Due to the approaching International Women’s Day, I would like to raise this topic. Show the image of a woman over the years as well as currently. In many places in the world, women are still fighting for their rights. For the opportunity to express their opinions and express themselves.
Suffragist, feminist, warrior, housewife, mother, lover, daughter…
Until World War I, the model prevailed practically all over the world – the man works, the woman takes care of the house. It was normal.
A woman deprived of the right to vote. A woman guardian, a woman mother, a home nurse, a cleaner, a lover, a wife…
FIGHTING WOMAN…
The years in which a strong desire for change awoke in women fall at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
The first fight for voting rights and regaining the vote was undertaken by the Suffragettes. Women activists who initially operated in Great Britain and the United States before the start of World War I.
The war also brought some changes.
While the man – the head of the house, fought in the name of the homeland, the woman slowly took over the male roles and duties. Maintaining a home, finding a job, small jobs previously assigned and performed only by male family members. Taking such a new role fell to many women at the beginning of the 20th century.
A WOMAN WITH THE RIGHT TO VOTE…
Access to education, voting rights, or the right to work side by side with a man – these are what women of the time fought for.
On the example of Poland, it looked like this:
An excerpt from the postulate from that fateful day read:
“A voter to the Parliament is every citizen of the State, regardless of sex, who has reached the age of 21 by the date of the announcement of the Elections”.
The first free parliamentary elections in which a woman could both vote and stand were held in 1919 and eight women received a parliamentary mandate.
WOMAN IN PANTS…
Women worth mentioning, those heroines who were among the first to actively fight for the emancipation of women.
Susan B. Anthony
- 1820-1906. Co-founded the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1869 to promote women’s constitutional right to vote.
Olympe de Gouges
- 1748 – 1793. In 1791, she published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen, in which she demanded. Among other things, the granting of women the right to education and private property, honors and functions equal to those of men. The participation of women in the armed forces, and gender equality in family. The manifesto was modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The first article of the declaration by de Gouges states: “Woman is born and remains free and equal in rights to man”. And the most famous sentence that comes from it is: “If a woman can legally hang on the gallows, she should also have the right to stand on the rostrum.” Olympe de Gouges was guillotined on November 3, 1793
Alice Paul
- 1885-1977 American suffragist and activist. Together with Lucy Burns and other women, she led a successful campaign to promote women’s suffrage. Which resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- 1815-1902. One of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Women’s Convention in 1848. Author of a declaration signed by 100 participants of the meeting in favor of granting women political rights. Her interest in women’s rights was not limited to voting rights. She also fought for equality in the field of economics, judicial rights for women (including the right to divorce), reproductive rights and access to education.
Lucy Stone
- 1818-1893 one of the first American suffragettes. She contributed to organizing the women’s rights movement in the USA. She was also probably the first woman in the US to keep her maiden name after getting married.
Ida B. Wells
- 1862-1931 American sociologist, researcher, journalist, activist for the rights of black people and women.
Mary Church Terrell
- 1863-1954 one of the first African American women to graduate from college; civil rights activist and suffragette.
WOMEN OF STEEL…
“If you want something said, give it to a man, if you want it done, give it to a woman” (Margaret Thatcher).
Women who paved the way for us in a man’s world…
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie – the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize (1903).
- Margaret Thatcher – the “Iron Lady” Prime Minister of Great Britain (1979-1990). She changed the country through her approach to the free economy and the fight against trade unions.
- Coco Chanel – revolutionized women’s fashion – dominated the world previously belonging only to men.
- Jane Goodall – British anthropologist, primatologist, ethologist; chimpanzee and gorilla researcher in Tanzania. Jane has set a new direction for research.
- Frida Kahlo – a painter, was the first to decide to express her true self, free, independent. Not the way men would like to see her. Creator of a unique individual style.
- Malala Yousafzai – the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (2014). Fighting for women’s rights in Pakistan, activist for women’s access to education, fighting for women’s rights.
WOMEN/MAN – 50/50
Fortunately, the family model today has changed dramatically. The man shares household duties with the woman, the man takes paternity leave, takes care of the children.
A woman as a single, single mother, concubine – is no longer on the margins of social life.
It shows that only 29% of women in the world hold senior management positions. The situation is even worse when we look at the detailed data. Only 20% of women are presidents, owners and CEOs, and only 18% are COOs.
A woman is looking for a dependent partner, a woman is looking for self-realization. Woman is learning today and wants more…
WOMAN TODAY…
And although we can do everything, although we are the majority of the population. It is more women who have higher education. We become independent faster (we leave the family home faster). Women live longer, we have greater empathy and social sensitivity. We have an amazing ability to perform many tasks simultaneously… Still a long way to go, we still have to fight, struggle, prove, face.
Glass ceiling, pay gap (“Gender pay“), lower earnings despite the same qualifications and professional experience. Longer path to promotion, split between professional and family life, pressure.
Still, it’s the guy who decides about our rights and responsibilities (parliamentary majority are men). It’s the guys who paradoxically have the most to say about our bodies. They talk so much when they should just be silent…
In the face of male power, a woman is often defenseless. She is left alone with a sense of helplessness, failure and shame.
WOMAN – PRESSURE…
Too fat, too thin, it’s not appropriate, when is the wedding?, when are the children?, where is dinner? gray mouse, where is your modesty, this outfit is too provocative,
Still under pressure, society pressure, family pressure, partner pressure..
The fight against stereotypes, the pursuit of the ideal. Perfect housewife, the perfect mother, the perfect wife, an infallible employee, the go-getting head of the company.
So many tasks, so many faces.
You will go to work – “How could she leave the child“, you will stay at home – “useless on the husband’s pot“
Often we ourselves, or other women around us. Still put such senseless and unproductive pressure on ourselves – and it would be enough to listen, support, accept …
THE PERFECT WOMAN…
The ideal does not exist, I know it’s a cliché, but it’s the truth.
I say this because I catch myself striving for some unsurpassed and imaginary ideal.
Do not compare yourself, do not judge yourself and other women. Each of us has the right to live according to ourselves. And not constantly live up to the expectations of others.
Remember that social media does not show us real life. Filters, sessions, make-up, posing, a photo is just a second in the life of someone we consider ideal.
In real life, it’s normal to have pimples, stretch marks, cellulite, bloating, bad days, periods, gray hair, wrinkles, and enlarged pores.
We are only human and women…
We are beautiful, perfect, valuable and unstoppable.
BEING A WOMAN – A REAL WOMAN…
Remember, you have the right to decide about your own body…
you have the right to say no
You have the right to say “I’m not ready for it“, “I want to fulfill myself professionally“, “I don’t feel like having sex“, “Now it’s my turn“
now it’s time for my…
And in the end pleas watch that video “Be a lady they said”…
