What it means to be a Woman in 2021

What makes a woman?

International Women’s Day is as much about celebrating our identities as it is about calling our injustice and bias. These 5 non-exhaustive examples celebrate some of the best things that can make up a woman in 2021.

Women are strong as hell.

Whether it’s throwing around weights in a gym, giving birth, yelling back at catcallers on the street, overcoming trauma or finishing degrees, women hold seemingly infinite degrees of strength – both physically and emotionally. It’s time for the “women are weak” stereotype to be well and truly dead.

A woman is not defined by her genitals or chromosomes.

Trans women are women. Women’s bodies are valid and beautiful in any shape and form.

Women support women.

For some of us, this might mean finally giving up space (and shutting the hell up) to ensure that women who don’t hold the same social privilege that we do are given a fair chance.

Women are leaders.

We stand up for our values, stay true to ourselves and lead by example. A woman’s place is wherever we choose for it to be.

We don’t fit in a box.

Old stereotypes of what makes a woman no longer apply, we’ve accepted that gender is a social construct, and our feminism is intersectional. We’re ignoring the old expectations of what a woman is supposed to be and reflecting on our own personal goals; who we are as women is whoever we want to be.

Written by Shardae Grenfell, AWWA Guest Blogger