As the presidential election drags on, I am left with one major question: What is my responsibility as a millennial woman in this political climate?
I have had the right to vote for less than 100 years and still am seeing rhetoric everywhere about my gender and its roles. Let me explain to you the role of my gender: it is not to mother, wife and be pretty, however I would argue that we could make a few parallels.
My role as a millennial woman is not necessarily to be a mother, though those who choose to do so are celebrated and necessary. My job is to nurture the generation under us. My job is to show the girls of five years from now that women can and should be involved in any and every college major. My role is to teach and train and coach young women to learn to speak their minds and feel comfortable and confident in their own skins.
My job is not to be a mother just yet, but to be mindful always that I am setting an example. It is my job to vote, since the women before me have given me the chance to set the standard for those turning eighteen soon. That this is what we do with that sacrifice. My job is to show that women can achieve anything because it doesn’t matter what you choose to do, it proves that it is possible.
Can you imagine, just for a moment, a world in which girls grew up without the preconceived notions of what they could and couldn’t do? How much power would they wield inside themselves if they knew that those of us older girls were trailblazing for them?
My job is not to do any one specific thing, it is not to stay home and raise children. It is to mentor a generation to believe in themselves and to never be afraid to achieve. My job is not to be a housewife, but I do have an obligation to be a partner that isn’t afraid to challenge stereotypes and gender roles in relationships. My job is to love without reservation and to dispel the current fear of powerful and self-assured women.
If I begin to build healthy relationships and eventually a healthy marriage, I get to change the dialogue of how men and women relate to one another. These problems are not out of the millennial reach, ladies and gentlemen, in fact, they are squarely our responsibility. The choices our generation makes going into the next ten years will set the stage for the new normal.
Our younger siblings, children, cousins, and students look at each of us. The relationships that we present to them as normal, that we choose to partake in, will begin to create the next generation’s perception of what’s desirable. I have a huge responsibility to be a wife that continues to challenge traditional gender roles in exchange for a continued desire to find healthy balance.
I don’t have an obligation to be a silent and pretty face, however I do have one to promote a positive body image. This social norm that women should be ashamed of their bodies needs to go. It’s only going to do so however if the millennial women refuse to be defined by society’s body standards. It is our responsibility, and an important one at that, to teach young women that it is possible for a generation to stand up and reject a concept. The way I view my body and myself can have a huge ripple effect.
I will never take my position as a woman for granted, I will never take the power I have over my little slice of society lightly, and I hope that this presidential election reminds each of us that we have a very crucial role to play in the times to come.
