Steph Curry Pens Inspiring Essay About The Future Of His Daughters And Women’s Equality
Stephen Curry will no longer just be known as the straight-shooting guard for the Golden State Warriors. In a recent first-person for the Players' Tribune, Curry joined the feminism tribe and discussed the how he wants his daughters to grow up in a world of women’s equality.
On Sunday, Curry penned the essay, which centered around his daughters, Riley and Ryan:
"I want our girls to grow up knowing that there are no boundaries that can be placed on their futures, period. I want them to grow up in a world where their gender does not feel like a rulebook for what they should think, or be, or do. And I want them to grow up believing that they can dream big, and strive for careers where they'll be treated fairly,” Curry wrote.
"And of course: paid equally,” he added.
Curry not only spoke from a father’s point of view, but he also outlined exactly how difficult it is for women to close the wage gap for good.
"And I think it's important that we all come together to figure out how we can make that possible, as soon as possible. Not just as 'fathers of daughters,' or for those sorts of reasons. And not just on Women's Equality Day. Every day—that's when we need to be working to close the pay gap in this country. Because every day is when the pay gap is affecting women. And every day is when the pay gap is sending the wrong message to women about who they are, and how they're valued, and what they can or cannot become,” Curry wrote.
Last week, Curry hosted a girl’s basketball camp, which turned out to be such a positive experience, he plans to make it an annual event.
“At every boy’s camp that I’ve ever been to, you’ve always got some kids running around, acting wild. But this camp, these girls — they were about it. They were trying to absorb every single thing. They were running up to me after every drill, like, ‘Steph, Steph, I got some questions about how you trained as a kid. Can you look at my form?’ It was special, man,” Curry wrote of his time at the girl’s basketball camp.
During a Q&A portion of the camp, Curry was taken aback by how the girls presented themselves.
“One of the girls — she asked Ariel Johnson Lin, a VP at JPMorgan Chase & Co., about how, if she’s in a business meeting, and has a great idea….. but the meeting is composed of, say, eight men and then her as the only woman….. would she think twice about how to convey the idea? Would she switch up how she worded things, or her body language, or her tone of voice, based on the gender imbalance of her workplace?” Curry wrote.
“Again, I was just blown away. I mean, we’re talking about a 14-year-old kid here, having the knowledge and sophistication to take a simple camp Q&A session to that level,” he continued.
Curry’s championing of women will extend beyond himself. Earlier this year, he and his wife, Ayesha, welcomed their first son, Canon, to the world. Now that Curry is responsible for the ideology of a boy, he wrote about the lessons he plans to instill in his son.
"I think you tell him the same thing that we told those girls last week at our camp: Be yourself. Be good, and try to be great—but always be yourself.
"I think you teach him to always stay listening to women, to always stay believing in women, and—when it comes to anyone's expectations for women—to always stay challenging the idea of what's right.
"And I think you let him know that, for his generation, to be a true supporter of women's equality—it's not enough anymore to be learning about it.
"You have to be doing it."