The Deeper Side of Every Woman's Journey.
This is about the female experience of living in a patriarchal society for hundreds of years. This is not to denigrate men in fact most ordinary men understand women and most men like and care for women. But even when women have legal rights and freedom, many women still live within systems shaped by male power, male expectations and centuries of inequality.
For today's women, this can show up in subtle ways as well as obvious ones. 1) Being taught to please and accommodate others rather than honour their own needs. 2) Feeling responsible for everyone's emotional wellbeing. 3) Being judged more harshly for aging, sexuality, appearance or ambition. 4) Being encouraged to be "nice" rather than powerful or angry. 5) Carrying the majority of caring and "housework" 6) Questioning themselves while men may be encouraged trust their authority. 7) Feeling unsafe because they are women and they are unsafe in so many places. Most women are very wary in unknown areas, with a group of men together or even just one man alone can be fearful to women. 8) Absorbing the belief that their value comes from being attractive, useful, wanted or approved of.
This is one of the deepest effects on women---which is that patriarchy can be internalised and a women may no longer need someone standing over her telling her to be smaller---she may have already learned to do it to her self.She may silence her voice, distrust her wisdom, put everyone else first and feel guilty if she chooses her self. This is why, for many women, awakening isn't simply about blaming men, but it about asking 'Where did I learn that I had to abandon myself?" Perhaps the journey is about coming back to our selves.....coming back to our bodies, our intuition, our voice, our sensuality, our wisdom and our right to take up space,