Don’t Stop the Unstoppable
Growing up, I was never given any idea that I could not do anything I wanted to do or be anyone I wanted to be. My parents raised me with the somewhat idealistic view that anything was possible if I worked hard enough. Today, I am grateful for that. I am also grateful that they raised me no differently than my older brother. Everything was fair game in our household. We were given the same opportunities, punishments, and praise. We turned out impossibly different, but somehow with a similar drive. I owe that and more to our parents’ endless faith in us, but I recognize just how lucky we were. Not everyone is raised to believe in his or her abilities.
Recently in an Ethics class, we discussed the current presidential candidates and the extreme views of one in particular. Someone commented, “I can’t believe people are starting to believe these things. What is the world coming to?” Typically I am too nervous to participate in class discussion, but I could not let this comment sit.
“I don’t think any of these views are new,” I told the class. “People just finally have someone who is speaking them out loud.”
This is a problem that goes far beyond our presidential election. One candidate is not going to change a nation’s view: that’s on us. Too many people are fixated on changing the views of one candidate, when in fact there is a following of people who believe the same shocking things. It’s not one person’s views we need to change: it is a whole society.
Every woman above the age of eighteen has the ability to do something about this. We can do more than just vote in November’s election. We can educate ourselves on the actual issues and vote on those. More than that, we can talk to each other. We can talk to our mothers and daughters and sisters. We can stop selling ourselves short. Our male peers rarely have to prove themselves as often as we do. We can fight that simply by presenting ourselves as the brilliant and determined people that we are. Live by these words, “Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other successful women, who have her back.” Together, women can be unstoppable.
Why is this so important? I never grew up thinking I was falling short of my brother’s successes. I never doubted my abilities until I was old enough to realize that others doubted me simply due to my gender. I never want to tell my daughter one day, “You can’t do this.” I was lucky enough to believe I could be a force of nature. I refuse to believe that is not true of all women.