Celebrating the Privilege of being a Woman...and a book worth reading

International Woman's Day is a day where we celebrate being a woman. I want to truly celebrate being a woman, I want to celebrate having the privilege being born a woman and not feeling the need to achieve equality to man.   

Webster’s Dictionary defines  privilege

Privilege:  1  a right, advantage, favor, or immunity specially granted to one, esp. a right held by a certain individual, group, class and withheld from certain others or all others.  

The advantage of being privileged is that I do not have to work to achieve womanhood.  Webster’s Dictionary defines achieve as;

Achieve:  To do,  succeed in doing,  2  to get or reach by excursion; attain….

So, I don't have to reach by exertion to be a woman, I don't have to succeed at being a woman, I AM a woman. I have enjoyed and suffered womanhood without having to work hard at attaining equality to women.   My desire is not to be like a man, that's not a privilege that's an achievement and it's an achievement that you have to work extremely hard for and I’m not sure that the payoffs are so great at the end.   The privilege of being a woman comes with a price, sure, it comes with a responsibility of my striving to be the best woman I can possibly be

Celebrating being a woman today, and every day, to me and in God's eyes, is celebrating my womanhood, my motherhood my being a wife and my relationship with my husband, a daughter with my parents, the feminine genius that I have been gifted with and my appreciation for the role I play in life without having to be equal to a man.

No man could do what I've done in my life, no man could match what is inside of me, the depths of my heart, no man could possibly run the marathons I have run, the nights of sleeplessness, the nights of worry, the nights of prayer for the children and my husband. No male counterpart holds the same degree of  passion for those in my care. 

The privilege of being a woman is indeed a free given gift, a birthright to be part of and to appreciate not to reinvent or change.   I don't envy man and I don't envy being a male.  I don't envy or desire to be a man or do what men do.   I don't want to be a Boy Scout, I don't need to be the president the United States, or be a priest to influence and nurture those around me.  I don't want to be a  father, those are roles for men.

It is a proven fact that children raised by both their mother and father excel in life far better than their counterparts from single parent homes.   Those with fathers who take them to church continue to be members of a church community as adults.   I have never tried to be a father, I've always been mom.   I don't know what it's like to be a man, to be inside a man’s head, think the way a man thinks.   I don't know what that's like and it is not for me to know! What it is for me to know about man is that man needs to be loved by a woman, be supported by a woman, be nurtured and cared for as a human being.  He needs woman to walk along side with; but not overtaken by or ruled over, but a community of love and concern and family

The privilege of being a woman that I am celebrating, is my place in the world as a woman.  This is what I think today is all about, but the modern women of feminism have truly lost their grip on their purpose.  They have turned away from the silent power of womanhood and transferred it to the achievement to being equal to man, of beating man, overwhelming man, exceeding man thus being as good as man.  With this as the new goal, modern feminists are relinquishing the power and the privilege that is their God-given gift so needed in the world today.  Theirs is a useless game  that proves nothing but robs woman of her true role and worth in the world.   GK Chesterton said and I quote “Cleverness shall be left for men and wisdom for women.”  from his book "What is wrong with the world" pg 144.  Being a woman means being part of man; it means being with man, alongside man, helping man, partnering with man; but not being man nor is it being equal to man. 

The Privilege of being Woman needs to be revisited by the modern feminist with open eyes and an open heart.  Her power is within her and it needs not be belittled or ignored, or even made base against the role of the male.  Her feminine genius surpasses all understand at times and can save the world when called upon.