Recently, I saw this article on Elite Daily called "We Should Praise a Women's Professional Life as Much as Her Romantic One." The article was insightful, well written and something that I couldn't agree more on. If you want the Sparknotes version of the article, pretty much it's an intelligent young woman's views on how weddings are more celebrated than a woman's professional accomplishments.
I've personally noticed this especially on social media. I can even give you a personal example of this, if you all are curious. A few weeks ago, thanks to my job at the Hamden Journal, I got the opportunity to get backstage access to my town's Kansas concert. This opportunity included getting a chance to interview a band member, as well as other members of the Kansas team. Needless to say, I shared the experience on social media. I expected to be rolling in the likes, however, I was disappointed to see I had only received a few. It was then I realized if the post had been about getting into a new relationship, or about celebrating a relationship milestone, I would have received three or four times the amount of praise on social media.
This is sad in my opinion. I have friends that are in relationships. Some believe they have found "the one" while others still aren't sure. I've noticed that whenever they post things, on Instagram or Facebook they are basically raking in the likes. As much as I like to see a cute couple, shouldn't we also work on focusing on a woman's professional accomplishments?
At 21, I would say that I'm working harder than ever to get as much journalism experience as I can. I scored a job as a freelancer for the Hamden Journal, a Style Guru for College Fashionista and of course I have a blog with about 29,000 views. However, I still don't have much of a romantic life, nor do I have a significant other to brag about on social media. Furthermore, as my list of accomplishments gets longer and longer, there's one thing that still remains to be a void in my life. The fact that I don't have a partner or boyfriend.
My question here is why do we feel like we need to have a boyfriend or partner in order to feel like we're something in life. Is it what we are programmed to think? It sucks that women aren't considered successful unless they have a relationship and a man to come home to. It's 2015, not 1955. Women are lady bosses and women have done big things. It shouldn't matter nor should they feel like they are incomplete unless they have a partner.
I think we should celebrate and 'like' all accomplishments whether it's a new boyfriend, a promotion or writing the front page story in a paper. There's more to life than having a boyfriend. I just wish that the rest of society viewed cute couples the same as success.
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