Jul 27, 2026
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Rooms
When certain parts of life need more attention.
The Library
Curated and Member-authored articles.
Speaker Series
Expert talks and Member POVs.
My culture isn’t afraid to tell you you’re getting fat, it voices loud and frequent concern about your unmarried status, and it stares at you in confusion when you tell them your child picked a career outside the 5 ‘stable’ and well-paid professions. So, I’ve been raised to have a voice (on less petty things, thankfully). It’s been a huge learning curve to understand when, on what and with whom I should share my opinion because not every woman wants to hear it. They weren’t raised to express themselves, they were just making conversation or real opinions make them uncomfortable. It’s maddening because women have fought (and fight) to have a voice only to have other women consider it a faux pas.
I think, for some women, it’s envy, hurt or jealousy. I say that because I used to get so angry at my daughter sometimes. She’s 27 and it’s a complete full circle. I was very intentional when raising her to use her voice in defense of self and others, to use her voice because her mind has equally important information to share, to use her voice when she is passionate about something. She did JUST THAT. How rude! Haha! She doesn’t conform, she doesn’t shrink and she doesn’t puff up. She just conducts herself in a fully authentic and honest way, fully unapologetically her. My proudest accomplishment as her mom. But it also angers me and that anger signifies so much more than anger. Its hurt. Not at her, but she brings it out. Hurt that we were not taught our value as women standing on our own. Hurt that our value only existed in the orbit of a man or kids. It allowed us to be overlooked and in a lot of cases, un-protected. And I envy she got me as a mom. I’ve always wanted someone like me in my life, so I could become her.