Thelma Mbudzana
Is it a problem to be a girl child and why girls are the only disadvantaged in our societies?
Being a girl child is the most important and privilege in life. In our societies girls are treated differently in
the sense that during socialization girls are taught household chores and to be child bearers. At schools
girls are to learn subjects like food and nutrition and fashion and fabrics hence this show that they are
framed as mothers before they even become a mother.
Parents prefer for a girl child to stay at home and pay fees for a boy child in the sense that there is a
stereotype of nothing good comes out of a girl after all they will get married. Some parents even arrange
the marriage of girls which is a sad thing one should be given the right to choose who they love than to
be forced.
A girl child need to be empowered to set their own agendas, building confidence , solving their problems
and sanitation. Also one should not depend on anyone they should be able to stand their grounds and
fight their own battles like when they on mensural cycle they should not be afraid or feeling out of
place. According to Karl Max your salvation is in your hands therefore this implies that one should work
hard in order to achieve life’s goals.
In rural areas some girls can not afford to by sanitary pads so they ended up using cloth and cow dung
hence in order to help these girls sanitary pads campaigns should be done in order to end period
poverty
At institutions of higher level girls are sexually harassed by their lectures and they are afraid to report it
because they might fail on their studies hence due to these abuses they promotes transmission of sexual
transmitted diseases. Sexual harassment in institutions of higher learning is recognized as a violation of
the right to life, liberty and equality for women hence the society should be responsible by giving rights
to girls like giving the voice to the voiceless. According to Althuser cited in Haralambos and Holbon
states that the socialization process should also be seen as the seed bed of stereotyping and gender
discrimination in organizations hence this implies that women at institutions of higher levels are
discriminated because in African societies they do not believe that women are capable of doing
something in their lives and girls are treated as loose so these male counter parts think that they can get
you anytime.
In our society girls are underestimated by treated as trophies or as sex objects and in order to avoid
stereotype of girl child the media should opt for peace journalism and present girls as human beings.
When a girl is abused by her uncle, they are not allowed to report by their aunties because in most cases
the uncles are the breadwinners of their families and this will affect the girl child emotionally, mentally
and physically.
Furthermore, girls face many challenges which leads them to early child marriages due to peer pressure
, abuses by their family members and dropping out of school. Some girls are being abused by their
boyfriends to the extent that they abandon unborn baby leaving stress to a girl child . Therefore
in order to avoid that media should give solutions by producing films which teaches girls what happens
in life.
WATER FOR LIFE FOUNDATION