Where girls aspire to enter income-generating professions, some parents prefer their children to conform to traditional expectations of being “well-behaved girls”.
This insight came from a review of a campaign by Save the Children, reads a press release issued on Thursday.
On the occasion of the International Day of the Girls on Wednesday, Save the Children Bangladesh conducted a month-long campaign titled “Girl Talk_Balbo Ami Shuno Shobai,” in 64 districts of Bangladesh through direct and online channels.
Girls between the ages of 13-19 answered questions about their dreams and aspirations and expressed their hopes and expectations from their families.
Along with teenage girls from 64 districts, their families, guardians, and local dignitaries also participated in this campaign, and more than 21,000 people from across the country responded.
More than 18,000 of the total participants were girls aged 13-19 years. Almost 99% of the girls said they wanted to pursue various professional jobs while answering the question: “What is your life’s aspiration?”
About 20% of the parents, family, and community people answered that they want the girls to become good people and lead a good life in response to the question “What are your aspirations for the teenage girl(s) in your family/community?”
Among the girls, 37% of them said they wanted to become doctors, about 17% wanted to become teachers, and 11% wanted to join law enforcement.
The review revealed that girls in the hill tract region have a higher willingness to join law enforcement forces.
A total of 74% of girls want to become doctors, teachers, police officers, engineers, or pilots, while very few girls want to choose law, banking, journalism, art and literature as careers or dream of becoming entrepreneurs.
Around 20% of parents, families, and society people favour “medicine” as a profession for the girl child, and after that, they prefer “teaching” as a profession for girls.
This shows that the thinking patterns of girls in pursuing a career are consistent with their parents, family, and people in society, and the surrounding opinions influence girls in choosing and deciding on a career, reads the press release.
Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Advisor of Save the Children in Bangladesh, Shamema Akther Shamme, said: “It is necessary to inform girls that there are many opportunities in many professions beyond the professions that are at the top of the choice list in choosing a career.
“Many professions are not being introduced to girls from within certain communities, which is depriving them of greater opportunities in the workplace,” she said.
She added: “From the review, we saw that fewer girls want to be bankers than the number of girls who want to be pilots.”
“But they do not know that there are many job opportunities for girls in the banking sector in our country whereas openings for pilot positions in the aviation sector are relatively fewer,” she remarked.
“It is everyone's responsibility to educate girls more about other careers, introduce them to other careers, and give them an opportunity to dream without limits,” she added.
Supporting the theme of this year's International Day of the Girl (IDG) - “Invest in Girls' Rights, Our Leadership, Our Well-being” - one of the aims of the month-long campaign was to identify areas and methods for investing in girls.
Reefat Bin Sattar, director of Program Development and Quality at Save the Children, said: “Investment does not mean only economic investment, but also the role of family, society, and the state that will help girls to move forward and fulfill their dreams.”
“Through Save the Children's 'Girl Talk_Balbo Aami Shuno Shobai' campaign, girls themselves have said what issues can help them move forward smoothly if their parents, family, and society invest in them,” he added.
About 45% of girls said they want all-out support, including not discriminating against boys, not hindering them from fulfilling their dreams, creating enough opportunities to study, maintaining a peaceful environment in the family, and creating a safe society.
Some have said that they should not be married off at a young age and there have also been replies that they should not be compared to other children or relatives in the family.
That is, family cooperation, giving time and importance to the girl child, creating a safe social system, not keeping girls mentally small, and being aware of girls' health - these are all areas of investment, and family, parents, and society should all make these investments to advance girls.
