When girls grow up inside boundaries set by others, stories of female power matter more than ever
The great French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once wrote that girls were not born into a pre-ordained state of ‘womanhood’ but instead learnt how to become women by absorbing societal cues as they grew up. This process begins early on in infancy, via whispered fairytales and myths. It continues through childhood via books and texts, then from observing the lived examples of mothers, sisters and aunts, and through the cultural representations of women in popular culture.