items of interest

with contributions from David Whitford, Hans F. De Wit

"... ONE OF THE best things daughters can get from their fathers is seeing how much their fathers respect women," says Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Lincoln, Nebraska. Pipher is author of several successful books, including The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families.

"Women are so much of the time in our culture presented as sex objects, as fluffy creatures," she says. "And so one of the places that girls can learn something different is by seeing how their father reacts to women.

"In all the years I've known my husband, Jim, I have never heard him say a woman is ugly. He has never said a woman is fat. He has never begun a conversation about a woman by saying something about her appearance. He would always key into other things, and consequently I think our daughter learned what the ideal could be in terms of how men value and respect women. That's a really important gift that fathers can give their daughters."

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