Women and Adversity Blog: 2021
Along with all the people in countries around the world, U.S. residents are happy to leave 2020 behind and look forward to a prosperous, healthy 2021.
What will my blog contain in 2021? Much of what I’ve been proclaiming since I started writing Women and Adversity in January 2014. I’m going to highlight women I feature in my 2020 ebooks: Honoring 23 Black Women, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers, and Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists. Some are historical figures while others are living their dreams or pursuing their dreams. I will also continue to contact women writers so they can offer encouragement, information and recommendations to other women writers, especially those who are struggling to start or complete their stories and novels.
People have asked me why I chose the word “adversity” to identify my blog instead of “obstacles.”
There is a big difference. Adversity is a calamity or disaster such as what happened to Helen Keller. Struck with an undetermined illness when she was just 19 months old, Keller was left blind and deaf for the rest of her life.
Obstacles are hardships or obstructions. Keller had innumerable obstacles she overcame, such as how to read and hear. Anne Sullivan helped her overcome those obstacles, which shows that people need other people, especially when roadblocks hinder their progress. Keller went on to graduate cum laude from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA. She wrote books and was known worldwide for advocating for the blind, deaf and disadvantaged. She died at the age of 87.
Adversity doesn’t have to be as severe as Keller’s. Having the free lunch at school be the only food eaten all day, not having warm clothing during snowy winters, and being physically or sexually abused growing up are adverse conditions. However, women, all people, do overcome these adversities.
All of us face obstacles. The woman who wants to go to college but has no money to attend may choose to work and save money and overcome that obstacle. The single mother who has to work and care for her children may call on family or friends to help with the children.
This blog is meant to encourage women to overcome what is standing in their way so they can achieve their dreams.
More information
www.livingmagazine.net/women-of-adversity
www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2019/03/08/6-power-women-on-overcoming-adversity/?sh=26aa13555611
www.shethepeople.tv/top-stories/issues/gender-adversity-women-thrive-in-the-face-of-adversity