Thank God I'm a Woman

​One of the things that has -  surprisingly - happened since I starting blogging is that it has made me more interested in the lives of the women around me. I have also become excited about the prospect of meeting more women, learning more about them and from them, and celebrating how similar we all are to each other, as well as how different we all are from each other.

However, there are two things that we do that really get to me:
1. Comparing ourselves to men (saying things like, "Anything a man can do a woman can do better - or just as well"), and
2. Comparing ourselves to each other.

Let me start by saying that I believe that men and women are equal, and I don't support the unequal treatment of either women or men; I also believe that there are quite a large number of things that both men and women can do equally well. ​The problem arises when we compare ourselves to men, because we mainly focus on the ways that we're similar to them just to prove a point which, in turn, may cause us to overlook and undervalue the ways in which we are different from them.That's more or less the same problem I have with number two...

It's normal for a woman to compare herself to another woman - either because she feels superior to or inferior to her. Sometimes we do it even without realizing it. We find ourselves analyzing the women around us - be it the woman standing in front of you in a queue at the supermarket or the woman sitting next to you at the hair salon - and we mentally decide whether they measure up to our standards or not.

When we compare ourselves to other people, we lose such a big part of ourselves. And that, in my opinion, is such a waste of who we are!
​
I have compared myself to other women many times, and I always ended up feeling worse about myself afterwards. However, that didn't stop me from doing it. It was in the midst of all these comparisons, however,  that I had my "Aha!" moment. 😃
I came across a woman who I really admired, and in the process of trying to emulate her, I ended up finding out new things about myself that I liked. And through that I finally realized something: I didn't want to become like anyone else because I actually really liked who I was.

​From then onwards, whenever I came across a woman who I felt was doing better than me in a certain area of my life I'd take it as a challenge, and I'd ask myself what it was that I wanted to change about that area of my life.
Most importantly, I'd see her as an inspiration, and think to myself, "If she could do it, then so can I!"
I believe that this was the turning point in my relationship with other women, because it was then that I started to love and appreciate myself for who I am; and in turn, I started to love and appreciate other women for who they are, too. I started to value how different women are from each other, because I learnt through experience how our differences have the potential to make us stronger. 
And it was then that I also decided that I would like to do my bit to change how we women see ourselves. 

Women, my request to you today is that you'll learn to value being a woman, learn to appreciate yourself and the women around you, and learn to see your differences from other women and men as the most beautiful parts of you - because they are.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with having the ability to do anything as well as a man can, but please don't try to be so much like him that you lose yourself in the process.

And once you embrace who you truly are, I promise you, your whole outlook on life is going to change for the better. 😉😊

- ✗O✗O.