What it means to be a woman #InternationalWomensday

Being a woman means you have to live up to a certain standard. It means having the perfect body. A toned stomach with a thin waist. Breasts that are perky but not too big that they start gravitating downwards. Thick in all the right places. Fat? lose weight. Skinny? gain some.

Women should be loving and understanding, but dare to be opinionated and your passion is mistaken for attitude and anger (she’s probably on her period). Too emotional, clingy. Jealous, psychopath.

Since when did caring about your relationships mean you were crazy?

Creating A Perfect Image:

As a woman, you’re told to love yourself, but you’ll never be enough. Your lips should be fuller. Eyebrows thicker. Taller. Shorter. Teeth whiter. You are your looks.

A report from Statisa stated in 2017 the cosmetic industry was worth over £9 billion. Cosmetic industries and social media love to thrive off the insecurities that women face. Instead of coming to terms with their beauty, women are influenced to hide behind filters and find quick fixes to their imperfections. Going under the knife? Don’t, men prefer their woman natural.

From a young age, we are told women should be wives and mothers.

They should take responsibility for raising children, cook, clean and take care of their homes. They should self-select out of work to fulfil their role as a mother. Get married and start a family. A woman should want kids, why wouldn’t she? After all, this is what society has taught women to do.

Women & The Workplace:

Not all jobs are meant for women. Women are nurses, not doctors. They are teachers and secretaries.

Did you know from the FTSE 100 ( top 100 companies in UK) there are only 7 female CEO’s?

Claire Cohen , 2017

Why would you want to be an engineer or work in a lab? You don’t have the skillset for that. Being a woman means accepting that you’ll be paid less than a man for doing the same job.

London, England, UK — Businesswoman working late — Image by © Sverre Haugland/Image Source/Corbis

Challenging The Impossible:

 Being a woman shouldn’t be limited to what you wear, how many kids you have, your career or for having a vagina.

Throughout our entire lives, woman have been conditioned into living in a man’s world, to the point where ‘what it means to be a woman’ is defined by men.

I thought I knew what being a woman meant. However, without realising all I knew was how to be the woman society wanted me to be. Too often we allow the expectations thrown at us to decide who we are. I may not know how to cook a 3-course meal, have the ‘perfect’ body or walk longer than 5 minutes in heels but that doesn’t make me any less of a woman, and having all those things doesn’t make a woman any better either.

So always be the woman you want to be, not the one society tells you to be.