Keeping hope and union in the midst of chaos
By Ana Rafaela Proaño Calderon,
Girl Rising Fellow, Ecuador
A universal experience many women share from their childhood is not being allowed to carry something heavy because they’ve been told that “only boys can do it”. Unfortunately, this isn’t an innocent commentary, but a reflection of how society thinks of women: whether it is that we are not “strong” or “perceptive” enough to know how to do a simple thing such as carrying a heavy object. Therefore, globally, girls’ and young women’s projects, future plans, and ambitions have been undermined due to the limited idea of what being a woman means, which has been internalized and taught similarly in many cultures.
When I was younger, I wasn’t conscious about gender inequality, especially because I had the privilege (which shouldn’t be) to enjoy my childhood in an environment where my gender didn’t define my abilities. Nevertheless, as years passed and I grew up, I started to identify and experience the disparities the world has been built upon.
For this reason, during the pandemic, I decided to build, little by little, a small business which contributes to social causes with a percentage of the purchases made and is called Yanapay, a word that means “support” in the ancestral language Quechua. Until now, I have been able to distribute the help to a family in need that had to survive on handouts while caring for two disabled family members and the victims of an oil spill in my home country, Ecuador. The path hasn’t been easy because, as a small business owner, you assume various roles (marketing manager, accountant, operations executive, etc) and you depend on external factors, but I was able to be part of a network of young female entrepreneurs who motivated me to continue this journey.
With this, I want to go back to the start and explain that even though various cultures have
tried to define women and put them in a suffocating box made of stereotypes and “traditions”
based on their sex and gender, girls from every corner of the world will continue to think out
innovative projects and have multiple dreams for the way they want to live their lives to the
fullest. Consequently, just like our ancestors did, women will continue to fight in order to
participate in public life and have an equal vote to achieve their life goals, despite the efforts
made to contaminate our minds through “tradwife” and “incel” content on social media.
I came to this realization not only due to my personal experiences and the knowledge I’ve
obtained through books and education, but also thanks to the Girl Rising Fellowship and the
She’s The First Spanish-speaking Advisory Council, which this year merged into Girl Rising
and includes girls who unfairly face language barriers. These programs have helped me gain
various skills in advocacy and meet girls belonging to communities from all around the world
and diverse parts of Ecuador, who have become great allies when I have felt that my desire for
better treatment towards women was “pointless” or “absurd”. Thereupon, the work done by
civil society organizations like Girl Rising is extremely important for the girls who feel as if
their ideas will never bloom because of the socioeconomic and political context that controls
every single aspect of their lives and over which they have no control.
To conclude, girls and women of all ages are unfortunately bonded by the violence they
endured as a result of society’s patriarchal perception of them; nonetheless, our initiatives,
ambitions and life projects have historically impelled us to continue demanding our right to
have a say in the decisions that concern our integrity. Thus, our fight starts in acknowledging
that we truly are not alone in our indignation and exasperation, and that we need to keep the
hope of one day being able to exist in a world in which we will all decide freely and thrive
with no obstacles influenced by our gender, language, socioeconomic status, race, nationality,
sexual orientation or any characteristic of our identity that makes us us.
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