WOMAN, INDEPENDENCE AND WELL-BEING

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02.12.2010

Excitement, passion and emotion that first glimpse what new perspectives offer, but what happens to the feelings after this magical phase?

Normally the adaptation process in a culture different from ours can be seen as a "U", the first point from above is the euphoria of the new that then goes down reaching the curve below, this would represent the moments of doubt, disillusionment, loneliness and even giving up, going up again to the other end, which would already be the most stable phase of adaptation, where we can already recognize ourselves in the stranger and walk alone.  

I would like to draw attention here to the professional issue of women who migrate and to how important having a professional career is for their autonomy, identity and well-being wherever they are.

In our society, we define ourselves not only, but largely through our profession, which, in addition to locating and identifying us socially, brings us a feeling of being in the world, contributing something to someone and especially being full, occupying ourselves and being completing by exercising the chosen activity. Our work and the responsibility we take for it, also brings the desire to improve, do well, learn more and consequently expand and evolve as a person.

The woman who migrates is, for a number of reasons, more subject to withdrawal from her professional life, the time it takes to be fluent in a foreign language, non-recognition of diplomas abroad and often even the lack of support from her partner, even reaching to a subtle restraint, they are just a few reasons that end up undermining her self-confidence and making the woman postpone for a date that she does not know the beginning or the restart of her career abroad.

If we look to the past, we can see that Brazilian culture has always taught that women had to obey and sacrifice themselves for the other. Always placed in the background, we can see this in the course of Brazilian history, an example is the institution of the female vote that came decades later in Brazil than in the rest of the world, as well as its access to universities and, consequently, its emancipation.

Not to mention that the role of women in colonial Brazil was restricted to the organization of the home and procreation, the appropriate woman was the one with attributes such as ingenuity, purity and subordination, she was seen as an object for sex, but without sexuality.

Unintentionally and due to certain difficult circumstances that can only be momentary, we women end up reproducing some remnants of our history, putting us in a place that hasn't belonged to us for a long time.  

Subjugating yourself in all degrees and clothes is not healthy, on the contrary, it is a cut of creativity, talents and the essence of the feminine and the human, we must fearlessly show ourselves entirely who we are, as a woman as well as a person with dreams, anxieties, fears, doubts, strengths and weaknesses.

Being clear about what you really want to do and persisting in your individual purposes works as a great guide not to submit to sad situations that, in fact, in many cases it is not necessary to submit.

The exercise of self-reflection and self-questioning allows us to look at ourselves, to investigate what we want and what makes us genuinely happy and then tread the path with more confidence and less deviations and distractions, never giving up on who we really are and what we are capable of. 

                  "As a woman I don't have a country. As a woman, my country  is the whole world."

Virginia Wolf

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Author: Andreia Hollenstein

CRP: 05/36484  

Clinical Psychologist & Psychoanalysis