raising girls

Web chat

The Huffington Post article linked at the end pretty much sums up my issues with Biddulph.

Ah yes I remember that web chat. I always wondered why he got such a pasting. Felt bit sorry for him

I would recommend the Raising Girls one, I don't know why he is disliked on here, haven't seen the backstory.
It comes from quite a feminist place, promotes some feminist notions - he's dead against gender segregated toys, for example.

It's not aimed at self identified feminist parents, more the non-political but promotes a feminist friendly way of child rearing, which I am sure we all agree is a very good model of child rearing

I am happy to see that - I think the success of his book can only be a good thing for this cohort of little girls, if only some parts chime with parents or make them examine things from a different angle.

I wouldn't read a Steve Biddulph book if it were the last parenting book on earth. He did a web chat back in January and got a bit of a pasting if I remember correctly. Lets just say he doesn't have girls best interests at heart. And he likes to tell women how to do feminism. Always attractive.

Although they aren't specifically about raising girls but they do have interesting concepts in them are Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender and Pink Brain, Blue Brain by Lise Eliot (haven't read the latter but heard its good).

You do know there is an actual book called 'Raising Girls,' right?

This book. I liked it, and I think that the important thing to take from it is that the author is coming from a place of great concern about girls' mental health.

There are places where it does feel a tiny bit earth mother/father agenda-y, but I can forgive that; as with all parenting books, I just took from it what chimed with me. For example: how we speak to baby girls and boys differently from their earliest years, e.g.

To a boy toddler: 'Look at the BIG cow!'
To a girl toddler: 'Aw look at the CUTE cow!'