The issue at the core of women’s empowerment is the mother wound
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| The pain of being a woman |
Difficulty and challenges between mothers and daughters are rampant and widespread but not openly spoken about. The taboo about speaking about the pain of the mother wound is what keeps it in place and keeps it hidden in shadow, festering and out of view.
What exactly is the mother wound?
The mother wound is the pain of being a woman passed down through generations of women in patriarchal cultures. And it includes the dysfunctional coping mechanisms that are used to process that pain.The mother wound includes the pain of:
- Comparison: not feeling good enough
- Shame: consistent background sense that there is something wrong with you
- Attenuation: Feeling you must remain small in order to be loved
- Persistent sense of guilt for wanting more than you currently have
- Not being your full self because you don’t want to threaten others
- Having a high tolerance for poor treatment from others
- Emotional care-taking
- Feeling competitive with other women
- Self-sabotage
- Being overly rigid and dominating
- Conditions such as eating disorders, depression and addictions
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| Not being your full self |
In our patriarchal, male-dominated culture women are conditioned to think of themselves as “less-than” and not deserving or worthy. This feeling of “less-than” has been internalized and passed down through countless generations of women.
