March is Women’s History Month, which is a month dedicated to celebrating the legacy and accomplishments of women! At LiveYourDream.org our goal is to promote these achievements whenever and wherever we can. We believe in supporting and empowering women in all kinds of ways, and this month we want to highlight the important issues facing women’s minds, bodies, and hearts.
Minds
Women are brilliant and capable of achieving amazing things. If you need proof, look no further than our Live Your Dream Awards recipients! Lots of these amazing women have gone on to complete higher education degrees, get jobs in a wide array of fields, become teachers, and even start their own businesses and nonprofits. When women put their minds to something, they can make a huge impact.
There are so many women throughout history who have done amazing things. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize twice for her work in science. Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first female programmer and her work in the 1800s paved the way for computers as we know them now. Hypatia was an ancient Greek philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician whose work is still revered. These are just three of the thousands of women who have made a difference in our world.
When women put their minds to something, they can make a huge impact.
Research shows that women are a greatly underutilized resource economically and societally. Many fields of work remain dominated by men, like science, technology, and politics. To end this disparity, we need to start empowering young women and girls!
Encouraging girls in school to pursue the things they love and are skilled at will help them become women who do the same.
Bodies
In spite of all the strides the world has made towards women’s equality, violence against women remains the leading preventable cause of death amongst women worldwide. Women’s bodies are constantly under threat of violence and death.
Encouraging girls in school to pursue the things they love and are skilled at will help them to become women who do the same.
Many of our Live Your Dream Awards recipients are survivors of violence and trauma and understand this crisis firsthand. They turn their surviving into thriving by taking this understanding and using it to change society for the better. Lots of our LYDA recipients become survivor advocates, start wellness practices, and become nurses and doctors. When we empower women it promotes wellness and safety for everyone.
Thanks to the hard work of women throughout history, women have more agency over their bodies than ever before. Because of the suffrage movement, women are no longer considered the property of their husbands and fathers and can own land, get a divorce, vote, and work outside the home.
Women like Margaret Sanger and Katharine Dexter McCormick were pioneers of modern birth control, giving women the power of choice when it comes to their reproductive decisions. Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner and Gertrude Tenderich decided that women deserve to be more comfortable during their periods and they patented and funded sanitary pads and tampons.
Thanks to the hard work of women throughout history, women have more agency over their bodies than ever before.
We’ve come a long way in the fight for women’s bodily rights, but there is still plenty to do. We need to speak up and raise awareness about the issues facing women’s bodies. Advocate for survivors, push for better maternal health outcomes, speak out against the Pink Tax, and vote for representatives who will work towards ending violence against women. There is always something we can do to make this world a better place for women.
Hearts
For far too long, women’s feelings and emotions have been written off as weakness, but the truth is that emotion and passion are strengths no matter what a person’s gender is. It is so important for us to empower women around us, but it is equally important to share that love with ourselves.
There is always something we can do to make this world a better place for women.
Self-empowerment and self-care are important tools that women should be encouraged to utilize. When you take care of yourself and your emotions, you will have that much more to give back to the community.
No one understands this better than women like Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, and bell hooks, three black activists who knew the importance of self-empowerment. Audre Lorde once wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” A woman who prioritizes her feelings, is tackling the patriarchy head-on.
Whether it’s through activism, donating, volunteering, or simply practicing kindness with yourself and the women around you, there are so many ways we can validate the hearts and feelings of women.
Women’s History Month is a time to look back on all the amazing things women have done and how far we’ve come. It’s important to do this not just in a broad sense, but also personally. Turn your attention inward and reflect on everything that brought you here.
We as women are waking up each morning and fighting for our rights in big and small ways. There are so many things that each of us can do to create a world that is more free and equal. This month, let us remember all the incredible things we are capable of and let that inspire us as we propel into the future!
Elizabeth Endara is a writer, advocate, doula, yoga teacher and cat mom based in NYC. She loves Great British Bake-Off, Eastern Europe, snug coffee shops and writing about her feelings. She is the co-founder of a feminist blog called Release the Women and you can follow her work on Instagram @elizabetheendara.