Celebrate the girl child, an often unappreciated and undervalued resource in many parts of the world!

Empowering girls, and the women they'll become, leads to increased prosperity, stability, and quality of life. Don't believe me? Here's some reading for you:

"The benefits of implementing [gender equality] go beyond the immediate effect on the lives of women (one half of the world’s population); the managing role she plays causes the effect to be multiplied through her children, family, community, country and continent producing what is termed the multiplier effect." -- from the "Multiplier Effect."

The UN agrees. So does the World Bank.

Who doesn't? The Muslim Brotherhood, Russia, Iran and the Vatican. 

It's clear that raising girl babies, educating girl children, employing women, and giving them agency over their lives, will result in a net benefit for society as a whole. Will it create local negative effects for boys and men? No doubt about it. Boys will see more competition at school. Men will have to face the same in the workplace and political spheres. At the household level, husbands will have to share the decision-making with their wives (exactly what the Muslim Brotherhood fear) and will shoulder a greater share of domestic work.

There are backlash effects for women, too: Unintended Consequences.

Those are the oscillations that come with any great social change, though, and they will taper off as gender equality becomes integrated with (and integral to) a given group of people.

All children - boys, girls, and in-between - deserve to be celebrated. They are the cornerstones of humanity's future. Today, however, let's single out the girls and give them an extra boost. For most of human history, the girls have been in the margins, good for nothing but producing more babies (preferably boys).

Today is the International Day of the Girl.