My six-year-old daughter scanned the black-and-white photographs of the governors of Texas displayed inside the historic Capitol building, her brow furrowed in concentration.
“Why are all these pictures men? Can ladies be governors, too?” the questions were followed by a pause, as she searched my eyes for an answer. Then, the more central question: “Can I be governor?”
I quickly assured her she could, indeed, be the leader of Texas – or any other state. But my assurances on their own were apparently not enough -- my Hannah, ever the practical one, wanted hard proof.
So we went off in search of evidence, winding through the capitol rotunda. I showed her a photograph of Miriam “Ma” Ferguson, the second woman ever to be elected governor in the U.S. After that, we made our way to a photograph of former governor Ann W. Richards.
Hannah quietly took out her purple and orange kiddie camera and took several pictures of both Richards and Ferguson. “I’ll look at these and know that ladies can be governors. I like that.”
And I liked it, too, although I was disconcerted that at six, my daughter already is questioning whether she can truly do the same things that men do.
Hannah’s reaction to all those black-and-white photographs of stern-looking white men got me thinking about the need that children have to see themselves represented in the world around them.
This is a need that many of us recognize intuitively, or from our own experience as children and young adults trying to make sense of life. In other cases, we recognize the need because we are familiar with the research.
So, what do we do with this awareness?
How do we ensure that children see people who look like them represented favorably in books, in the media, in school and community leadership? What about in the stories that are told and the jokes that they hear?
What do we do in cases where we know that positive representation is not happening? How do we advocate for groups that are underrepresented? And what is our own responsibility to serve in leadership when leadership voids exist?
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