In a world where gender stereotypes are inherently reinforced, when ambitious women are undermined as being radical feminists, and media continues to be the medium through which feminists and anti-feminists wage war, the path toward attaining a successful professional lifestyle as a woman is filled with hurdles. In the end, we must all have the right to achieve what we aspire to become. As a woman who completely and wholeheartedly devotes a majority of time in developing and enhancing her likelihood to achieve her dreams, gender macroaggressions, although minute, definitely do take an immediate toll on how I view myself. Women are expected to be quiet, submissive, and learn to enjoy the small, simple things in life. I need not explain further because I think we all know the way in which women are expected to behave. My personality is the opposite of just that. Although, women have definitely made progress to deviate away from these predetermined characteristics, snide comments, most of the time considered insignificant, are made against women of and who are striving by correlating their strong personality traits as negative and destructive. But, we women need to stick together and push through. There are many women who inspire me to become a face of feminism. A face that women of all backgrounds can look up to as a woman who has achieved not despite the hurdles but because of the hurdles. A woman who has used these barriers as stepping stones to success. However, now I live by the success stories of influential women in our society today until in the future, I can write my own.
“No country can every truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half its citizens” – Michelle Obama
“I feel like young girls are told this whole idea that they have to be this kind of princess and be all delicate and fragile and that’s bullshit.” – Emma Watson
“I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. Bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.” – Amy Poehler
“The old lessons of submissiveness and fragility made us victims. Women are so much more than that. You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist – whatever you want to be – and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.” – Beyonce
“I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside, that there is no shade in that beauty.” – Lupita Nyong’o
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness” – Oprah Winfrey
