Maria Sikoutris-Dilorio as a Child. I remember the moment clearly. I was still young when my father said words that would echo in my mind for years: “You should have been a boy.” He didn’t say it with cruelty. He said it with conviction — the kind passed down through generations. In the world my parents came from, sons carried the family name, the legacy, the future. Daughters carried responsibility. Daughters married. Daughters had babies. Daughters supported. Sons achieved.