What is ‘Feminine Heritage’?
Hi all,
Today’s post is about what ‘feminine heritage’ actually means, and why it’s important. The word ‘heritage’ refers to a collection of traditions and stories passed down through generations. Feminine heritage focuses on the traditions and stories of the women in our lives.
It’s important to bring attention to feminine heritage because ordinary women’s stories can sometimes be undervalued or forgotten about. Our society tends to emphasise the stories of celebrities and successful people, particularly in a patriarchal society where women are often busy looking after everyone around them.
There’s so much we can learn just from the women closest to us. Each and every one of us has a unique story, perspective and skills to share. What’s even more exciting is that we can pass these stories and skills down to our children, allowing us to preserve the knowledge our loved ones gathered during their lifetimes.
Particularly as women, there are a lot of experiences we go through that we benefit from having older women to support and advise us with, for example, menstruation and childbirth. It can be very lonely and isolating going through these things alone with little help, but if we have a wealth of knowledge already available, it can make the process feel less intimidating.
When I was completing the project with my Grandma, something I particularly benefitted from was learning about her friendships. I had always seen her as a very social person and felt inferior because I am more introverted. I felt ashamed about the fact I had less friends and got particularly upset if I grew apart from old friends. From speaking to my Grandma about her friendships throughout her life, I realised that she wasn’t so different from me. She grew apart from a lot of her childhood friends, the only difference was that she got more joy out of talking to new people. This didn’t make either one of us better than the other. It helped me to understand her more and feel less embarrassment about being introverted.
What have you learned from the women in your lives? How have their stories helped you?
Have a great day,
Ellie
