I enjoy being a girl (for now)

When I was in third grade, I told people I wanted to be a professional football player (choice number two was a paper boy). I told people this because I purposely wanted to point out that I wanted to be a player, not a stupid cheerleader, even though I was a girl. I guess it was my little way of feeling powerful despite my new awareness that girls and boys were valued differently. By eighth grade, I was determined to fight for equal opportunity. I had my sights set on the White House, and I planned to be the first female president. Again, my way of feeling personal power in a society that was discussing what would happen if Walter Mondale became president and died in office. If that happened, then a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, would have control of the button that could launch a nuclear bomb on the USSR. And if she had PMS, look out.

Three months ago, I gave birth to a daughter, Cana. Right now, her main concerns are eating and sleeping, she has no idea what kind of world exists for girls outside of our Brooklyn apartment. Here are a few facts that remind us humanity isn't meeting our obligations to women and girls:

In India, there is a rise in selective abortions of girl fetuses. According to the Christian Science Monitor, "The ratio among children up to the age of 6 was 962 girls per 1,000 boys in 1981, but 20 years later the inequity was actually worse: 927 girls per 1,000 boys." (for more info http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0209/p11s01-wosc.html).

In the US, the pay gap between women and men widened in 2003. Women's pay slumped for the first time since 1999, with women earning only 75.5 cents to every dollar men earn. (http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?id=8754 )

I lament the day that my girl-child's naivete ends.

Right now the universe seems open to her wildest dreams. But one day she will sadly realize that most people in the world still think girls are inferior to boys. She'll learn that in some places in the world mothers cry when they give birth to a girl. And she will awaken to the reality that even though her parents and her teachers tell her she can be anything she wants when she grows up, even be the president of the US of A, she'll find out there has yet to be a female president in this country. Let's hope she doesn't conclude that there is something a little less about girls.