Stephen Curry Wrote A Powerful Essay About His Daughters and Gender Equality

NBA player Stephen Curry is using his platform to speak out about an important issue: gender equality.

Curry and his wife, Food Network star Ayesha Curry, have two daughters: 6-year-old Riley and 3-year-old Ryan. Last month, they also welcomed a son named Canon. In a touching personal essay for The Players’ Tribune, the basketball star wrote about the experience of raising daughters and his hope that they will have every opportunity.

He called upon people to reflect on their attitudes toward women and their capabilities. He explained that he’s been lucky to know strong and “fiercely principled” women his whole life, including his wife and his mother, Sonya.

“[O]ne lesson from that education that’s really stood out to me is: 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.

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Curry went on to explain that as he watches his daughters grow, his commitment to gender equality and his conviction that there should be no limitations on what women can do or accomplish continues to strengthen.

“I want our girls to grow up knowing that there are no boundaries that can be placed on their futures, period,” he wrote. “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.”

Curry then went on to advocate for the elimination of the pay gap between women and men, a disparity that he wrote is “sending the wrong message to women about who they are, and how they’re valued and what they can or cannot become.”

He also reflected on the basketball camp that he hosted for girls recently and his hope for the young women he mentored. He wrote that he wishes they may one day live in a world where it’s not referred to as “women’s basketball,” but rather, “It’s just basketball. Played by women, and celebrated by everyone.”

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The Golden State Warriors player concluded his essay by speaking to the great sense of responsibility to raise his newborn son to be an active supporter of gender equality.

“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,” he wrote.  “You have to be doing it. It’s 2018 — school’s out. It’s time to go to work.”