Can men be feminists? I found a quote from the Dalai Lama that answered that in the affirmative: "I call myself a feminist. Isn't that what you call someone who fights for women's rights?"
I want to raise my sons to be feminists, too. It's so hard to keep on top of their developing perceptions of women or girls - they pick up on the messages inherent in our society so quickly, telling me what girls can and can't do. I spend a lot of time correcting them already.
One way to challenge the old stereotypes is through the new portrayals of girls in kids' movies like Frozen - while the Let It Go song may be a classic ear worm (a song that sticks in your mind), the fact that the sisters save each other in the end is a nice change.
A fantastic place to go to find a huge collection of books, toys and movies "for smart, confident, and courageous girls" is www.amightygirl.com
I follow the site's Facebook page and get its inspirational stories on my timeline. The site is nearly at one million "likes", so I'm not alone in rating their feed. After seeing the New Plymouth District Council by-election result, with another two "male, stale and pale" elected, I saw this quote from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on A Mighty Girl: "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made ... It shouldn't be that women are the exception."
In the country in the world to first give women the right to vote, more than 120 years later New Zealand still struggles with representation by women at local and central government levels.
The Wanganui District Council has five women out of 13 councillors and mayor, while New Plymouth has two out of 14. Even if Wanganui is leading the way, it still isn't balanced.
One of the things I like about A Mighty Girl is that it promotes a lot of woman scientists, including women who have inspired me, such as Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and peace activist, and Dr Jane Goodall, famous for her chimpanzee work in Tanzania. Both Maathai and Goodall were renowned for the powerful connections they made between healthy human communities and nature conservation. While Maathai passed away in 2011, Goodall continues to provide leadership and inspiration through her work globally with young people - check out www.rootsandshoots.com for more info.
Closer to home we, too, have inspirational woman scientists, like Dr Michelle Dickinson, known as Nanogirl.
She won the Prime Minister's science prize in 2014 and donates 20 per cent of her income to charities that give disadvantaged kids access to technology. Dickinson answered Twelve Questions in the New Zealand Herald this week - well worth a read.
One of Dickinson's colleagues, Dr Nicola (great name!) Gaston, sent this tweet in support of Dickinson when she was under fire last year: "The first rule of being a feminist is to respect other women's choices". I agree - a very good place to start, even if some choose to watch Bachelor NZ.
Nicola Young has worked in the government and private sectors in Australia and New Zealand, and now works from home in Taranaki for a global consultancy. Educated at Wanganui Girls' College, she has a science degree and is the mother of two boys. These views are her own.
