For a long time, the perception of women in power has been viewed in different ways and more times than not this perception is tied to cultural views and social norms. Indeed, we cannot disengage from where we are culturally and socially, or detach ourselves permanently, but we can change the narrative, by taking the good out of the cultural backgrounds we all have as women and shedding light on the dark areas that stop us from becoming and living out who we are meant to be.
Being a woman isn’t a cultural marking or status, being a woman is just that, being a woman. The quality of womanhood is not pegged on the status quo but on who we were created to be by God.
Our first identity lies in who God called us to be as His children. The second idea of who we are is that because we are known to be the more delicate gender, it ought not to stop us from doing the tougher, more radical things, to make a change in our societies.
Sometimes I think that our so-called delicate nature is more powerful than we think. Kamala Harris, the first black woman Vice president of America said “There is so much that we still need to do to encourage girls and women at every age to know and internalize their capacity. To not be burdened by other people’s limited views of their capacity based on who has historically done what.”
A lot of the time, when the issue of women and power comes up, we tend to put the subject in the box of the marriage context, but this isn’t fair. Each season and stage in the life of a woman should not change who she is called to be, it can change how she navigates, but the bottom line of her purpose and her strength in that purpose remains.
Pastor Esther Obasi-Ike is an influential woman of God who runs a ministry focused on women’s empowerment. Where she enables them to be enlightened and transformed on a spiritual and emotional level for this to impact what the woman does in the marketplace.
With regards to the issues she sees in her day-to-day interactions with women, she says, “Every woman is seeking a relationship. What matters to every woman in a relationship, is not so much the money. I always tell women, before we pray for John, Peter, and your children I want you to get connected to God because He’s the only one who can sort you out.” Now, when it comes to women and power, the first thing that comes to mind is money. Obasi-Ike says “Most women are devastated because of their lack of economic power. That’s why we teach women how to navigate their way into the marketplace.”
It is important for a woman, and anyone for that matter, to feel empowered in the sense that she can be an impact on those around her, her family, society, and the world at large. A woman’s place is not in the kitchen. A woman’s place is in the kingdom of God. So, whatever the kingdom of God requires her to do that is what she ought to do.
If she is required to submit to her husband that is what she will do. If she is required to make a legislative decision in her place of work, that is what she will do. If she sees an orphan oppressed she will speak in her power to relieve that oppression.
A woman’s place is in the areas she has been called to and is not tied to the career she holds, relationship, or social status, but her place is tied to who she is in the kingdom of God, and the eyes of her heavenly Father.
