Date: 24th March 2021
Written By: Linnet Dave – Partner & Principal Consultant, Auxano Consulting LLP
The Female Opportunity Index 2020/21: Research shows levels of advancement in equality and career opportunity for women in 100 countries around the world, focusing on political and corporate leadership, gender wage gaps, legal support, maternity leave and more.
A lot has been said about women and a lot has been written. Over the years, women have grown in power and many icons have inspired others to rise and become their own.
For example – On January 20th 2021, Senator Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female and first Black and South Asian Vice President.
Christina Koch has set the world record for the longest stay in space by a woman. The U.S. astronaut landed in Kazakhstan on February 6 after 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS)
The 12-year-old girl, Jiya Rai, created a record as the youngest girl diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder to swim the distance of 36 km in an open sea.
Marathon mascot Man Kaur, she is aged 105, who is a world champion athlete and a star runner of Pinkathon.
Inspite of all this, women across the globe continue to struggle with their own guilt to achieve, to be successful and constantly find the need to justify their actions. Why?
Each year we celebrate women’s day and celebrate the power of being us and yet in the moments of life we forget to be us, accept us, have the courage to be honest and say ‘yes! that’s me!’
Today we women, irrespective of what our age and what our background is, remember, we need to have the courage to speak the truth and accept our truth. We may have the compassion, as expected out of most womankind, or we may not. We may have the natural inclination to be a mother, or we may not want to have any children of our own. We may want to be caregivers and homemakers, or we want to be conquering the world and not be homebound. The important part is to know and say our truth to ourselves first. Today, I am a daughter, a partner and a mother but I have always told myself I want to be more, I am a career woman, an influencer and a traveller.
We need to find our space:
● Are you taking time for you? To build you? To know your real truth? Truly accept you, so that no matter what the world may see, you are aware of your real labels, labels that you own-both the good and bad.
● Are you supporting other women to soar, find their space, and find their guilt free moment where they can truly express themselves without being judged.
● Can you go beyond your biased questions such as “Can you cook?” “How can you focus on your career and your children at the same time.”
Encourage yourself and others to achieve, be them, no matter what that is-a Single Woman, a Career Focussed Woman, a Woman in Arts, a Woman Who Loves to Talk or Dress up or rather not dress up, a woman who is devoid of emotion or a woman who simply fits the ideal world-defined woman profile. It doesn’t matter.
Ask yourself a simple question: “Are you happy being you?” .If yes, then how can you be more of you, and if not, what can you do to be that happy woman you desire to be?
Help yourself and other women around you to have the courage to be their true self.