5 Reasons Why Women Will Never Be Taken Seriously

A lot of women don't like me very much. That's just a fact. It's because I speak it as I see it and women don't really like to hear the truth. I mean we say we want to hear it but we really don't. We just want you to agree with us. 

If we don't find ways around these self-sabotaging behaviours, no one will take us seriously: 

1. Women just don't command much respect. We don't really know who we are. We aren't quite convinced that all the things we do are extraordinary because we have been told that that's the life of a woman; you just get on with it. Okay so we are mothers, wives, sisters, and friends. We are the carriers of nations and we can move things around to make it work. Do we even know that? Do we really understand how powerful we are or are we waiting for someone to come around to let us know. Some women wouldn't know an opportunity if it came wearing 'opportunity' branded clothing from head to toe, knocked on their doors and said, 'Hello I'm an opportunity, you should make friends with me you know, I might not come your way again'. Its not because women are stupid, its because we just aren't trained to look. We are trained to sit and wait.

2. Women aren't sure if we want to be weak or strong. Its a constant psychological battle we have when we struggle to find a common ground for all the expectations society places on us. We are brought up to think we should be grateful for whatever we are given, we should only speak when spoken to and never speak when others are speaking. Then all of a sudden we are in a board meeting and we suddenly have to be assertive and be able to make our voices heard. Confusion. We aren't sure what to do because we don't want to be perceived as too forceful or too forward. We still want to look meek and humble enough to be considered 'ladylike'. We forget that our feminine side is our strength not our weakness.

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3. Women don't follow results. We tend to be easily  swayed by thoughts and nuances rather than with facts that face us squarely in the face. While the gift of intuition is ours for the taking, we really don't use it. We would rather go round asking for people's opinions about everything; from buying jeans to getting on a weight loss program. It's almost as if we don't trust our own judgement, like we don't believe we know whats best so we put our decisions on the shoulders of others. It's no wonder a lot of women are living below their potential, they don't even know they have it, they are still waiting for permission!!

4. Women want to play stupid but be called intelligent. I'm not crazy. I know what I am talking about. We want to be seen as the unassuming, quiet but all knowing voice of reason but we don't ever step up to take the initiative. That's asking a bit too much. We know it, and we know we know it, we just don't want anyone else to know we know it. Then we get upset when no one gives us credit for knowing it because they don't know we know it but somehow we think they should just know that we know it. Don't worry if you don't understand it. Neither do women.

5. Women are super critical of other women. We are our own worst enemy. We remove ourselves from business circles, politics and every other relevant area but we still have all this energy that needs to be expended, so we redirect it on each other to try and wrestle superiority one way or the other. Really. Just think about it. Who was it who said your cooking was terrible, you couldn't sweep properly, you weren't up at 4am, you didn't fry the fish evenly on either side, you didn't pick up your children every day of the week, you weren't active in community meetings, you didn't buy a real gold necklace, the shade of red you chose for your association uniform is slightly off, you didn't grow your own vegetables, you didn't use tomatoes fresh from the farms to cook your stew when you knew the 'frying' would kill all the freshness anyway? Its most likely other women, even though we like to tell anyone who is willing to listen that our husbands are the modern day versions of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Leave the men alone!!! Stop and think. Who are you 'really' trying to impress? Your guess is as good as mine.

The idea is not to alienate ourselves from one another but to share experiences and move forward. Let me know some other things women do to shoot themselves in the foot.