Written by: Dr. Hynd Bouhia, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Preparing young women to become future leaders starts in the early ages of their childhood. In fact, it is never too soon to prepare the girl for a technological transition. At six years old, or elementary school, she is already learning to develop skills that will determine what path she will take in the world. The right tools at the right time will shape her behavior, build her confidence, and help her develop the necessary attitude to become tomorrow’s leader.
Those first years of childhood will structure how any girl thinks about herself and her place in the world, allowing her to project herself further and further into the future. Exposure to scientific questions and technological principles will prepare her growth trajectory and encourage her to seek and find openings and possibilities, choosing any outcome she wants. Her dreams should only be limited by the consistency of her efforts shown throughout her life.
By age six, girls and boys have begun to classify jobs according to gender, as reflected by the trends they see around them. By twelve, half of all girls aspire to seek only those jobs for which she is stereotyped. Such strong early formative preferences can have a powerful impact on the decisions she will later make about school courses, job application, and the direction of her professional career. Thus, a girl’s nurturing environment in childhood will set the tone for the way she thinks, how she behaves, and the choices make as, or becoming, an adult.
Positive pull from peers
Peer pressure can be a positive force. Throughout her studies, if a girl can successfully integrate scientific, technological and mathematical fields, her excitement and interest will lift up her female friends alongside with her. Inner strength grows from positive reinforcement. That’s why she should be constantly surrounded with messages for encouragement and support. The combination will help her transcend the inevitable criticisms, obstacles, and negative feedback coming from traditional society, family members, and the cultural environment.
She will need confidence, generated externally and from within. The world is entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, fueled by technological and digital breakthroughs, and she will need to the experience, tools, and outlook to prepare herself for a central role at its cutting edge. Africa needs more and more girls to become leaders, to play a strategic role in parliament, in government agencies, in corporate boards, in universities, and in starting new small businesses. None of that can happen if she is held back, or if she remains one of the world’s more than 62 million girls not even enrolled in school due to culture, poverty, or both. Some parts of Africa lack schools with sanitary facilities, electricity, drinking water, or a location within walking distance of her home.
The worst is that had such a school been available, and educated her, the girl could and would reinvest her resources at home to lift her family and community out of the misery and poverty trap. Better still, she might even discover a cure to a disease, develop innovations, launch a new product. She could play a leading role in local or national governance, inspire her fellow citizens, and become a role model for other girls around the world. That’s why conditions today must liberate her spirit to win in games, contests, exams, elections, or scientific and artistic competitions.
Education makes anything possible. The African girl learns to set goals, reach with imagination, and grasp a world even beyond the constraints of her body. Education unlocks social and economic doors. A diploma offers her freedom of choice. Her family and her community will start to regard her with respect, ask her questions, seek her opinion. In this way, education adds value to her own human capital, as well as to the community around her.
A princess, or a pioneer?
Boys and girls of the same age celebrate birthdays in different ways. While boys are fighters, explorers, superheroes, athletes and chiefs, girls tend to be princesses. Stereotypes begin at birth, if not earlier. Adults use a different tone of voice when speaking to a newborn boy (low) versus a girl (high). We dress them in blue or in pink. We decorate boys’ rooms with cars, planes, powerful figures, and girls’ rooms with fairies, birds, dolls and castles.
Each gesture comes with good intentions. Yet, these measures subconsciously program kids to replicate cultural and historical prototypes. A simple gesture –even a purple-colored steam train in a girl’s room, -- can foster scientific creativity from her earliest days. The bedtime stories we read can also open her imagination and plant seeds for a different beanstalk she might climb, and even fight the giant herself. The tired old tale of a passive Snow White or Sleeping Beauty – waiting to be rescued by a prince’s kiss – is over at last.
Happily, strong roles for females have made it into modern cartoons. Animation artists and story creators have seized the opportunity to empower girls from the beginning, with fairy tales and imaginary figures. Screens offer little girls a spectrum of new idols who demonstrate leadership, creativity, and innovation, while still being girls.
Dora the Explorer sets her own course. Pocahontas chooses her own river current; what’s more, now she is the one to rescue her helpless “prince.” Merida, in Brave, beats the male archers, rejects her suitors, and reconciles with her bearish mother. The lead ‘maiden’ protagonist of Mulan disguises herself as a male warrior in order to save her father. There’s Miraculous Ladybug, or even Ballerina, the little girl who runs away from the orphanage with her friend, to become an Opera dancer and her friend an inventor. And finally, and most triumphantly, we find the sisters in Frozen, Ana and Elsa, who overcome obstacles, and men of dubious value, to rescue each other.
As part of my mission to empower a billion girls and women around the world, our new publishing house Rawan Learning (www.rawanlearning.com) has just launched after the success of “African Girl African Women” a series of five books with stories entitled “Take care of your natural friends” to simplify the understanding of sustainable development and climate change to children. Children will hence contribute at an early age to the protection of the environment and become the superheroes of the planet. Rawan learning has the objective to provide children and girls in particular with fun stories and books besides princesses, creating lovable and enjoyable characters related to the environment, the science, technology and mathematics. This way, girls will grow up mastering the basics of technology and science. This will raise her confidence and will help her master the tools necessary to becoming a well-rounded future leader at an early age.
Dr. Hynd Bouhia, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Hynd Bouhia has cumulated more than 20 years of professional experience in high-level and leadership positions, covering investments, financial structuring, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development strategies. Hynd Bouhia was nominated by Forbes among the 100 most influential women in the world in 2008 and the most influential women in Business in the Arab World in 2015 and honored as a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2018.
With a Ph.D. from Harvard University (GSAS 1998), an Engineering degree from Ecole Centrale Paris (1995), and a Master from Johns Hopkins SAIS (2000), Hynd Bouhia started her career at the World Bank in Washington before joining Morocco’s Prime Minister as an economic advisor. She was appointed in 2008 as the Managing Director of Casablanca Stock Exchange. After that, she structured and managed investments and venture capital funds.
As the CEO of Strategica, she advises entrepreneurs, companies, and institutions on economic intelligence, sustainable finance, and growth strategies. Dr. Hynd Bouhia is the author of the motivational book for women entitled "Africa Girl, African Woman: How agile, empowered, and tech-savvy females will transform the continent for good."
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