There is this constant bombardment pushing self-doubt and self-loathing and it is undercutting the better half(in most cases) of us. From who we idolize, to what we say, to what we expect personally and professionally from the women in our society.
You aren't good enough
You're too fat
You aren't smart enough
You’re too smart
You’re too fat
Get bigger boobs
Don't only eat salads; look like you only eat salads
Have babies now; what are you waiting for? Never have babies; what are you thinking? Work and have babies; why can't you do both? What's wrong with you?
You're too fat
You’re too emotional-
**We call women emotional like it’s an insult, or a problem, instead of the fundamental backbone that has kept us together as a species. Instead of delving in and finding the root causes of why something makes you feel a certain way; we label, damn, and judge(you're hysterical, you're crazy, you're weak, etc) so that they feel like it's something that needs to be handled instead of processed.
In Marketing and Sales, being able to connect emotionally is the magic bullet. They preach delving deep and finding out what people really want like it's something revolutionary. When really, we are just starting to pay attention to something the women in our lives could have told us long ago.
Not saying that there aren't other micro-demographics that this doesn't happen with- We have an entire generation so focused on putting up a persona that they forget how to just be a person. There isn't an easy fix, this is rooted in our socioeconomic status and has deeply profitable industries behind it (1 in 4 women are on psych meds- business is the best it's ever been).
I can't help but think if our women were raised believing that they are beautiful, intelligent, capable, and accepted as such, how different and farther forward as a society could we be?