Last week we discussed how legalistic religious beliefs within the church can stop women from walking in their purpose and fully showing up
Click here if you missed that, sis
This is important because it plays into culture
(which is the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group)
especially in terms of how girls are socialised which, in turn, has knock-on effects on our ability to show up, be visible and therefore make impact as women
For, as one of my favourite authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche said:
“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller, we say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much.’ ‘You should aim to be successful, but not too successful…’”
which is why, according to research, women feel less at ease with promoting themselves than men- which in turn means that they're less likely to do it.
However…
Mahlah and her 4 sisters (Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah) teach us that the best way to overcome this is to: