What do you think about having a national day for girls? The organization School Girls Unite is asking President Obama to declare September 22 the National Day of the Girl. They are doing this in hope of raising awareness on a number of issues affecting females, including literacy, education, leadership, and violence.

The Day of the Girl website has a list of girls’ issues that you can read about, including (but not limited to) the lack of work opportunities for women, sex trafficking, and domestic violence.

Some things I thought about after checking out the site:

• In some countries (such as the US), women have similar job opportunities as men, but this isn’t necessarily true in other countries across the globe.
• In the US women are allowed to get an education, marry who they want, and have a career. In some countries women are still not allowed to go to school, and may be forced to become prostitutes or get married at a young age.
• Living in the United States, it’s hard to believe that young girls in other countries are going through this.

Having this national day is a good idea. I think that it will get people talking about these issues and maybe even lead to changes in international law. Of course changes will take time, but getting people thinking and talking about the issues is a start. I also think that having this day officially recognized would be a good way for girls and women who are fortunate enough not to deal with issues such as child marriage, forced prostitution, violence to really reflect on and appreciate the life that they have.

-Erica