Never Doubt #InternationalWomensDay

zigszagsandpr
Mar 8, 2017
7 min read

So I've spent the day running around my local Slug and Lettuce learning how to make cocktails and serve the food and everything else that goes into learning a new job. However now I'm sat on my sofa contemplating life as a women.

Initially I was going to write about inequality within the PR Industry. Since CIPR started tracking data a few years ago the gap between pay has consistently been around £10,000, with 30% of women in managerial jobs even though they take up around 70% of the industry. However this frankly made me angry and I decided instead to talk about some of my favourite quotes from women.

1) Hillary Clinton

"And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams."

Now politically I cannot say I'm a huge fan of Hillary Clinton, but I do agree that it is about time we got more representation in Politics. Although I hadn't supported her, not that it mattered since I'm British, I was quite excited at the potential of having a female President. Especially to accompany our female Prime Minister. This quotation really spoke to me, I wasn't even supporting her and I was gutted, I really felt for all the girls and women out there who had supported her and who had thought they had a chance at a huge step forward. Hillary Clinton did work to get to where she got, and I really feel like doubt and insecurities are something all girls will face. I feel like being told that you are valuable, you are powerful and you are deserving is important for this day. Especially in a time when everything feels so focused on appearance it's importance to be told that you are worth more.

2) Gloria Steinem

"Though we have the courage to raise our daughters more like our sons, we've rarely had the courage to raise our sons like our daughters."

In the late 60s and early 70s Gloria Steinem became one of the most iconic feminists and nationally recognised for her motions. Coming from a family of two girls and a boy I find it crazy to see the difference between my brother, who grew up close to his sisters, and boys who don't associate with women so much. I mean I haven't seen my brother around girls his own age but I honestly don't see him shying away from tears or being disgusted by periods. So many guys out there are raised completely differently to girls. Over the years feminism have moved women from being seen as something to look pretty, take care of the house and be owned by the man of the house. Now they've pushed their way up, allowed to wear trousers, allowed to work, allowed to play football. But when is it going to be acceptable for boys to be raised like girls? There is nothing wrong with a boy dressing up or playing barbies with his sister.

3) Michelle Obama

"Strong men, men who are truly role models, don't need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful."

Something I always feel that gets missed in feminism, and sometimes by so called feminists themselves which is part of why they earn themselves a bad name, is that feminism is not about dragging men down. It is about equality. Being on the same level. If women dragged men down to beneath them then that completely defeats the point. It is always good to hear positivity from a high profile figure and someone who is so important in herself. I have a lot of respect for Michelle Obama, she could so easily have hung onto Barack's arm and smiled for the camera's but I think she's the best First Lady we've ever had.

4) Malala Yousafzai

"We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back."

Not sure any list would be complete without Malala Yousafzai. The youngest ever nobel prize winner, she really is someone to respect with her talk of rights. My favourite thing about this quote is the use of 'we'. Our roles in life are marked by success, the success which are prioritised by different people but still successes overall. Do an internship, graduate uni, get a job, enjoy my job, get engaged, get promoted etc. etc. Malala is so right, we cannot succeed when we're being held back by the other half of the we. Men need us as much as we need them, it takes both people to get there and it takes both of us to succeed.

5) Naomi Wolf

“For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious – or whatever we please. We are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution.”

I love lipstick. Lipsticks is completely my shopping weakness and I'm often found buying new lippy. Naomi Wolf is an author and journalist. I find her previous activities as political advisor to Al Gore and Bill Clinton most interesting. You may have picked up by now that I believe firmly in women working in politics. The sense of entitlement is the thing I think lots of privileged people have, wether you be privileged by gender, ethnicity, social status etc. Amongst the wave of normal and nice people there is always someone who thinks they're entitled to you. To your body. Entitled to touch you wherever they please. But no that is not what you're entitled too, instead, is lipstick, is free speech, is to act however you please and own that.

6) Virgina Woolf

"I would venture to guess that Anonymous, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman."

Emily, Charlotte and Anne Bronte under Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell. Mary Anne Evans under George Eliot. Louisa May Alcott under A M Barnard. Even in modern day J K Rowling was recommended to use her initials instead of Joanne as to not turn off a young male audience. This alongside the countless and unknown poems and stories written by 'anonymous' who were female is hard to even guess. 'George Eliot' write under the pseudonym to try and step away from the 'silly love stories' written by females so she could then be taken seriously. I love that in this quote it shows how much as changed, for the most part males write just as many 'silly love stories' as women and as a general rule in academia or serious texts women are now allowed to put their own names on - twenty years after J K Rowling was advised otherwise.

7) Sojouner Truth

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”

Now I'm not a religious person but I went to a C of E Religious school where we traipsed in twos down to the local church singing songs with my best mates. I can't even remember being told about Adam and Eve for the first time, but I can remember being a bit miffed that we only existed because God existed first. Partially going back to my last post where I discussed positive and negative press, possibly the only thing worse than having a negative effect is having no effect at all. So yeah, maybe Eve turned the whole world upside down but she did something. And now it's time for us to control back and I agree, the men better step aside.

8) Aung San Suu Kyi

"The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all."

So in the words of Tony Blair, "Education. Education. Education." Not that he did a huge amount for the educational movement but he was on the right lines that it's something important and something to focus on. Education is the key to everything, and yes maybe I sat there in countless maths lessons and science lessons, complaining about how this is so pointless and asking myself when will I ever need to know this? But ultimately it's so important for people to atleast be offered education. Girls are as capable as learning as boys are and it's time that that is fully recognised by the entire world. Globally 65 million girls are not in education. I honestly believe that with more education the world would be such a more peaceful place.

9) Emma Watson

"Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It's about freedom. It's about liberation. It's about equality. I really don't know what my tits have to do with this."

When first accustoming to the idea of feminism I was confused about how I felt about sexualising of women before deciding that it's okay to be sexualised as long as you decide it. If you wanna send nudes because you love your body then go for it but nobody else is allowed to make that decision for you. Emma Watson is right, it is all about choice. You make the choice on what you do. You make the choice on how you dress. You make the choice on how you act. I think that woman can get so brutal towards each other, there is nothing more dangerous than a bitch on the warpath and at some point in their life every girl will be a bitch on the warpath. Being so is not synonymous with being a bad person - and frankly is rude that it's associated with an animal, we are not animals. The reaction to Emma Watson's Vanity Fair shoot was pathetic.

10) Betty Friedan

“No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor."

favourite quote ever. boom bitch.