Your Voice, Your Choice

 

The Lipstick Logic Motto

Symbolic of the individuality of each woman’s life, this lip print represents each woman’s unique story. By changing lip colors, a woman can change her appearance.

By making new choices she can change her life.

It’s a man’s world. Despite great accomplishments, women are repressed today just as they have been for centuries. We have a long way to go to abolish patriarchy and achieve equality. The time to start is now. Be persistent. Make change happen.

Women are products of their environments. Some are fortunate enough to have been born into a financially stable, nurturing, stimulating family. Others, must rise from poverty or abuse, from the depths of disadvantage and pain.

Applying what we learn from mentors and lessons from powerful women can enrich our own lives. Through their strength, determination and actions, some women have changed the world, but each woman can take action to change her own life.

We follow in the footsteps of suffragettes who fought hard for a woman’s right to vote, yet many women do not vote. Women have traveled to space, yet some women have never learned to drive a car. Some have become bank presidents, while others have never written a check.

Women have excelled in many fields without being acknowledged for their competence and brains. Nursing is one example of an underpaid, female-dominated field, where it took more men entering the profession for wages and status to improve. A stark reminder from the past is when women served in the military during WWII. Often, they did not receive military benefits, burial benefits or medals, so when women in the war died, their fellow females pooled money to send the body home.

More than 250,000 women served in the armed forces during WWII. They worked in many capacities. Some were captives. Some died. Thousands were pilots, yet these brave women were not given equal compensation. Finally, in 1979, these women were rightfully granted veteran benefits. I recently met a young female helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Afghanistan. Women in the military today have earned respect in broad leadership, combat and technical roles.

A few years ago, I met a motorcycle enthusiast riding cross-country alone at the age of eighty. She enjoyed traveling alone. Self-dependence remained at her core, just as it was during WWII when, as a military pilot, she flew transcontinental aircraft deliveries with minimal navigation instruments, and when aviation weather-forecasting was nearly nonexistent.

Marge Piercy, an American author, feminist and social activist, once said, “A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.”

Women are multitaskers. Managing businesses and households, bearing and caring for children, assisting aging parents, supporting mates in their work, and participating in community and school projects, all this is often accomplished while working a full-time job.

Women are strong. They are resilient, developing skills through necessity and employing them throughout life. Women must remain goal-oriented and avoid people who impede their progress.

Most working women have experienced the abuse of power. Many women develop skills in the business realm, but are not treated as equals. Sometimes management level women participate in deriding other women like entitled men who abuse and use their power against subordinates.

Although women are socially defined as unequal, we are developing voices and taking action to stand strong against repression. With change, conflict is inevitable. When conflict is suppressed or hidden, issues are not addressed. View conflict as an avenue of growth. Learn from adversity.

The ability to cope in a crisis is strengthened by experience. Life lessons from strong women show this to be true. Adversity teaches wisdom, wisdom that can be shared with others.

Leave your negative past behind. Become the person you want to be. Face life with strength and a positive attitude. There is hope, but the fight for equality goes on.

 

Report abuse

Run for Office

Vote for rights

Defend yourself

Find your passion

Become self-reliant

Refuse to be put down

Do not become a victim

Take charge of your future

Learn skills for independence

Develop a roadmap for your future

 

Betty Kuffel, MD

Lipsticklogic.com