Many of the women who come to my office seeking counsel appear broken, with little self-esteem and no avenue of independent financial support. They have become prisoners in their own marriages and don’t know how to change their circumstances, because they no longer have the financial means, let alone the emotional strength, to do so.
Perhaps the saddest part of the situation is that many of these women may never have had to walk into my office in the first place had they kept some small fraction of themselves alive and free.
Many women who have been married for 15, 20, or even 25 years and led the “perfect life” with all the trimmings have inadvertently trapped themselves in situations where divorce is the only escape. The fancy house, expensive designer clothes, luxury automobiles, and seemingly picture-perfect family unit can become a nightmare for a woman who knows that she has no independence or identity of her own anymore.
On the other hand, a woman who knows that she can survive on her own and care for herself and her children, if necessary, feels genuinely empowered. This freedom does not make a woman a bad mother, wife, or community member. It allows her to be the very best that she can be. When a woman feels empowered, life is full of endless possibilities. And the choices she makes come from a place of security, not from a place of fear.
A woman who is empowered does not have to leave her husband, her children, or her life. She does not feel the need to “break out.” She believes that she can do and be anything that she wants. And so she does, and she is.
Un-Packing the Empowered Married Woman… As Told by Leslie
