Steph Curry, like many fathers, wants to see his daughters succeed in a terribly unfair world. And in a new op-ed for the Players’ Tribune titled “This Is Personal,” Curry argues the importance of gender equality for not only his two daughters, but women everywhere—boiling it down to one major issue: the wage gap.
“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,” he writes. “And of course: paid equally.”
Curry recognizes that this issue is not new, and that it’s not going to be solved simply because men who have daughters finally decide that women deserve better. While he is the father of daughters, his new crusade toward pay equity goes beyond that narrow understanding. “Every day is when the pay gap is affecting women,” he argues. “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.”
Hopefully this becomes a wake up call for athletes and men everywhere who look up to the Warriors shooter. Curry’s argument is backed by action, as he hosted an all-girls basketball camp earlier this summer. “I think it was also the sort of thing that can help to shift people’s perspectives. So that when someone sees an NBA player is hosting a camp, now, you know—maybe they won’t automatically assume it’s for boys,” he wrote. “And so eventually we can get to a place where the women’s game, it isn’t ‘women’s basketball.’ It’s just basketball. Played by women, and celebrated by everyone.”
And when it comes to his new son Canon, Curry is going to be sure to pass some of the responsibility of leveling the playing field to him. “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,” he wrote. “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.”
