It’s hard being a woman they say. You must think like a man, act like a lady, look like a young girl and work like a horse. At least that is what Facebook says. You probably have already seen that meme and maybe have clicked on the like/ love buttons emphatically too (if you are a woman that is!) It really is a tough game out there for us as the pressures that the society puts on women is really not easy to deal with. She has to achieve perfection in so many areas of her life, make countless sacrifices and somehow please everyone while fighting for equality and acceptance too! Read on and you will find a handful of challenges that the modern day woman deals with while she tries to find her place in this crazy world today. 

A Woman Is Expected To Be Beautiful Like Venus 

Oh those perfect beauties who smile at us through our TV screens whenever they get the chance and make us feel ashamed of our bodies over and yet again! “Be ashamed of your stretch marks, the dark circles under your eyes, your weirdly uneven skin tone and that funny looking mop of messiness on the top of your head that you call your hair” they say, and then order us to use what they (apparently) use to magically start appearing like them in a week or two. Because that is how all women should look right? Wrong!

The truth is real women have curves, they all wake up grumpy, with messy hair and when they work hard, those dark circles WILL appear. Everyone has hair growing on their arms and legs (yes even the celebrities!) and every now and then most of us do find a pimple on our faces. We are all human, we are made to be this way. The Photoshopped beauty queens on the magazines will make us believe that we all have to look like plastic dolls, but the truth is women in reality don’t look picture perfect. No, not even the Photoshopped beauty queens on the magazines look picture perfect in real life! So give yourself a break! Tell yourself that the best thing that you can do to make your body look beautiful is to feed it healthy and keep it active. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a crime to look beautiful. It’s just not right to feel ashamed to be in your own skin and then spend endlessly trying to find that elusive perfect beauty that in fact does not even exist. 

A Woman Should Not Be Bossy At Work, Nor Should She Be Meek 

The long and tiring office hours, where we try to balance our budgets as well as the expectations of our skeptical co-workers, are truly quite challenging! If you are a naturally assertive person you will find yourself battling with the egos of many and if you are a sweet, meek lass you will find yourself being exploited by the shrewdness of many. You will be criticized no matter what you do. And as Aristotle so wisely said “there is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing”. Of course Aristotle being Aristotle was probably never criticized for doing nothing. But do nothing and say nothing at office and you will be fired for being incompetent. So choose to be criticized instead by all means! 

Needless to say, managing relationships with your peers, your superiors as well as those who report to you is one of the most crucial factors that will determine how pleasant the eight (or more) hours that you spend at work will become for you. So you can try to be assertive when it comes to work and be warm and friendly when it comes to casual friendships within the office walls. Let people get to know both sides of you. If it doesn’t work, you can just let it all go and let them judge you and criticize you because afterall you are paid to work and meet deadlines and not to keep everyone happy! 

Be The Perfect Housewife 

Yes it's true. Even in this enlightened age that has dawned upon us after years of struggle for equality, society still expects its women to be the perfect housewives! Social media has made it a little more difficult for us as the perfect housewives have to now share their perfect housewife and proud mommy moments with pictures for all to see. Cooking delicious meals is now no longer enough. You have to also ladle it to a nice dish, garnish it with whatever will make it look prettier, (edible or not, it's just for a photo anyway), take a thousand pictures, use a dozen filters and post it on social media and sit and count the likes while the food gets cold. You’ve seen those photos. I have posted one myself! Oh well, it’s all part of our journey now. 

A modern woman has to have the ability to feed her family perfectly balanced meals, raise her kids right so they don’t have a single flaw in their little rambunctious personalities, keep her house spotlessly neat and stunningly decorated (Pinterest will help her), earn enough money to pay all her bills and be starry eyed and merry through all her days as well. 

Deal With The Mommy Wars 

Your Facebook newsfeed will be full of nagging hints by new mommies if you happen to have a few of them as your friends: Nagging hints at other moms who choose to leave their precious babies at home and go to find money and success: Nagging hints at other moms who instead of choosing to fulfill their professions, stay at home and bake cookies and have teas. (Google search for Hillary Clinton’s opinion on baking cookies, if you don’t know what I mean). The truth however is that we all try very hard to do whatever is right for our kids and families and for that we should all be respected. 

No one understands the struggles of a stay at home mother as she sacrifices all her days just to make sure her children are well taken care of. She doesn’t put her feet up and watch TV all day. While you are enjoying your lunch break with your office buddies, she is running behind her toddler trying to get him/ her to eat while her stomach growls and her body aches. While you discuss new ideas for innovations, she is singing nursery rhymes and reading baby books that she has sung and read for the millionth time. 

A stay at home mom does so very much for her kids, so does it give her a right to judge a working mom? Not at all! A working mom is working simply to ensure that her children will enjoy better things in life than she did as a child. She brings in money to the family. Money that will one day pay for the education of her children and will help build a foundation for the ambitious dreams of her offspring. Yes she does get to have some time to be with friends, but she loves her children just as much as the stay at home mom. So she has pictures of her little ones smiling at her, stuck on the walls of her cubicle and she counts the hours left on the clock before she can finally go home to cuddle those little beings that she created. 

No one should be judged for the choices that they make. We all do what we do because of the unique circumstances that we all have to deal with. 

Well most of these battles are all in a day’s work for us women. And we fight through it all. So be confident in your choices, and understand that it’s better to be wise than beautiful and learn art of seeing the funny side of life and we will all be just fine at the end of the day.