father

Today is the Father’s Day, and I am choosing this day among all other days of the year to publish my first post on my blog “Female Citizens of the World”.

My blog is devoted to building a new social image of women, women of the future who will grow up liberated and empowered, women who will feel secure and safe, women who will have a voice and be able to make a difference. And I’m convinced that confident and competent women of the future start with caring and supportive fathers of the present.

But way too often fathers and daughters are distanced from each other by prevailing social hierarchy farther than any other two members of the family. We need to talk about fathers and daughters more than we currently do and celebrate and value their relationship. That’s why my first post about women is dedicated to fathers.

My father was not with me and there for me as much as I needed him. But he managed to give me one of the most valuable gifts in my life – he made me believe that in spite of my being a girl and the youngest kid in the family I was as important as everybody else and my opinion counted as much as everybody else’s. It gave me confidence for the rest of my life to not accept my lower social status as a woman but stand for being an equal member of the society. Thank you, Dad, for that.

Now back to your daughters. If I were as little as them but as smart as I’m now, this is what I would tell you, our fathers.

• Daddies, please treat us as your team-members (even though we know you are all powerful dads and we are just little girls). Please trust us – we are smart, brave, and reliable. We will never put you down! Sometimes we will get it all wrong, but it’s only because we are still learning. Please let us be on your team!
• Don’t call us cute. Please. We are more than that! We are fire-breathing dragons, powerful witches, mighty warriors, and omniscient wizards! But, if you want us to be your cute little princesses, we will. We’ll do everything for you! But just so you know, being a princess is very boring. People would notice only our dresses. But we are more than our dresses! We are people.
• Even though we are fearless, we might, time to time, get a little scared (Remember that last vaccine shot? I cried! So embarrassing 🙁 ). But when you are with us, we are brave and want to do big things! We want to climb mountains and swim rivers, we want to run marathons and fly planes (but please be nearby so we can see you). We want to get our own scratches, bumps, and bruises as real heroes do, and we are proud of every one of them (only if you are also proud of them and not too upset about our dirty dresses and messy hair).
• And yes! Time to time we want to have our own opinion and we want to stand by it, and we want to argue with you and even fight if you don’t listen to us (but we want you to love us anyway. Please!) If you don’t like us arguing with you, we won’t. We are your daughters and we never want to upset you.
• But most importantly we love you, Daddies!

There is nothing more inspiring than a confident woman, a woman who is knowledgeable and skilled, motivated and motivating, powerful and influential, kind and loving – a woman who can have a positive impact on all of us. And you, as fathers, can make it happen more than anybody else.

Happy Father’s Day!

Yours,

Elena Bakhtina