The strength of being a woman

Trying to be a man is a waste of a woman,” said Coco Chanel, the legendary French fashion designer and founder of the distinguished Chanel brand. Her words encapsulate the strength of being a woman. It is interesting to note that all accomplished women are those who have grasped the strength of womanhood. The victory of Kamala Harris, the Vice-President-elect, in the recent US election is a testament to this great truth.

As a second-generation immigrant and a daughter of mixed parentage, Kamala could have considered herself to be in a vulnerable situation and settled for a mediocre life. Yet, she grasped the strength of her womanhood and was quick to rise from strength to strength. She never once deliberated on the prejudices attached to her lineage. Rather she was quick to grasp all that she could make of her womanhood. This gave her a glimpse of what she could achieve notwithstanding her circumstances of growing up as a second class citizen. Today, she has made history as the first woman, first black woman, first woman of South Asian descent and first daughter of immigrants ever to be elected to the national office of a large and developed country such as the United States of America. When she takes her seat as the Vice-President of one of the world’s largest democracy in January next year, it will be yet another defining moment of the strength of women.

There is no doubting that the strength of a woman comes from her womanhood. The innate qualities of endurance, empathy, creativity, tolerance, dignity, gentleness, kindness and integrity, among others, that naturally come to women make for their womanhood. These qualities have stood the test of time and won for them the recognition they rightly deserve in the contemporary world.

As C. Joybell C. the author of ‘Sun is snowing’ rightly put it, “The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her; but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes.” Grasping the strength of being a woman has empowered many women, including America’s first Vice-President-elect, Kamala Harris!