A Woman Should Have

Ambersky

Came across this poem online and think its just lovely.
Its a great list but does anyone else have anything they think could be added.
What do you think a woman should have or know.

A Woman Should Have
by Pamela Redmond Satran

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

something perfect to wear if the employer, or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

a youth she’s content to leave behind….

a past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to
retelling it in her old age….

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …..

a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .

one friend who always makes her laugh… and one who lets her cry…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….

a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …

eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal, that will make her guests feel honored…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …

a feeling of control over her destiny.

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

how to fall in love without losing herself.

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

how to quit a job, break up with a lover, and confront a friend without ruining the friendship…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

that she can’t change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

that her childhood may not have been perfect…but its over…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

how to live alone… even if she doesn’t like it…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW..

whom she can trust,
whom she can’t,
and why she shouldn’t take it personally…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

where to go…
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table…
or a charming inn in the woods…
when her soul needs soothing…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

what she can and can’t accomplish in a day…
a month…and a year…

sam34

I see no reason why that shouldn't be called everyone should have - apart from the black lace bra ( tho maybe not...)

SheRa

I have to say I hate chain emails that do the rounds with text similar to the poem. They pretend to be about female empowerment but usually end up being a list of what women should have or must do.

If I decide not to have a set of screwdrivers or a cordless drill, thats my choice*.


*I actually have both and they are very useful, but thats not the point:).

...a bucket to throw up in nearby when forwarded these emails

Eve_Dublin

Ugh! I hate those things. Makes me cringe. Who thinks they have a the right to dictate what I should and should't have? I should KNOW how to live alone...what like NOT burn the house down around me? I could go on...whatever your into I suppose...

tempura

As usual ! supposed to know everything !

I can't stand poems like that, is it just me ?

KittyeeTrix

Am I sad/weird in that I don't mind it:eek::p

Ambersky

I can understand some of the reactions to the poem I put up.
I know I have cringed at text messages and e-mails about angels and strong women especially if they came with a request to forward them onto six others or something bad or good would happen.
However I did not come across the poem in an e-mail or as a chain mail nor was it spam.
I Stumbled across it here as a stand alone poem
“A Woman Should Have” – by Maya Angelou http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2007/08/a-woman-should-have-by-maya-angelou.html

A lot of how one responds to it it I guess is about where you come from and where you are at right now.

“enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to…”

I grew up in a time when many women were not allowed to work after they were married, where equal pay hadn’t been achieved and contraception was illegal and large families were the norm.
No one I knew had a phone in their home and I can remember at 12 years old, being sent to run to the nearest phone box to phone the guards and learning that the guards do not come if they are drinking buddies of the man who has thrown the Christmas dinner into the yard and is threatening the family with a shot gun.
A woman wanting to leave a violent relationship often had very few choices with no money to call her own, no job or prospect of one and no accommodation.
At 23 I can remember trying to rent a television and was told I had to have my husband's signature and if I didn’t have a husband I had to get my father’s signature. That happened, in Dublin in the 1970s and there were no questions about the financial status of these men, any male relative would do, it was just me as a woman in my own right could not do something as simple as rent a television in that shop.

So for me, no matter who I am in a relationship with having money in my own control is something I need to have and couldn’t let go of lightly.
I realise for many of you all this is unheard of and you can take these things for granted. That is good you should be able to take it for granted.

“a feeling of control over her destiny.
how to fall in love without losing herself.
when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…

My sister having grown up with violence and not remembering it, married a man who battered her.
Her children were encouraged by their father to laugh at their mother Consequently she had very low self esteem and when she finally plucked up the courage and sense of self to get a barring order she had already lost her teenage daughter.

“that her childhood may not have been perfect…but its over…
what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more
how to live alone… even if she doesn’t like it…

Twelve days before I posted the poem my twenty five year old niece killed herself.
She had loved a man who died in an accident.

Now I live in a world of being grateful for angel poems and taking solace from simple things and wishing more for little girls and women.

hondasam

I hate chain mail. That list OP should apply to men also. Majority of it is common sense.

Sorry about your niece.

krudler

anyone who forwards me chain mails or spams my facebook wall with crap like this gets blocks and deleted, one less idiot to deal with

CnaG

I liked it. I thought it was quite sweet. Yes, a lot of it should apply to men too - everyone should have someone to turn to, for instance and equally everyone should have a place to live.

The length of the calves, width of the hips bit though, spot on.

I think commentators so far have missed the OPs original question, what else should women know? I don't have much to add personally at the moment, but I would be interested in hearing what others have to say.

Also, OP, very sorry to hear about your niece

Lia_lia

Vom.

pow wow

Enough money to make a quick getaway and the strength to resist chain emails.

Wantobe

Knowledge is the key to most peoples empowerment, not the meh list above, methinks.

Maple

Folks, the topic isn't chain mails and our hatred of them.

Stick to the discussion at hand or don't post.

Maple