James Hilton: A Letter to My Daughters

Dear offspring,

Someone once told me to leave everything better than you found it. I have no intention of leaving just yet, but I believe your generation is uniquely positioned to make this world better than it has ever been. So I thought I’d take a moment to share with you some thoughts.

Being the father of two wondrously intelligent and infinitely creative daughters -  one obsessed with LEGO and whose role model is Homer from The Simpsons; the other whose iPhone appears to have been surgically attached to their hand, and who loves any TV show involving the police nicking people, or Jeremy Kyle – is eye opening to say the least. 

You are both exceptionally caring (though not particularly of each other), and while one of you is opinionated, loud and forceful, the other is quiet, thoughtful and observant. It is, in equal measure, infinitely interesting and frustrating watching you navigate the transition of being a child, to being a teenager and beyond.

I worry about everything: Will you do well at school? Will you succeed in life? Will you have your hearts broken? Will you find yourselves? Will you find happiness? The answer, as it was for me, my parents, their parents and theirs before them, is yes. Eventually. But the one concern that furrows my brow more than any other is this: Will you be allowed to succeed and/or fail without hindrance or influence because of what you are?

What you are, is irrelevant. What you add, is everything. I don’t know what the word is that I’m meant to call this belief system. I always thought it was ‘meritocracy’, but after making some enquiries around this I discovered some reasonably compelling arguments against this word, illustrating just how little I know.

Some offered ‘feminism’, another word that is largely misinterpreted and misused, and I wondered if the specificity of the term brought with it its own problems? It appeared that I’d have to settle for my own personal definition of meritocracy, and of feminism, but this was a rather unsatisfying result. Neither being simple enough to allow adequate explanation to you.

So, for want of a better word, I decided upon Equalism. I don’t know if it’s a real word, or if it has already been adopted by some other philosophical camp, but all things being equal, I don’t really care.

Equalism simply means we are all equal. It means that we all have an equal right to be listened to, to be considered, to be led, and to lead based on our abilities and our contribution.

It means you must never allow yourself, or others, to be undermined or passed over because of race, sexual orientation or gender. It means that if we must judge people, it must be solely based on their observed contribution, not by the colour or style of their hair. It means that we must be paid and, if in the position to do so, pay according to skill.

I’m telling you this because the working world you will enter in coming years has some very curious ideas about equality. You won’t find many people who will disagree with the idea of equality, but you will come across swathes of businesses, organisations and careers where agreement doesn’t exactly equal action. You can do something about this.

Fore-warned is fore-armed, as they say, and so my responsibility to you, the leaders and influencers of the future, is to offer what advice I can based on what I see around me and the problems I have seen people encounter in this ‘modern’ world.

Of course, every age considers itself modern and enlightened, but people in 100 years will look at our time with the same eyes we look upon the Victorian's attitudes to equality, and will be astonished that such a world existed where anything other than how you contributed could have influence over your opportunities.

I’m sure you’re reading this thinking ‘yes dad, we know’, but if only to humour your old man, I’d like to offer you my top ‘to do’s’ as a guide in your careers:

These guides are by no means exhaustive, and you will, I’m sure, amend and add to them as you find your way. But by starting out this way, you make the goal that so many have already strived for ever more possible: an equal world where gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, social standing and monetary wealth are ridiculous notions of a bygone age.

You, my daughters, are what comes next.

Make it better.

Dad.