When I came to America, I was extremely surprised by the number of women driving cars. In France at that time, a woman behind the wheel of a car was still a rarity… and a curiosity.
Women today are everywhere, drive and fly everything (including large airliners) and nobody raises an eyebrow about this. They have proven time and time again that they can do absolutely everything that a man can do, and that’s that.
And this point was driven home forcefully yesterday when I visited a friend’s home. This woman (recently divorced) used to live in a large, but poorly designed dwelling. While she was married, it looked like she was totally under the sway of her husband and did very little without his consent. But shortly after her divorce, the chrysalis morphed into a butterfly.
That woman rolled up her sleeves and took it upon herself to totally remodel her home, learning every skill as she went along. She tore down walls, redesigned and remodeled the kitchen, moved chandeliers, replastered, and repainted partitions, polished and repainted floors… a spectacular tour-de-force, done almost entirely solo.
Honestly, I don’t think that I could have accomplished all she did… But in fact, anyone can become a true hero.
During World War Two for example, as men were drafted, women were needed to replace them. They took almost every job usually attributed to men and did very well. They were also needed as codebreakers, and they excelled there.
“The work required a strong understanding of math since many ciphers replace letters with numbers and then hide the original message with equations. The codebreakers also needed a good memory, patience, and persistence. The women learned tricks, such as looking for short phrases that sometimes marked the start of the coded notes, like “begin message here.” This would help them pry open the rest of the code—but the work was never easy.”
So, don’t ever underestimate the power of the “little women”. They might be small in stature, but mighty when determined. Personally, I would welcome a woman to lead our nation. She certainly would not do a worse job than a certain has-been, egotistical, unrepentant former head of state.
Alain