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March 8, 2017

Warrior Women go to Work.

 

Today is March 8th, International Women’s Day.

It’s also a day on which some women will choose to march and pause their daily business of being employees, multitaskers, business owners, busy parents, and overwhelmed spouses in order to prove a point: This world cannot function without a woman’s touch.

As a woman, I want to tell you why this protest won’t work.

We work all the time, and not just at jobs or in the house or in meetings or at business venues. We work behind the scenes when everyone else has left.

We pick up the pieces of broken hearts and glue them back together, and sometimes, we let the pieces just sit there so that they may inspire us and our loved ones to appreciate our imperfections.

We run our homes and our businesses, creating magic in the background so that everyone will be taken care of.

We propose new ideas and innovations, we feed our intellect and our passion by following our hearts and never backing down from any challenge, we teach our families how to lead with charisma and respect, and we stretch ourselves thin so that everyone has a fair slice.

We hold space for each other, for ourselves, and for this aching world. We cry with our sisters and our brothers, the same brothers who never quite believe we are as strong as we are.

But we forgive. We forgive and we rise each time we fall. We’re writers and artists and mothers and warriors and survivors and victims and refugees, and privileged. We are black, white, brown, heavy, thin, abused, welcomed, loved, hated, disrespected, and adored. We are everything in between the lines of the straight and narrow. We are the soul of the world and its beating heart.

We don’t need a protest to remind our people that we are here. We don’t need a stage on which to proclaim our presence, because, my beautiful woman, that stage has already been set.

When we begin to walk in tune with and stand with pride in who we are as females, we speak volumes—louder than any protest. When we stand up for our gender while still honoring our opposite, we grow taller than anything pushing us down. When we birth our babies and create new life, we regenerate this world 10 times over.

That kind of fierceness needs no introduction. It begs for no protest or justification, and it sure as hell asks for no explanation.

There is nothing stronger than a woman—nothing more capable of love and trust and passion and kindness. It is a privilege to be a woman, to walk in line with women who have come before and who will come to lead, because we are never alone. The spirits of our mothers and grandmothers, aunts and teachers, mentors and gurus help us pave the path forward for our own.

When we are thwarted and overshadowed by our men, we need only remember our innate power and place in this world, because no one can make us feel unworthy without our permission. No one can make us feel like we don’t belong unless we allow them to tell us we don’t belong.

And when we stand tall in our motherhood and womanhood, we’re a force beyond measure that can never be overlooked.

 

 

Author: Aleksandra Slijepcevic

Image: Pixabay

Editor: Callie Rushton

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Aleksandra Slijepcevic