Speak Up Girl

Women are so afraid of being right and questioning power, the power we fear the most is male power. I grew up with the sweetest and most humble father, and my mother was so different, she was loud, very strong and she was the disciplinary in the home. Although my mother was the one who would discipline us and shout, we still feared our farther more than our mother. My father has never hit us, never really shouted at us, he took us out more than our mother, he did everything he could to make sure we were happy, but he was a man and society taught us that men are scary, powerful and more important than women. I remember we feared our father more than our mother, if one of my siblings said, “I’ll tell dad”, I would be so afraid, but if someone said I will tell mom, I had no big issue, I knew she would shout and smack me if need be, but it was just mom.  

The reality of society is that men are made more powerful then need be, we grew up in a social system that discredits the authenticity of women’s and their power and a society that raises men undeservingly to positions they did not work towards, but because they are men they inherit the right of power. “We aim to be successful, but not too successful otherwise we will threaten the man”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Women need to be careful not to offend men, or they won’t get married. Who wants to marry a woman who speaks and thinks for herself?

Women are still fighting for the right be heard and respected. These disparities are so evident in the office and in the boardroom, women can speak, but don’t speak over the men in the room. Women who speak up and stand their ground in the work place, find it more difficult to fit in, then those who are silent and listen to what the men in the company have to say, these women are treated “better”.

This silence is also one we have seen women practicing even in cases that should not be silenced. The rate of women in professional and social settings being sexually violated is rising (this can be attributed to the fact that women are now reporting these incidences), women are still in the middle of a hurricane of sexual storms by men. 2017 for the first time in our history as a global village, women from all over stared openly sharing their stories, women’s voices rose and women were heard, so loud that Hollywood and governments began to take note, these men (offenders) started having faces, with public shaming, women became braver and forgot about the fear and the consequences of their voices. It took the united voices of women to shed light on the reality of these women.

These are some shocking stats of the reality of women in the United States “46.4% lesbians, 74.9% bisexual women and 43.3%, heterosexual women reported sexual violence other, than rape during their lifetimes, while 40.2% gay, men, 47.4% bisexual men and 20.8% heterosexual men reported sexual violence other than rape during their lifetimes.”, this according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2012, 2013, 2015.

With even higher stats from developing countries. It is estimated that 70% of women around the world have experienced abuse from an intimate partner, according to the UN Women’s Organization.

Imagine if our young girls were taught from a young age that speaking up when anyone does something you don’t like or speaking up if something does not feel right to you, was a good thing. We probably would not be having this conversation, because men would know that women to are strong and have voices. We need to teach our girls that it is OK to be smarter than a boy, it’s OK to question your father or brother and we as women, need to be examples of strong female voices for our children.