Ever since my childhood, my mother used to share with me life stories of women who stood out in their field and achieved, which made me wonder, what makes women powerful?
As I grew up, I found my answers in the women I saw in various categories of my life.
The recently announced Padma Shri awards made this thought resurface again as awe and inspiration filled me to the core looking at the women achievers.
Like a bouquet of fresh flowers spreading its fragrance, these women are the inspiration and pride for humanity.
Despite age and other differences and disadvantages, they tirelessly contribute to the cause they believe in and create growth in varied spheres of life.
This pulls me back to the quote I read recently by Diane Mariechild,
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.”
Though this quote means great things, often to the untrained, inequality towards women mind, it might sound like this – Make a family, give birth, nurture it and see it grow.
But let me tell you my friend, the winds have changed. We, the womanhood who have been looked down upon and used for the selfishness of this society, have emerged out like lightning bolts on a grey sky.
We possess the power to create, nurture and transform visions, projects, communities and global solutions.
So, what makes women powerful to do this? To create, nurture and transform.
7 Roaring Qualities about Women that make Her Powerful to Create, Nurture and Transform
We seek the answers from archives of the powerful past, the modern day developments and uproar to the futuristic visions we envision.
As the feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun defined it,
“Power is the ability to take one’s place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one’s part matter.”
And women have always had that ability to have her own place in the folds of history from family to ruling an empire.
Coming back to the modern day reality, what makes a woman powerful in itself is a very electric question we should ask ourselves and our fellow women.
1. The Key is Self-Awareness
“What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.”
These precious words of Helen Keller are our first clue to understand what makes women powerful.
One common trait seen in most successful women is that, they know who they are, they are completely aware of themselves, their personality, strength and weakness.
This pumps up confidence and boosts self-esteem. It makes you ready to face anything.
Sharing a part of poem I wrote under women rising,
“Women, you are the fire you are waiting for. Look inside the universe within you, become one with it and let it run wild like the tough streams.”
2. Self-Respect and Acceptance builds the Base to Create, Nurture and Transform
Across the internet we come across stories of nervous teenage girls and women of different colors and shapes being trolled for the way they look and act.
Millions of women are still sucked into the sinkholes of embarrassment while the beauty market makes a fortune out of their fears.
How many times have we read, waxing makes you feel confident in beauty ads?
But powerful women never buy these stories, they out rightly know who they are and what they are worth. They accept themselves and validate their self-esteem.
The power to create something starts from here.
This reminds me of “The Phenomenal Woman” by the most powerful Maya Angelou.
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies…
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
3. The Suppression Lit Us Up
“There is no force more powerful than a women determined to rise.”
Do you have memories of great women’s movements or even incidents from your own life when you had to be a fighter? If yes, embrace it unapologetically.
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- Women have been held under control of men and other people in the family, in workspace and in educational institutions.
- This constant suppression does not let us feel down but it lights up a revolution because, what makes a woman powerful is her fighter sense.
- From the women takeover March in 1942, 2004 – March for women’s lives, 2017 women’s march to the recent movement to legalise birth controls women have always rose against the suppression.
4. The Ability to Imagine, Dream and Believe in a Better Future
Women are naturally great visionaries. They foresee what is required and what is to be done.
We have so many examples of women who dreamt of a better world and made it a reality.
One of the greatest examples we have among us today is Malala Yousafzai, an ordinary girl with extraordinary courage to stand up for the right to education of hers and millions of girl children.
Her vision is beautifully benefitting so many girl children today and helps them let up their own lives.
One of the lesser-known facts about women is that over the years they have invented and patented so many things from dishwashers, electrical refrigerators to the computer code language, COBOL.
5. The Hunger for Growth over the Hunger for Power
The extraordinary women who choose the common good over power are some of the most powerful women in the globe till date.
The world’s most famous woman physicist, Marie Curie spent her life helping mankind by her inventions (Radium, Polonium) in science. She died from long exposure to radium.
The Nobel Prize institute when remembering her recently shared that, the diary she used to note down her ideas is still radioactive and would be so for the next 1500 years!
Powerful women choose growth and thus have the strong urge to create, nurture and transform.
6. What Makes Women Powerful – The Influence She has on Others
Influence is a strong word. It could be both good and bad but throughout the history, we can see so many examples of women where they influence the political and development scene just by being in the background.
Do you know why the patriarchy system came into existence?
Because men know that women have tremendous capacity and can outshadow them. Thus we have been kept captive in the name of family and traditions.
But powerful women break out of these, they take charge and make sure the influence they have on others is used to the best advantage.
“I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. Love and Kindness takes the Center Stage
It is said that women are emotionally weak and they tend to be so emotional but what the society fails to see here, women are not emotionally weak but their Emotional Intelligence (EI) is way higher.
A true example of Love and Kind powerful women –
Love and kindness flowing from women helps to create, nurture and transform. One such love that changed the world is St. Mother Teresa.
A humble nun living in the streets of Kolkata dedicated her life to serve the poor, sick and homeless. She met with umpteen amounts of humiliation and neglect but the love stayed strong.
Today that love has created a safe haven for so many souls, helps people to nurture and transform lives.
Here’s a very interesting article on women and power through the lens of history.
All of Us are Powerful to Create, Nurture and Transform
There are millions of women across the globe standing up for what is theirs, doing things that matter to humanity, singing songs of love that touch souls and stay invisible. All of them are powerful, all of us are powerful.
This is what makes us powerful, the ability to stand up, go beyond the borders, fight like a warrior, sacrifice in silence yet voicing out like the roar of a lion.
The list goes on and on but the answer to what makes women powerful lies within YOU, only YOU.
Can you relate to this electric buzz that runs in our blood?
Did the article inspire or move you to realise or celebrate the power you possess within you or in the fellow women you know?
Tell us in the comments below, we would love to be inspired by you.
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