what it is to be a woman
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"What does it mean to be a woman?" I was still asking myself after almost 20 years of living the answer. I began to come up with the qualities that describe womanhood until I realized that womanhood is something slightly different for each individual that sets on a quest to define it. The New Webster's Dictionary of the English Language defines woman as "the female of the human race; an adult or grownup female, as distinguished from a man; a female attendant on a person of rank; a female domestic; a mistress or sweetheart; a man having effeminate qualities, as timidity." I think it would be difficult to find an individual in today's society that defines a woman, or any human being for that matter, in such a simplistic fashion. Yet I also think it would be virtually impossible to find two individuals who define a woman using the same words, for our definitions of a woman, or womanhood, are unique and personal to us as individuals. Even with this realization that womanhood is defined differently by different individuals, I was still curious to conclude, for myself, what womanhood is--What it means to be a woman.
For me, defining womanhood is no easy task, for the richness of the female spirit can never be fully captured. Womanhood, above all else, is being graced with the ability to give birth to new life. Womanhood means being courageous, tenacious, resilient and independent...