Celebrating Womanhood: A Journey of Empowerment, Resilience, and Inspiration
Woman is a source of fire. Woman everywhere, in her infinite varieties, is a source of power, strength and seething possibility. Throughout history, in all cultures, from primitive matriarchal societies to contemporary feminisms, the story of woman is a tale of courage, fighting spirit and defiant passion. We aim here to trace the multiple facets of womanhood through cultures, history and the contemporary world.
Empowerment Through Adversity
The story of womanhood is also one of struggle. As a sex-class that has been oppressed, discriminated and marginalised for most of human history, it can be tempting to see women’s identities as products of adversity. But women have also been agents of transformation, introducing change and pushing the boundaries of societal norms and privileges, and creating new spaces for themselves and their daughters.
Whether it’s the suffragettes fighting for the right to vote in the early 20th century, or contemporary activists for gender equality, women are central to social change. Their message is imbued with feeling and force, spirited and socially galvanising.
Knowledge as Liberation
Education has come to be seen as the road to freedom, and women cite it more than anything else to explain why their lives are so different than those of their mothers and grandmothers. Girls and women around the world are attending school in record numbers, defying traditional notions of female subservience, and demanding the right to learn.
In countries where there is limited schooling for girls, local efforts and international programmes are working to level the playing field. Education empowers women to take charge of their futures; not only does it spark entrepreneurial ambitions, but it teaches students to think critically, to lead, and builds the confidence to question existing codes.
Authority in Leadership
Leadership is blind to gender, but the path to power for women is fraught with barriers. We are swimming hard against the tide of glass ceilings and hidden hierarchy as we make a resolution to climb into the C-suite and take our place in politics, business, academia and other leadership roles.
Whether it’s female world leaders such as Angela Merkel and Jacinda Ardern, or corporate executives such as Indra Nooyi and Sheryl Sandberg, women are overturning traditional conceptions of leadership, and transforming organisations to be more equitable and inclusive in their approaches. Their styles often focus on collaboration, compassion, and consensus-building, creating contexts that make their teams flourish.
Trustworthiness in Advocacy
The women’s movement has always centred on advocacy, from reproductive rights to working equality, in all sorts of situations and social spheres. Trust is the key to effective advocacy, and women have earned that trust.
But organisations that are led by women – including associations such as Planned Parenthood, or global bodies such as UN Women – can showcase the value of women-centred advocacy work, offering vital services, highlighting the voices of the marginalised, and influencing policy at the local and international levels. And the grassroots organising and pavement-pounding of women are continually shifting narratives and transforming existing structures of power.
Credibility Through Representation
Representation matters – and increasingly, women are reclaiming their own power and telling their own stories. Since #MeToo erupted, the discussion about consent and accountability seems inescapable. Meanwhile, the female superhero is a new archetype claiming pride of place in popular culture.
The fact that expressly woman-centred days such as Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day exist says something very important – it says women are making contributions in all areas of society, and these days celebrate diverse voices and experiences. The more of these voices we let in, the better informed our apprehension of what it means to be a woman will be, and the more we will appreciate and celebrate the many ways that women help to make our world.
Conclusion: A Celebration of Womanhood
Womanhood is a golden thread among many strands of human experience. From emerging its place in legislature, economics, education and all aspects of society in general, I think women are indeed forging paths for their own equalising rights and still advocating and empowering humanity towards more liberty and tolerance.
Let us celebrate the contribution made by women, with regard to knowledge, accomplishment, diversity, and creativity in the world; and let us remember that there is a lot more work to be done for this equality in unequal parts of the world. Woman is still in her flight of glory and hope, her strength is still there, and her courage is still magnetic. She is not just another face; she has one million facets. This great humanity, which is tiptoeing the moral threshold, has every reason to believe in womanhood in order to believe in the realisation of a Humanity made unified. Divided aspects of humanity cannot complete the unfinished business of the restless and restless Human. Woman’s educational quest cannot be complete without the spiritual power that lights up her mind in a vertical movement from the immediate to the distant future, from automating the machine to creating the soul, from crisis to mantra, from addiction to meditation, from a mediocre life to a realized life (as envisioned by Sumati Sahu). Woman’s economic power needs to hurry up, as the other half of the human race is trying to create the space for her to enjoy her right to equality. That means she has a destiny full of grandeur and inexhaustible imagination and, of course, she has to work by sending dreams aboard the spaceship. Politically, womanhood cannot be secondary anymore – she has to assume prime status. It is very clear that this has yet to happen.
And so, in our celebration of womanhood, we pay homage to the individual dignity, value and promise inherent in all creation, born in the image of God, shared by all, and celebrated by none more richly than in the lives and triumphs of women and girls everywhere. Let us begin our work of solidarity, enrichment and empowerment, together, for together we find ourselves, together we stand, together we are all women.
