It's the 21st century, and in recent herstory, us ladies have made great strides in progression. We're more involved in voting, professionalism, and government office then we've previously been. We're treated more or less as equals in society, which wasn't nearly the case a couple of centuries ago. However, a lot of our progression is concentrated in professional and socially active environments. Beyond that, namely in our dating lives, things have remained largely stagnant.

It's still a common practice for ladies to wait until men make the first move. Many women still expect men to pay the tab. Mostly, women expect men to carry initiative as far as romance is concerned. Now, this isn't ultimately universal. Some ladies have adopted a more progressive view of the dating world. Some ask men on dates, some do pay the dinner bill. Some even go as far as proposing. Yet, it's still the minority. I challenge all my fellow ladies to try taking a little more initiative if you already aren't.

Ask your crush on a date. Take your boyfriend on a surprise date. Romance him a little by buying him some dinner. Give him a well-deserved massage out of the blue. The special men in our life that we devote our love to, deserve a little romance as well.

Hell, let's go a step farther. Buy your special man flowers.

It's time to break the gender norm of romantic flowers being gifted to only women. In my sociology class, my professor inquired to the men of my class, "How many of you have ever received flowers?" Not a single hand went up. On one hand, I was expecting at least one hand to go up. On the other, men receiving flowers is uncommon in our mainstream pop culture so I wasn't too surprising. However, I've had the experience of gifting my boyfriend flowers for Valentine's day before, and he absolutely loved them. Receiving flowers is such a pure romantic gesture, and is too often only limited to women. Men have the potential to enjoy nice smelling plants as much as anyone else.

At the end of the day, men generally like being romanced as much as us ladies do. Let's spice things up this upcoming Valentine's day, and take initiative in treating the special men in our lives.