Women's Creativity
On Friday I attended WOW (Women of the World) Festival at London's Southbank. An annual event that hosts workshops and sessions on so many aspects of being a woman as well as the difficulties and prejudices we face.
One of the sessions I attended: The Genius Gap - Women & Creativity, was very compelling and inspiring.
Creativity is how we employ our imagination, make use of inner resources, bring together amazing projects through writing, song, design, dance, music, sewing. The list is endless.
An issue that many of us face is finding the time, or having time amidst EVERYTHING else that we need to still take care of. As a result, we have to work so much harder to be noticed or even try to achieve a semblance of what our male counterparts appear to. Our social system is geared towards male creativity. It doesn't compromise for needing to finish earlier in order to complete the school run. Difficulty in seeing something through due to a child's illness. The list of compromises and choices we have to make are as extensive as those of our creativity.
Is it any wonder that many women don't start to look at their passions until they are much older? A time, when generally, we have fewer constraints placed on us. The only problem being, that we are then overlooked due to our age and we face the inevitable 'invisibility' within society.
It's pretty grim isn't it?
This is why the time is now. If writing is something you've always wanted to do, let's do it. Our creativity is the medicine for our soul, and being that we are generally the primary caregivers too, our medicine is needed in our communities.
Whether it's poetry, a blog, a piece of fiction or memoir, our words are our voices which need to be heard, even if for our ears only.
One of the sessions I attended: The Genius Gap - Women & Creativity, was very compelling and inspiring.
Creativity is how we employ our imagination, make use of inner resources, bring together amazing projects through writing, song, design, dance, music, sewing. The list is endless.
An issue that many of us face is finding the time, or having time amidst EVERYTHING else that we need to still take care of. As a result, we have to work so much harder to be noticed or even try to achieve a semblance of what our male counterparts appear to. Our social system is geared towards male creativity. It doesn't compromise for needing to finish earlier in order to complete the school run. Difficulty in seeing something through due to a child's illness. The list of compromises and choices we have to make are as extensive as those of our creativity.
Is it any wonder that many women don't start to look at their passions until they are much older? A time, when generally, we have fewer constraints placed on us. The only problem being, that we are then overlooked due to our age and we face the inevitable 'invisibility' within society.
It's pretty grim isn't it?
This is why the time is now. If writing is something you've always wanted to do, let's do it. Our creativity is the medicine for our soul, and being that we are generally the primary caregivers too, our medicine is needed in our communities.
Whether it's poetry, a blog, a piece of fiction or memoir, our words are our voices which need to be heard, even if for our ears only.
Photos: WOW London / Southbank March 2017
