When they are very young, girls feel that they can be everything they propose: presidents, astronauts, scientists, engineers or business managers ... However, at five years they begin to think that they are less intelligent than boys and stop believing that can exercise "important" professions. As they grow, they lose confidence in their abilities.
Cultural stereotypes, the prejudices that adults transmit to them and the representation of gender in the media are, in large part, guilty of this situation.
For fight gender stereotypes and encourage girls to be what they want, Barbie has launched a great campaign called "Dream Gap", in Spanish “The dream gap”. That is, the distance between what girls believe they can achieve and their true potential.
They can be what they want
This is a global campaign created with the objective of raising awareness about the factors that prevent girls from reaching their full potential, focusing on providing them with the resources and support they need to continue believing that they can become all that they want.
"How are we going to believe anything else when it is three times less likely to give us a scientific-themed toy? Or when our parents search Google, does my son have talent? Twice more than does my daughter have talent?" Girls in this Barbie initiative.
And they continue to highlight the importance of showing girls female references to follow, examples of great women who empower girls:
"We need to see bright women being bright and see how they got to where they are to imagine ourselves doing what they do. But we can't do it alone. Mothers, fathers, brothers and bosses. We need your help."
The video was released last year coinciding with the International Day of the Girl that is celebrated on October 11, and is now shared again in networks and WhatsApp on the occasion of International Women's Day.
