I Wish I Was A Man

If you were to ask the females around you, “Have you ever wished that you were a guy?” You will find that the majority of females at some point in their lives have wished they were male.  Can the same be said of males? Do males wish that they were females?  What do you think a man's response would be? In a room of 40 guys you might get 1 or 2 hands. From this it is clear that in the minds of men and women the preferred gender is male. For instance if you were to ask female students, “How many of you get along better with guys than you do with girls?” You will see a flood of hands go up.

Can you see that there is something seriously wrong with this?

“Is there something wrong with being a girl?” Absolutely Not!

Then why is it that girls desire to be guys but rarely do you find a guy who desires to be a girl?  That reveals something about our culture. I believe we need to celebrate and endorse a healthy sense of female pride.

We need to celebrate and endorse a healthy sense of female pride.

We say that there is nothing wrong with being a girl, but statements like, ‘You cry like a girl’, ‘You throw like a girl’ say that there is! I remember as a teenager and a young adult playing baseball, I took great pride in throwing like a guy. If anyone said I threw like a girl…those were fighting words!!

What kind of culture are you creating in your youth ministry, your church or your home? Are you creating an environment that celebrates females and their gifts? Here are some suggestions on how you can get started:

Instilling Healthy Female Pride in Your Youth Ministry

1.     Poll the men in your sphere of influence asking the question, “What strengths do females have that guys do not?” Read or display the findings to the girls. Take a video camera to the streets and show the video to the girls.

2.     Have the girls in your youth group host a community event to celebrate International Day of the Girl Child (October 11^th) and International Women’s Day (March 8^th) or their own event.

3.     Have females in your church or in your community share their accomplishments and current victories.

4.      Share illustrations of feminine strength from the animal kingdom. (i.e. Lioness, ants, matriarchal hyenas and elephants.) Use it in your messages and point out to the girls, “Ladies you should be proud.”

5.   Who is Danica Patrick? Who is Dr. Jacqueline Shan? Who is Christine Sinclair? Have students look up women in our society current and past. Have them research and present what lessons or values can be drawn from these women’s lives.

It is time to begin to instill in your girls a healthy sense of female pride and help guys acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate females as a gift from God.

The Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP) Conference, Alison develops programs that are designed to build girls confidence such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System. Alison’s heart for young women is to see the statistics of violence against women decrease and to see females become counter culture/culturally dangerous by growing in true confidence. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca