The world and the church desperately need godly women; women of character; stalwart, sensible women. Such women will be the salvation of a culture that has deluded itself into thinking that a woman cannot be truly happy unless she behaves just like a man. We need women who can fill the role of complement to their husbands. We need women who will honor and esteem God-given authority instead of whining and gossiping against it. We need women who know what true chastity is and know how to wield it skillfully. Where are such women to be found?
Biology turns girls into women. But it takes more than hormones to do the work well. Our daughters must be nurtured and cared for. Affection for a girl is a fortress of security. Fathers, by showing their daughters tender affection, inculturate them for ladyhood. Parents that lavish tenderness on their girls will render their purity inviolable.
Girls must be disciplined as well. The rod cannot be made to distinguish between boyish and girlish sins. Girls, likewise, need to be well educated. We do not accomplish gentle, shame-faced feminine piety by sheltering our daughters from rigorous academics. Quite the contrary! Our girls ought to be fitted and prepared as ladies who will illumine the world with the light of true knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Finally, girls will be raised well when they are surrounded with and strongly influenced by virtuous older women in the home and in the church.
The almost constant degradation of females in our present culture, under the name of "feminism," must be stopped. The only way we will succeed in doing that is by raising a generation of young women who will treasure their virginity like rubies, who will delight themselves in their vocations as wives and mothers, and who will turn a deaf ear to the siren song of the world.
Where will we get such ladies? They are at our feet right now. They gather at our dinner tables. They are our daughters. The task of fighting cultural currents is never easy. The current is flowing strongly against this vision of how to raise girls. But the goal of beautiful and virtuous femininity is too lovely not to strive after. It is too precious not to reach. By the grace of God we can make the change. As we do, posterity will thank this generation of parents for the deposit of grace our daughters will leave behind them. The resources found below are offered to assist in that glorious work.