Naw’ She Got It: The Legacy of Kobe Bryant and Gender Equity

I’m a daddy’s girl. Thanks to men like Robert Moore, Andrew Sims, and Rodney Savage. Neither of which is my biological father, but whenever I see them, I call them dad. Mr. Moore, in particular, my high school band director, who I spent most of my adolescence with, nurtured my innate leadership skills. In the early 2000s, female drum majors were far and in between. Today, they still are. Yet in our small, urban community, Mr. Moore would choose girls, like me, to be head drum majors. In some respect, I think he felt that we were better than the boys. When it came to competitions, he was right, because we were always winning championships, even with us girls in the middle, leading a band down the field, when that spot was oftentimes reserved for tall boys.

I’m a boss now, and as I think of it, most of the other girls Mr. Moore saw fit to make drum majors are also a bunch of bosses. A couple of doctorates, university officials, amazing mothers, you name it. The time I spent with Mr. Moore, he cultivated what later became a tenacious leadership style — that bold, don’t back down, be fearless, you belong here too, kind of attitude. I would argue that Kobe Bryant instilled the same fervor in his four daughters.

There is a clip that has made it’s social media rounds for the last several weeks of Kobe sharing insight with his beautiful daughter GiGi. Her face is understanding and confident as she nods, soaking in the Black Mamba’s pearls of wisdom, almost as though she has heard this particular message once before. We also notice that Kobe has a pleasant, proud demeanor when he knows that, she got it.

We know Kobe Bean Bryant to be a 5x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 18x All-Star, and one of the best basketball players in the world. Yet, what I am so enamored with, is him as a father of four girls. On the Jimmy Kimmel show, Kobe discusses fans and friends asking him about having a boy to carry out his legacy. His daughter GiGi confidently responds to these inquiries, and she says, “I got this, you don’t need no boy for that,” and Kobe reaffirms her, “yes, you do, you got this.” Kobe’s confidence and affirmation that his girls can fill his shoes and continue his legacy was noted in a few other conversations. In particular, Shannon Sharpe, on Undisputed, reflected on a text thread with Kobe, where he told the 5x Champion that a boy continues to escape him. He notes that Kobe’s response once more was, “my princesses are tough enough.”

Kobe leaned in as a man; his unwavering commitment to his daughter’s success speaks to how gender equity should be a championed cause for many men. The United Nations leadership discussed that there were two keys to achieving gender equality; first, the private sector’s support to scale up efforts and second that men and boys play a significant role.

The numbers don’t lie, and women and girls across the globe are still experiencing unequal and unfair conditions compared to men and boys. Women are paid less than men for work of equal value. There are 15 million girls worldwide who are not attending school compared to just 10 million boys. Furthermore, in a report by my forever president, Barack Obama, girls of color, experience disproportionately higher rates of school suspensions. Suspensions for Black girls are at 12% higher than white boys (6%) and girls of any other race or ethnicity. The Obama Administration called for the advancement of gender equity through the promotion of safe, inclusive, positive learning environments and integrating trauma-sensitive programmatic efforts.

At the current rate, it would take almost 100 more years to achieve gender equality (UN Women, 2020). If we are going to be champions of gender equity, we need men to be like Kobe and tell all our girls, naw’ you got it.