I don’t know if we’re still angrily punishing Eve for the apple, but at some point we found it sport to demolish other women. Other sisters.

For jobs, for men. For other women. For parking spots and promotions and affection and attention. Likes on Social Media. For the sake of cattiness. We became bitches to one another, and I can’t figure out where we gave ourselves permission to do that.

Men take charge in the boardroom? They’re assertive. Women, on the other, hand, are seen as bossy, dramatic; hormonal even.

And is it men who are tossing around these nattering know-hows about women and their personalities? A lot of time, it’s the women. The gals that love us to our faces, and steal our crowns when our backs are turned. Who won’t tell you about your tag sticking out of your dress, or your hair being flipped in the wrong direction. Who won’t give you the head’s up that you still have a bit of lunch on your face.

Or worse yet – won’t tell you when an opportunity looms. Or when your boyfriend is cheating. Whatever it takes to keep you either down a peg, or at the very least, on the same level because heaven forbid one woman give another woman the proper carry forward to the next chance at success.

We can do better. I helped a Mama of two little boys take her shopping cart back at the store. That was doing better. I have a new female co-worker who literally bosses up, and she’s slaying, and I feel nothing but pride that she’s joined our little team. Because she’s incredible.

I started a Twitter chain, encouraging women in my industry to shout-out to one another. The thread is awe-inspiring.

But we can do more.

We can stop shaming other Moms.

We can stop pointing fingers at other female co-workers.

We can stop being jealous, and instead revel in the wonderment and beauty and creativity that women have bestowed inside their smallest of finger nails to the tiny fibres of hair follicles. Women are embodiments of all that is right, and good, and keeping another woman from finding her full potential in a world driven by men is simply a disservice to being a woman.

Women are anomalies. We’re magicians and goddesses and wizards. Women can change their faces, and their hair on a whim. One day, we’re blonde and flirty. Tomorrow, we’re dark-haired and mysterious. Some days, we’re stripped down to our bikinis on beaches, and other days we’re humbly snuggled down in your warmest pajama pants, hunkered deep in the blankets of your arms.

We are beautiful, and funny, and smart, and witty. We are creatures of complexity, and the makers of humans. We are what you name your cars for, your weathers for, your boats for. We are women. And as we get into formation, the disparity between the sexes closes.

Your wife, your mother, your sister, your Aunt – your daughter. The women who made you, raised you, celebrated you and phased you into the next chapters of your life- these women are the women who are fighting over careers, and Instagram likes. They’re altering their person to better suit the man you are – the man they designed, brought up and championed. You’re tasked with one thing – be better, so they can, too.

So we can, too.

So we can be better.

So we can stop stealing one another’s men. And one another’s chances. One another’s opportunities. One another’s shine. One another’s crown.

Smile, ladies. And raise up the woman next to you. You have the innate chance to mold her into the next success.

— c ☆