Women - we are wonderful!

I'm sorry but we women are an incredible species aren't we? Look at what we do and what we have overcome over the years. We have fought battles for women's rights and gained equality in what was a male dominated world. In some countries women are still battling for their rights and to be treated equal to men. We balance our careers with raising our families, I like to think of us as the glue that holds everything together and I don't believe in the question "who is the stronger sex...men or women?" because I believe we are equal. However as a woman the answer has got to be women hasn't it? Although my husband is great at getting the lid off a jar.

But feminism aside I have just finished an inspirational book called "Call of the White - Taking the World to the South Pole" by Felicity Aston. For weeks I've been sneaking off to bed at 9pm to read more about this fascinating adventure to Antarctica. I have always been interested in Antarctica since my Lecturer at University spent a couple of hours showing us slides and talking about her visit to Antarctica and the research that she carried out there, it's a place that I find so fascinating but so far out of my reach. To go there frightens me but exhilarates me at the same time. This book took me closer, I felt like I was there with all of the women. Felicity's adventure started when she decided to put together an all women's team to ski to the South Pole with. Each woman would come from a country within the Commonwealth to form an international team. The team was to be ordinary women who wanted to inspire other people to grab their dreams or better their lives. In the end Felicity sorted through 800 applications, travelling to each of the Commonwealth countries to interview potential team members and narrow it down to  just one woman from each of the following Commonwealth countries India, Jamaica, Brunei, New Zealand, the UK, Singapore and Cyprus. Some of the women who joined the expedition had never experienced or seen snow, some had never been in a tent.

I was in complete awe of all of the women who completed the expedition as well as the women who had the courage to apply in the first place. Felicity inspired me, she fought hard for what she believed in and led these women through one of the toughest journeys in the world not just in their trek to the South Pole but also in their fundraising and gaining sponsorship and support for their expedition, these women worked tirelessly and extremely hard, fighting for what they believed in and wanted to achieve even before they set foot on the ice. Felicity's final words at the end of the book really spoke to me...she wrote that a woman who had climbed Everest came to speak at her school when she was a teenager, the woman had said that she had once been told that there are two paths in life and that taking the harder path would always lead to greater fulfilment. Felicity said that she decided from that moment that she would always seek out the 'hard path.' I haven't trekked across Antarctica but with all the bumps and winding roads in my life I would say that I have chosen the hard path and from thinking about Felicity's words and reading this book I'm glad that I have, some of the things I have encountered in my life I would never have chosen for myself or wished for myself to experience; but having experienced these bumps  I've learned a lot, become wiser and I now know that I am a stronger person than I think. If I had taken the 'easy path' my life would have been boring and I perhaps wouldn't be the person that I am today. Felicity said that the real success of the expedition was the impact that it had on the lives of others, inspiring people to make a decision in their own lives. But what I loved about the book was the determination of the women, their attitude to never giving up and proving that as women we can do anything that we want.

For some of the women on the expedition they were the first women from their country to ski to the South Pole, some of these women are still experiencing male dominance and segregation in their country and are seen as the weaker sex. How incredible must they feel to think back to what they have done and know that they have achieved something so amazing that no other woman in their country has achieved? I know I would feel on top of the world and eager to encourage other women to do the same. Thanks to this book I feel more inspired to know that I can do anything that I want and with sheer determination and willingness I will get to where I want to be...I'll get to my own Antarctica.