According to the Pew Research Center, there are "18 female world leaders, including 12 female heads of government and 11 elected female heads of state." Throw back to when women were not treated as equal humans but as pieces of land: no rights, no voice, just another possession for men to purchase and pride themselves in. It's easy to see how far women have come through years of suffrage and today's modern woman is revolutionizing the idea of gender roles.

Being in my early 20s, I witness people I went to high school with, fellow college students, cousins and relatives, friends old and knew, embarking on new episodes of life: traveling, marriage, moving across the country, getting promoted, having babies, and starting a whole new family of their very own. When you're young, you don't think about the fact that the people you know and love, the family you grew up with, the friends who filled your life with love and memories will slowly drift apart from you in an effort to reach their goals, chase their ambitions, and ultimately shape their own life. Questions about marriage and having my own kids buzz around me. It's a culture we have molded: go to school, get married, have babies. Specifically for women, getting married and having kids is conventional and expected. Pursuing anything else is almost strange or questionable. But why do we hold women to the expectation that their lives should revolve around creating a family—procreation and devotion to child care—and not men? Why are men not raised with the idea that caring for a family should be the focus of their lives? Sure, when expanding a family, women have the upper hand. But instead of thinking of a husband and wife as a team—two people who provide for their family and care for them together—the woman is expected to focus her life around her family, putting her children before anything else; while her husband pursues his career, his ambitions. Why are men not scrutinized when they choose not to have kids, to not revolve themselves around their families?

I want to be clear: this is not to say anything negative about choosing to have kids, devoting yourself to them, and finding fulfillment and happiness in nurturing tiny humans. There are women who are born to be mothers and who are golden examples of what unconditional, selfless love should be like.

This is to address the stigma of not choosing that.

When a woman chooses not to have kids her sense of femininity and even character is questioned. She can quickly be labeled as selfish or accused of not liking kids when the reality is: some women are simply not cut out to be mothers. Even mothers who choose to go back to work are not free of criticism. Just like how not every one can whistle, or how some people don't like sushi, or the fact that not every one excels at math- some women find no desire to partake in motherhood and that is okay. I, for one, am not totally sold on the idea of having kids. Now, I love kids and babies. I am a big sister of 2 brothers and 3 sisters and have spent a majority of my life around tiny humans. What doesn't appeal to me is the idea that another human being will need me for the rest of their life. As of right now, I don't think I'm capable of devoting myself to another human like that. But as I grow and mature, that could change.

But I have other ambitions. I don't plan on just spending the rest of my days watching Netflix and drinking wine. I have my own set of goals, I have my own crazy desires I wish to accomplish. I want to make a different kind of contribution to man kind.

Women are going above and beyond their antiquated expectations while making the ideals of womanhood something of the past. They are becoming world leaders, government officials, fighting for civil and equal rights, discovering scientific breakthroughs; they are changing their communities while exemplifying how basic human rights can benefit all man kind. Instead of attempting to maintain an obsolete custom, let's celebrate the progression we have made as humans.