Stephen Curry Is the Woke 'Father of Daughters'

On Sunday, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry penned an op-ed arguing for the importance of gender equality with the headline, “This Is Personal.” It’s personal, explains Curry, because he has two daughters. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the idea of women’s equality has become a little more personal for me, lately, and a little more real,” he writes.

It’s not that Curry had previously been blind to women’s rights, he explains. After all, he points out that he does have a wife and a mom, both of whom he calls “incredible and fiercely principled” women. “So for my whole life, really, I feel like I’ve been receiving this education on what it means to be a woman in America,” Curry writes. But “suddenly seeing things through the eyes of these daughters” has intensified that education. He writes:

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.

And of course: paid equally.

And I think it’s important that we all come together to figure out how we can make that possible, as soon as possible. Not just as ‘fathers of daughters,’ or for those sorts of reasons. And not just on Women’s Equality Day. Every day — that’s when we need to be working to close the pay gap in this country.

I guess this makes him a Woke Father of Daughters. Unlike the standard-issue Father of Daughters (see: Matt Damon), Curry understands that it’s problematic for a man to argue for women’s rights solely on the grounds of having some ladies in his life. Maybe he’s read some of the rightful criticism of “dad feminism,” in which, as Jezebel’s Stassa Edwards wrote, “women’s equality is still bound and dependent on their relationship with men.” So he clarifies that he’s arguing for equality as a father of daughters—but not just as a father of daughters.

Hey, I’ll take it. Curry just launched a basketball camp for girls—and I can vouch that a YouTube binge on videos of him with his daughters is time incredibly well spent. But, hopefully, Woke Fathers of Daughters like Curry, who recently welcomed his son to the world, will raise a generation of Men Interested in Women’s Rights Because Women’s Rights.