Happy National Women's Confidence Day

What a great idea. I heard about this on the radio last night exactly while I was reading Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Woolf was talking about how women (in the 20s) were overcoming the expectations set upon them over the centuries, how the day to day life of a middle class woman was virtually a mystery up until the 1800s, and how even through the 1800s a gifted woman had to hide her work behind a male pseudonym. I started thinking about the obstacles women face in the 21st century, and hearing about National Women's Confidence Day (NWCD) helped to clear things up.

Women are still trying to prove themselves, yet maintain their identity as women. Any year now I'm going to face the decision to continue working or to stay at home raising kids. I have to seriously consider how my priorities will have to adjust when I have a family. And all along the way, I have to have the confidence to make it all work: to maintain whatever work schedule I'm on, to sell my passion as a viable living, and to be the kind of parent I hope to be. Getting much more into the detail than this begins to make my head spin, and my heartrate quickens. Luckily, because I know millions of women carry this off every day, I feel so much better.

And that's what this day of recognition is all about. Here are the goals of NWCD:

• To remind women everywhere to empower themselves with self confidence every day.
• To create an opportunity for women to help other women live more confident and fulfilling lives via educational programs, fundraising, self-empowerment and volunteer work.
• To tribute women who contribute, via education, fundraising, self-empowerment and volunteer work, to other women helping them to gain more confidence and self esteem.

I'm curious to know how Woolf would update her essay 80 years after she wrote it, and especially to see what criticisms of society she would have now. Surely the volume would triple in length with all that's happened to women since Woolf died. But my question is, would Woolf's tune change from having a room of one's own to having self confidence? Well, as far as fiction is concerned, having a room full of self confidence can't hurt.

Thoughts on the Awards

I've always wondered why the best actress award is given a few awards before the best actor award. What is the hierarchy here? Is it necessarily possible for a male actor to be better than a female actor. Maybe. I can't comment on the performances this year because I didn't see them all. What I'm driving at is: why don't they switch the order up? One year the men go first, and another year the women go first. That sounds fair. However, I don't know if this is an issue to anyone. So maybe we'll keep it the same. Except that the end of the Oscar's always seem so male dominant. The male best actors, the male directors, and the male producers. Too macho for me. I actually sat this year watching the entourage of The Departed settle into their seats, like the real part of the awards ceremony had begun. And where were the women? Clapping.

Also this past week, the people with the $$ at Wimbledon decided that women will be awarded the same prize money as men from here until forever. I think that's great. The men players? Mixed reaction, mostly thinking it's not fair. It's true that the men play up to five sets, while the women are only stretched to three. But the women are not given the option of playing five sets, and I bet that if they were, we would wonder what the fuss was all about. Remember when women weren't allowed to run marathons? Because they were told they didn't have the stamina, that they might not survive. Hogwash.

And now I might add that my opinions are highly effected by my attendance at a predominantly women's college. But it has been freeing. I highly recommend it to everyone, because women aren't so bad after all.