{"id":80216,"date":"2025-10-01T14:32:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=80216"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:33:07","slug":"what-do-women-want-nothing-we-arent-entitled-to-and-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/what-do-women-want-nothing-we-arent-entitled-to-and-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do Women Want? Nothing We Aren\u2019t Entitled To \u2013 And Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Vice President Kamala Harris wanted the presidency, and was qualified to take it on. Yet she was denied the opportunity – most women can relate. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> had much to say in \u201c107 Days,\u201d her recently released tell-all tome about her record-breaking campaign for the U.S. presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headlines have poured out regarding its numerous disclosures. What stood out to me, however, was a far less salacious admission than the ones generating buzz: Harris wanted<\/em> this job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she wasn\u2019t shy about it. \u201cI now know that there is only one apprenticeship for President of the United States, and that is being Vice President. I\u2019d been a heartbeat away for three and a half years,\u201d Harris wrote. \u201cI knew the job; I knew I could do it. I wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to do the work<\/em>,\u201d she continued. \u201cI wanted to keep people safe, and help them thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualms<\/a> about her policy stances aside, it\u2019s hard to disagree with the assertion that she was uniquely ready for the role. In addition to shadowing the presidency for years, the former lawyer served first as attorney general, then later senator of the state of California. Besides former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone more prepared for the job than Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet President Donald Trump won. Trump \u2013 who, outside of his first presidential term, brings only a lifetime of questionable real estate dealings, television hosting experiences and numerous allegations and indictments of wrong-doing to the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s maddening \u2013 and for women the world over, exhaustingly familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \"\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n America Claims to Want a Woman President. Just Not That Woman. Or That One. Or\u2026\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

A Problem Top to Bottom<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last month, we asked women<\/a> to tell us (anonymously) about their wants and needs \u2013 and to tell us what\u2019s holding them back from achieving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were inspired to do so by Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts and former tennis superstar Serena Williams, who had both publicly posed the question themselves. \u201cMen are socialized to follow their desires. Women are taught to fulfill their obligations,\u201d Watts noted while promoting her new book, \u201cFired Up.\u201d We couldn\u2019t agree more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we wondered: What are<\/em> women\u2019s desires? And what do they need to get what they want? While many who responded to our callout cited personal goals and desires \u2013 a driven teenager who feels dismissed because of her age, time and time again; a widow drowning under the responsibilities of single working parenthood \u2013 many others spoke of broader, simpler wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things they shouldn\u2019t have to wish for in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do I want? I want freedom. The kind of freedom where I can live fully in my power, on my terms, while creating a generational impact,\u201d one respondent wrote. \u201cWhat do I need to achieve it? I need space. I need support that doesn\u2019t require me to explain my vision ten times over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI yearn for a world where opportunity isn\u2019t reserved for those who fit a narrow mold, but is accessible to anyone with talent and drive, regardless of background, gender or ethnicity,\u201d another said. \u201cI feel disillusioned with the world\u2019s promise of social mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because it\u2019s a broken promise for women in 2025. Mental health struggles<\/a>, thwarted advancement opportunities<\/a>, a persistent pay gap<\/a>, motherhood penalties<\/a> and workplace sexual harassment<\/a> still combine to make advancement into impossibilities within our existing structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third respondent summed up the desire for an easier, more just path. \u201cI think the answer to this question is as simple as it is complex,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want peace\u201d to pursue our desires and dreams \u2013 \u201chow we get it is the hard part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \"Artists-Way-Morning-Pages\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n \u2018The Artist\u2019s Way,\u2019 and the Limitations We Place on Women\u2019s Imaginations\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

What If We Build It?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One woman we spoke with evoked \u201cExit Interview,\u201d a 2023 memoir by former Amazon executive Kristi Coulter. The book details the pressure and burnout that came with being a woman with dreams in an industry that does not support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point, Coulter talks about \u201cfreedom of the truly f*cked\u201d \u2013 or, the liberation that can come from accepting that the status quo does not serve us, in pursuit of finding an alternative. And doing so with utter abandon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our other callout respondents echoed this sentiment. \u201cI have come to realize that I don\u2019t want to be part of a system that doesn\u2019t work for most people, and is especially unkind to women with outdated expectations and narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve seen women reimagine these systems before \u2013 such as women business owners who push back<\/a> against the pressures of capitalism by building companies that defy the economic system\u2019s norms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris herself has the same thoughts. Toward the end of \u201c107 Days,\u201d as she grapples with her loss to Trump, she says, \u201cI wanted a seat at the table. I wanted to make a change from inside the system.\u201d But \u201ctoday, I\u2019m no longer sure about that. Because the system is failing us. At every level \u2026 every single guardrail that is supposed to protect our democracy is buckling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this critical moment, working within the system, by itself, is not proving to be enough,\u201d she continues. Instead, she proposes a return to hearing one another \u2013 in particular, the voices most often silenced by our current systems \u2013 that we might make new plans, build new structures, out of the ideas born of those conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the old ways no longer serve us \u2013 so they, and their proponents, simply must go. ◼️<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \"Rage\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n What 2 Women Learned Breaking Stuff in a Rage Room, As a New Conflict Begins\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women live in a world that isn\u2019t designed to give us what we desire, or what we\u2019ve earned \u2013 and so, we must take it for ourselves, Candice Helfand-Rogers writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":80217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"Former Vice President Kamala Harris wanted the presidency, and was qualified to take it on. 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