being happy with what they are given when they deserve more, so instead, they settle and bear it. Bringing us to the conclusion that women are settling instead of speaking up.
Luckily, there are ways to improve. Taken from mindbodygreen.com, some tips to stop settling for less are to #1 admit to yourself the truth, “take emotional inventory, create accountability, drop the naysayers, [and lastly,] work on your self worth.” (Sam, E. (2014, June 4). 5 Tips to Stop Settling For Less In Life and Love). If women can get into the mindset that they actually deserve more than what they are allowing themselves to gain, then settling and negotiation won’t be a problem anymore. For these reasons, it’s imperative that women become aware and take action of not acceding. But what about the young girls of today?
Not only women, but also young girls, need to take initiative to defend their pride and self worth, which is one huge factor in the world of stepping up for females. As mentioned earlier, women are already underrepresented. So what example does this set for the girls that will one day grow into the women of tomorrow? Here in our own school, we have young girls showing possible signs of lack of confidence but definitely not enough initiative to stand up for themselves. Upon talking to Mr. Stephens, he said that “there were 10 kids who either said they deserved a higher or lower grade than what they actually deserved… Oddly enough, the 5 kids that said they deserved a higher grade were all males [and] the other 5 people who said they deserved a lower grade were all girls when in actuality, they deserved much higher.” (Greg Stephens, personal communication, November, 23, 2016). It’s only high school, and yet these young girls are already not taking a stand for the justice they deserve. Therefore proving that women need to be more confident and take the initiative to stand up for themselves. But like everything else, with some motivation and practice, females of all ages can achieve the skill of taking initiative. According to Handbook of Psychology, Developmental Psychology volume 6, you can take initiative of taking initiative by communicating with others, especially new people, and have a sense of trust in yourself to go and take that first step. (Weiner, I. B., Lerner, R. M., Easterbrooks, M. A., & Mistry, J. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of Psychology (Vol. 6, Developmental Psychology). If women and young girls can learn to take initiative, then it would help not only establish to everyone what their role is, but would also build their confidence as well as make them better negotiators to get what they want. It might seem like a lot, but with practice, initiative can be achieved by girls of all ages. With that, build women up to a standard where they belong.It’ll take a while for something like this to take root and grow. But it is entirely possible that females begin to negotiate, refuse to settle, and defend their position. If the same amount of attention is given to women’s rights as in today’s age and women along with young girls work on increasing their self confidence, then perhaps somewhere in the near future, we’ll be able to tell our women and daughters, “You can be anything you want to be” without hesitation.
somewhere in the near future, we’ll be able to tell our women and daughters, “You can be anything you want to be” without hesitation.
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