Like Mother Nature: Women history month
It is summer in the alps of Switzerland; cabins of indigenes and campers overlook the lush green landscape as the waters bellow down the rocks while the waves slice some of the waterfalls into the caves. It is night in the artic, it seems the sun and moon have been replaced with a rainbow glowing globe in the height of the skies and outer space. The northern lights spiral around the earth’s axis, one could think it would be possible to touch it by running to one end. The beauty of the aurora is majestic. In Ireland, it appears the earth cares for the landscape and cliffs in this clime, this terrain is alluring for any visitor, one would probably abandon travelling plans in the face of such untamed beauty. The glaciers of Greenland, the fjord and the strait, to behold this, one would conclude that nature is enthusiastic about her formation. Nature is so independent that it has only grown in its beauty over centuries and millennia, in all this time, its only companion turned enemy has been man. Nature has kept her cool, never increased the heat of her own volition except for the fury in the activities of men. Even when she is deforested, she never gives up, out of her dying ashes, new life is born. She replenishes even with little help.
Does this describe womanhood? You may not think so, but nature agrees, hence, she is called MOTHER NATURE.
Her life is filled with such care, grace, beauty, tenderness and shepherding. Her watchful eyes and skilful hands have kept huge landscapes even in drought, she makes inroads into desert places and turns them into gardens, war-torn lands, ravaged by invaders and filled with the blood of men, yet, the earth strives to revive such lands, her waters have not only cleansed but sustained every lifeform and her fruits have been food and medicine for man and beast. Although she is barely heralded as has often been the case across the millennia, we stand a chance not to repeat such error. This time, not merely with mother nature, but every mother, lady, daughter, and girl-child. A gender so often underappreciated yet the best of us owes our very existence to a woman, whose pangs in birth is only nearly matched by those many years of care and nurturing from the same woman.
This is what womanhood represents to us.
History cannot be silenced over labour discrimination, women were underpaid and prevented from working as the average man could. Politics and governance were like a woman choosing to enter a den of lions, whereas, it was no alien or outsider making all these regulations, but fellow men, husbands of wives, brothers of sisters, and fathers of daughters. If imposed apathy in governance wasn’t enough, then came disenfranchisement, the woman who never cast a vote was being told she could not cast a vote, a franchise that never existed is being revoked. Can we label such oppression? When on the streets of a certain London, pubs and brothels was the best that could be made of the female gender; womanhood was treated with so little dignity, it used to be the exuberance of youth or the inexperience of children that was looked down on, but the world treated womanhood with such scorn. Yet like mother nature, who is rewarded with wars and blood on her lands, this woman has taken the challenge to rise from that discrimination, she has built enterprises and managed them better, she has built homes and communities, she has defied every odd, she has been preacher, CEO, CFO, Entrepreneur, Board of Director, Senator, Prime Minister, General, Vice President and even President. She might have been treated like one next to the earth, but today, she stands in the Zenith of the skies.
While one gender sat dictating the fate of another, we have seen the strength of the woman who has risen above every challenge, who has ground as hard and probably harder than any man could, we have women whose voices not only represent a new dawn, but whose scars show us the journey of womanhood from relatively unknown and ignored to appreciated and honoured. The journey of the woman is one that carves out hope for the female gender, to every young schoolgirl, the woman has become a pillar in society, her voice is now welcome in the palaces, she has not strolled her way to the top, yet, she does not deny the struggles of times past, she is today a bridge and a ladder for many others to make the cut.
So, what do we celebrate?
That woman that has cared like mother nature, just as we have admitted to the struggles of womanhood, we celebrate women who have defied the odds, who have taken that bold step and come out of those cultural and ethnic limitations, women that have redefined the narrative, women that have fought for justice, for equity and equal opportunity. This is no passive woman, this is the woman that knows she can participate and contribute, this is the woman that has brought development, brought order to society, this is the woman whose voice has restored peace and sanity in communities. This same woman has not only birthed children but business, she has run enterprises and has made a name for them, she is bold, courageous and daring. We celebrate this entrepreneur and our commitment is to provide a ready market and platform for ease of doing business for you.
This month we remember the great Women in history, family and career.
Happy Women history month.
