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Women: Doing What We Want

By on March 8, 2023

By Jean Janki Samaroo

Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world–to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want. ” ~ Ayn Rand

It was interesting to come across this quote the other day as it wasn’t one that I had heard before. It was in, of all places, a Seniors magazine.  Ayn Rand was a popular author at one time with novels like “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead. She does have a point though. Women especially, have always had a hard time doing what they really want to do. Our societies from the beginning of time have been mainly patriarchal.  We’ve had to unlearn many old concepts and ideas of how a woman is supposed to act and be over many generations.

A principal at one of the schools where I was an employee said in a staff meeting:  “We have to socialize these children.” Believe it or not, I was annoyed when I heard that.  Over the years though, I have come to understand what she meant when she said that. She meant that we must teach them to conform and follow the rules we set here for them so that they can fit into the societies they find themselves in. They must learn to adapt and live in the world with other people. Whether a male or female student, you can’t go to school and do whatever you want.

“Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges. It should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die.” ~ John Taylor Gatto

Doing what we want is, of course, tied to the freedoms we experience in our daily life and our world. It’s something that we’ve struggled to achieve as peoples, nations, cultures, societies, and as women. There was a time when women were not allowed to vote, to work outside the home (resulting in dependency on men), had little education and no reproductive rights at all. That’s naming just a few ways that women had no rights, let alone equal rights. At a women’s Conference in Beijing several years ago, Hillary Clinton said:

“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely–and the right to be heard.”

As women, speaking freely is very important and so is being heard. There were too many years when women were silenced, and our voices not heard.  In 2023, we continue to make huge strides in the different arenas of life – Social, Political, Economic, in the Arts, Sports, Health, Education, and so forth.

How about the freedom to become what we want to become in our lives and to listen to what our heart is calling us to.  What about peace of mind?  Surely, that must be at the top of the list of our wants – peace with ourselves and those around us.  This journey we’re on is an outward journey as well as an inward journey. Even though it takes a special kind of courage to do what we really want, let’s try to listen to the still, small voice within us telling us to do what we really want.  Let’s give ourselves permission to do just that and give our sisters permission to do the same.

Happy International Women’s Day!

 

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Image 2020-12-11 at 11.10 PMJean Janki Samaroo lives in Toronto.  She is the self-published author of two books.  “Late Blooms” is an inspirational book for Senior Citizens and “Making New Friends” is a children’s picture book.  These are both available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/author/jeansamaroo

She enjoys writing and has her own blog called “Late Blooms.” https://late-blooms.jeanjankisamaroo.com/

She studied Library Arts at Ryerson University and is also a certified TESL/TEFL instructor.  Her writing explores many diverse topics.

Feature Slider Image by: Meo

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