Women's Empowerment, Entitlement and Equality

The National Women's History Month is fast drawing to a close for this year. During this month hopefully you have explored the lives of courageous, strong, vibrant women who were visionaries ahead of their time. These many women stood in the face of gender discrimination, sexual bias, misogyny, knowing that it was wrong to treat females with less respect than males. They also believed in the dignity, class, character and spiritual beauty that each female possessed naturally in her soul. They refused to give up the fight for today's women's freedoms; they did not allow the old status quo of the "good old boys club" to forever define, shape, and govern the lives of women. They chose to break new ground in the "male-dominated" career fields; they fought to get equal education, equal sports opportunities for girls and young women; they blazed career paths that they went from being secretaries to being CEOs and corporate board members. They went from kitchens to being astronauts in space; They went from being women in the pews to becoming church clergy; They clarified that being feminine is not weak, or limiting, or helpless--they celebrated its's virtues, strengths, and goodness. They showed that females globally not only deserved free and equal civil rights--they demanded it. They made it quite clear that being female is an amazing gift of the Creator who made each of us. Become empowered--don't settle for less; don't believe you are incapable of contributing to this ongoing change of society. Don't become complacent by thinking that women's rights and freedoms have been reached--we still have many things to achieve, and new countries to blaze new trails for women's civil rights. Be aware of your entitlements--naturally bestowed on you by your Creator as a woman. You are entitled to respect, love, honor, dignity, class, character, respect, legal representation, equal footing, equal pay, higher education--and you should never settle for anything less. You deserve to be seen and not be treated as invisible; you deserve to have your opinion equally considered in the midst of any man as valuable; you deserve to be seen as talented, competent, and a main contributor. If our female predecessors can do it, so can't we--and so must we. The fight is far from over.