The father figure leaves an indelible mark on the life of every woman

by Shirley Marie Bradby

November 08, 2018

The father figure leaves an indelible mark on the life of every woman
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It is said that in regards to a woman's companion or spouse there is an attempt to find again what her father was or what was missing in his personality or character.

This statement leaves room for all the nuances that may exist in the specific cases of every woman, but basically communicates the persistence of the father figure even when a mature woman may no longer be closely connected to her father.

Every woman will be able to confirm what has just been said. In fact, like a shadow, but not necessarily in the negative meaning of the expression, a father will accompany his daughter on her life path.

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The relationship between a father and his family can have a thousand subtleties. There are examples of relationships characterized by the most complete harmony and complicity, those in which indifference and devaluation dominate, and those in which the father embodies authoritative severity. 

If you want to talk about psychology, the experts agree that the father, in whatever way he behaves, leaves an indelible mark on his daughter. This is because the baby girl, at first, recognizes her mother as a source of love and affection, but within a few years, she will become aware of the feelings that bind her to her father.

This a different kind of love, based on the diversity of sex. Therefore, while raising her daughter the mother can transmit female values, but the gratification of feeling like a woman will be experienced in relation to her father. It will be the father who, even without saying it or doing something explicitly, will make her aware of her female gender.

When the father is missing from the home, or if he is outclassed by a "dominant" mother or if he plays a purely authoritarian role, then within the girl, a vacuum is created and the consequences are diverse. The future woman may manifest insecurities towards her femininity, or whenever she has to interact with the other sex. In the case of a hyper-protective mother or a mother who has devalued the figure of the father, then the girl as a woman may not feel a particular interest in men, precisely because she considers a man to be of little or no importance.

A little girl will not immediately recognize which what kind of relationship she has with her father. However, she will understand it when she is more mature and when she finds herself interfacing with the other sex. Then she will understand what she may have found lacking in her father or what she appreciates about him, to the point of looking for someone like him also in her companion or spouse.

Often we tend to consider a family to be mother-centered, and although it is undeniable the role that mothers have in carrying a child in their womb and giving birth to a baby, still, every father leaves flowers that continue to bloom silently in his daughter's soul.

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